PastorHacks

BackPack and GTD

I cannot tell you (though I'm about to!) how much I love BackPack and how much it has revolutionized certain processes for us. Our worship team publishes their schedule there. The Kids' ministry uses it for everything from listing background checked volunteers to curriculum. Our elders use it for agendas/minutes, finances, etc. 
I use it to know what my staff is working on and (I love this) I can add things to their to-do lists.

I can get my backpack pages on my iPhone and using PackRat, on my laptop even when I'm offline.

Next February, I may actually send a Valentine to my Backpack pages  
(Yes! You can email individual pages. Send an email with a to-do item and *poof*, like magic it's there)

Okay, okay... it's not ministry, just a tool for ministry... but I get excited.

Here's a helpful run down if you still want to know what BackPack is all about and how you can integrate it in with your GTD/workflow...

BackPack and GTD

From One year ago: PackRat

From approximately one year ago...

Love the idea of Backpack, but need to have access to all your lists and reminders offline too?
Check out PackRat.
Awesome.
It costs a little, but the free (trial) version lets you sync up to four pages, so if you are GTDing it, you probably won't need more than that anyway...

Ta-Da list...

After being frustrated by the BackPack/iPhone experience, I tried out Vitalist... That didn't quite make the cut for a number of reasons, but I've since discovered Ta-Da List and am extremely happy with both the laptop/desktop as well as iPhone experience. You may not have an iPhone... you may not need one (though you know you probably want one!)
But if you are looking for a simple task list that can be used from you phone or any computer... give Ta-da List a shot...

Here's a write up from the 37Signals blog...

A few months back, we flipped the switch on Ta-da List for the iPhone. If you have an iPhone, just visit tadalist.com and you’ll see the iPhone version. You can access the standard web version with your desktop web browser. Both versions share data and lists.

Just Another Mobile Monday, a mobile news site, just profiled different iPhone to do list applications. The author says, "For those who want no frills and a very basic feel, I’d go with Ta-Da List."

In a Nutshell: Strong on ease of use.

Ta-da List is made by 37signals, the well-known company behind popular online applications like Basecamp (for project management) and Highrise (simple CRM). It’s described by the company as ‘just ultra-simple, easily sharable to-do lists.’

That description is accurate. Ta-da List is very easy to work with. All its screens fit well on the iPhone and feature a simple, minimal design feel. It uses large buttons to help you quickly add a new task, edit an existing one, and switch back to list views.

Currently you are not able to add a priority, due date, or notes to a task. Also, if you want to re-order your lists you need to be on a desktop browser, where you can just drag and drop to re-arrange all items on a list.

From the desktop, you can also mail yourself a copy of a list, and subscribe to be notified of changes to a list via RSS.

Recurring reminders in BackPack

Man... you know that thing you forget to do like EVERY WEEK? You put it on your calendar, you write notes to yourself, you tearfully promise that next week will be different...

Save the hassle- use recurring reminders from BackPack:

By popular demand, you can now set recurring reminders in Backpack.

Recurring reminders are only available when you select “At a specific time” in the new reminder time pulldown (the standard “later today,” “tomorrow,” etc options don’t allow for recurring reminders).

When you set a reminder “At a specific time” you’ll now see a pulldown menu labeled “Remind me” with the default option set at “just this once.” You’ll also see options for “every day,” “every week,” “every month,” and so on. Selecting one of those will set an identical reminder at the interval specified. See the screenshot below:

The new Backpack is live...

The new Backpack is live... and I'm digging it. They added/modified a number of things that had been on my personal wishlist, like moving things from page to page, much greater flexibility in rearranging pages, RSS feeds for shared pages... good stuff! Here's the run down (and if you haven't yet checked out Backpack, now's the time!)

                                                                                                                                                

	Move anything anywhere on a page              Now you can order the elements on your page anyway you'd like. You can have a note on top of a list or three files then a photo then a note then a list. They're your pages to organize the way you want.              Watch a video demo
	Move stuff to other pages              Moving stuff on a page is hot, but now you can also move stuff to other pages. One page getting cluttered? Go on, just drag it to another page. You can even create a brand new page by dragging the item to the "Make a new page" button.              Watch a video demo
	Search!              You can now search all your Backpack pages from any page. The search field is right under the "Make a new page" button.
	Page dividers        Page dividers let you compartmentalize your pages to keep your stuff even better organized. You can label the dividers anything you'd like.
	New toolbar        We've cleaned up the toolbar and put it at the top of the page instead of under the page title. This keeps your pages nice and clean. Everything under the toolbar is yours.
	Multiple photo galleries per page        You can now group photos in galleries and add as many galleries to a page as you'd like. You can also move the photos around inside a gallery!              Watch a video demo
	Better titles for lists, notes, and pictures        Now every list gets a title (it defaults to "List" but you can rename it anything you'd like). Note titles are optional. Picture galleries can be titled now as well.
	Page feeds for shared pages        Every shared Backpack page now has an RSS feed. This helps you stay up to date when someone else changes the page. You can also subscribe to all your pages at once on the "My Pages" screen.
	...and more!        We've optimized a lot under the hood so Backpack works better, loads faster, and feels smoother overall. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Backpack MOBILE...

