Comments on: Basecamp: New GTD Implementation Ideas

By: 3stripe

3stripe — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 08:33:14 +0000

Nice thinking.

I've just read the full Getting Things Done book so this was very interesting...

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:08:52 +0000

Okay, by now I realized that my above-mentioned problem is the exact opposite of the former problem: You have to be in your project to see a list of “anyone’s” to-dos (with the dropdown menu of your “people” at the right side, not at the top. Can be confusing at times, this simplicity

By: Patrick Rhone

Patrick Rhone — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:50:46 +0000

Wow, great ideas Lisa. You rule! Thanks for thinking even further outside of the box.

By: Lisa McMillan

Lisa McMillan — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:36:53 +0000

Hey that’s AWESOME. I’ve been trying to figure out how to use basecamp with more luck for GTD and this may be the missing piece.

I’ve added one more thing to the ‘contexts as people’ approach and given each person my gmail address with a ‘context flag’ using the + email hack. (see https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=12096&topic=1564)

So I’ve added a filter to each different ‘context account’ email ie. myemailaddress+errands@gmail.com goes into an @errands label in gmail, just in case I want to use the ‘Notify by email?’ option in basecamp to remind me. Further to that, I could use another gmail filter to forward all of my @phone todos to my sms account on my phone…

Endless possibilities if you ask me.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:41:24 +0000

Yes, thanks, now I see it. But one problem remains: Choosing "anyone" doesn't show all to-dos (as one might guess), but none at all. And I still can't get too excited about Basecamp overall: I'd really like to be able to assign due dates and priorities to to-dos and I want sub-projects (more than one level), and not always having the (IMO) stupid concept of "lists" in the way (like, I want to have to-dos assigned to milestones directly, and view to-dos assigned to milestones, not only lists). For me, all 37s' apps are all a little bit too over-simplified (and they'r obsessed with lists).

By: Patrick Rhone

Patrick Rhone — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 02:18:29 +0000

It is there - even in the free account (and I used a free account for this example).

The trick is you can't be "in" your project. Just click on the Dashboard link and then click on the "To-Dos" Tab and you should see the drop down list to view all the to-dos for a specific "person".

Hope this helps.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 01:07:10 +0000

I’ve been playing around with a free Basecamp account before (but didn’t get the brilliant idea to use “persons” as contexts, although I already did use “persons” as categories, which didn’t prove too useful). Your post made me have another look. It’s just that I can’t find the “‘s to-do items across all projects” you show in the screenshot. That’s what would really make the system work. Are you sure that this view is available in a free one-project account as well (as I understand you tried this from a paid account)?

By: Patrick Rhone

Patrick Rhone — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:22:55 +0000

I am using Backpack because I still feel that it is better suited to my GTD system. That is not to say that Basecamp can’t be used (as I have shown here) or that I don’t use Basecamp for larger projects (which I do). That being said, I find Backpack a bit more flexible and free form for GTD needs.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:30:47 +0000

Patrick... you da man. This is pretty cool. I'll have to try. I've been using KGTD and recently started using Basecamp so I can keep some clients in the loop. I like the idea of having my GTD action closely tied together.

Question... are you still using Backpack? If so, why?

thanks jim

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:09:45 +0000

Great post. Just linked to it from my blog. Thanks.

http://erandycox.blogspot.com