I am so jazzed right now...

For the past few months, when I'm out and about and have a minute to check something off a to-do list, or need some info from one of my Backpack pages, I've been checking in on my interwebs-enabled Treo.
The Treo is cool and all, but surfing the interweb on the 2.5G Edge network is kind of... craptacular.

Less-than-satisfying, that is.

Just this morning, however, I discovered Backpack MOBILE. Why, oh why didn't I see this before.

Rather than waiting for my little Treo interwebs browser to load up the whole (simple as it is) web page, I can... Oh heck, I just let Backpack tell it:

Now you can get to your Backpack from wherever you are.

If you have a Treo, mobile phone, or wireless PDA with a web browser that can display basic HTML, you can now use a slimmed down version of Backpack on your phone.

With Backpack Mobile you can…

• View any page
• Add list items and notes to pages
• Make a new page
• View and add reminders

…all over your phone or wireless PDA.

To use Backpack Mobile, simply load up your Backpack URL on your phone or PDA and add “/mob” to the end of the address. For example, if your username is 37signals you’d go to http://37signals.backpackit.com/mob or if it was spinfree you’d go to http://spinfree.backpackit.com/mob. Note: You may need to add /mob/login if /mob alone isn’t working.

If your objection to using Backpack is an inability to check lists and stuff while you are out and about, let me suggest you give it another try... Cause man, this is actually fast and looks great.

backpack and gtd...

I cannot tell you (though I'm about to!) how much I love BackPack and how much it has revolutionized certain processes for us. Our worship team publishes their schedule there. The Kid's ministry uses it for everything from listing background checked volunteers to curriculum. Our elders use it for agendas/minutes, finances, etc.
I use it to know what my staff is working on and (I love this) I can add things to their to-do lists.

I can get my backpack pages on my Treo and using PackRat, on my laptop even when I'm offline.

Next February, I may actually send a Valentine to my Backpack pages 
(Yes! You can email individual pages. Send an email with a to-do item and *poof*, like magic it's there)

Okay, okay... it's not ministry, just a tool for ministry... but I get excited.

Here's a helpful run down if you still want to know what BackPack is all about and how you can integrate it in with your GTD/workflow...

BackPack and GTD

packrat now with reminders...

I love Backpack... and I love PackRat which allows me to sync my backpack pages when I'm offline. And now- Packrat allows me to set reminders- reminders which get emailed to me at a specific time in the future. This is one handy feature...

From TUAW:

"Rod Schmidt has released an update to PackRat, quite possibly the only offline Backpack client, that brings a major new and much-requested feature: the ability to add, edit and delete reminders. Now I've mentioned PackRat once or twice before here at TUAW, and this rockin' new feature almost completely rounds out what I think is the killer offline and syncing app for working with Backpack. About the only thing missing now is calendar editing, and in a blog post announcing this latest version (0.94 to be exact), Rod and gang offer a glimpse of PackRat's future, with a promise to take your Backpack data into a realm of Mac OS X integration that 37Signals could never accomplish (due to their service being 100% web-based). Coming down the pipeline are features like Spotlight and AppleScript support, Address Book and iCal integration, iPod syncing, and "whatever else makes sense." Sounds like this handy little app is in for quite a ride.

PackRat has a fully-functioning, non-expiring demo that allows you to edit up 4 pages of your Backpack info (the free default Backpack account offers 5 pages), while a license costs a mere $24.95 which unlocks full editing of all pages in any of the paid accounts that offer more pages."

Dec- best of... take backpack offline

Love the idea of Backpack, but need to have access to all your lists and reminders offline too?
Check out PackRat.
Awesome.
It costs a little, but the free (trial) vesion lets you sync up to four pages, so if you are GTDing it, you probably won't need more than that anyway...

Dec- best of... backpack hack

Trust me when I say you want to give this a try... especially if you are a church planter trying to stay connected with various staff, part-time and volunteer without benefit of office, or as much face time as you would like.

It's called Backpack and it's changing my life.