Category Archives: personal

OK, so I have been talking about this now for weeks and it was finally released today. I really wanted to write about my first experiences with Backpack, the new web based organizational tool from 37 Signals, Therefore, I had to delay this week’s “Week With” and will post the followup a day late accordingly (Saturday).

Backpack allows one to gather notes, lists, reminders, links, images and files all in one easy to use web based application. What makes it even more innovative is the way in which you can add items like notes and to-do items. Besides being able to simply add them from within Backpack, you can e-mail notes and items to yourself. In turn, you can create reminders which can be e-maiiled to you or sent to your phone via SMS. All very useful to a forgetful organization fiend such as myself.

I will be attempting to use Backpack for all manner of personal items and work related items. While I doubt it will replace Now Up-to-Date for me quite yet, I will attempt to use it this week for as many things as possible. Those who know me know I am constantly looking for that one über-organization tool to rule my life. Could this be it? I will also use it for all of my Carleton related to-do items and reminders as I have been quite lax on keeping a system to track those to-do items for lack of wanting to take the time to develop one(All of the while needing to do so).

I also have another project that I am working on that is a good fit for Basecamp, a web based project management tool by the same company. Therefore, I may also do some comparison and contrast of features and uses. All in all it should be a fun ride. Tune back on Saturday week for Part 2.

I was recently going over my Amazon Wish List and came across a few items that they don’t sell that I wish they did:

1) Time – Seems that I could knock a number of items off of my wish list if I could just buy what many of the books on there are meant to solve. My quest for being more productive and organized all center around not ever feeling like I have enough time. What is even more ironic is that, when I get these books, it takes me forever to read them because I just don’t have the time to do so. I actually even schedule time to read (i.e. literally block it out on my calendar) and I still find that even keeping that commitment to myself is difficult due to all of the other obligations and responsibilities in my life that I put first (and most often they rightfully deserve that placement).

2) Cloning – I am also stretched way to thin. There is literally not enough of me to satisfy all of the demands in my life. If there were several more than I would not need to purchase the item mentioned above. I suspect that, one day, I will be able to purchase this item somewhere. Maybe even in my lifetime. It is at least more likely we will find a way to be several places at once than it is to stretch time itself.

3) Capabilities – This would not even have to be all new capabilities. If we could just get upgrades to our current ones. For instance, if I could just be more focused and more organized perhaps I would not even need items #1 and #2 above. Like a Processor, RAM or Hard Drive upgrade, this should cost even less than a complete brain replacement but provide comparable benefits.

I am sure you can see where I am going here. The bottom line is that lately I have been feeling overwhelmed and directionless. I wish I could have enough time and money to devote to simply getting organized and productive. To paraphrase an old saying “You have to spend time to make time.”

When two tribes go to war, one is all that you can score.

• Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

After much discussion and deliberation, Rodney and I have decided to call a truce and declare a draw. The Blog Battle is over. Both parties have agreed to go to their neutral corners. In the end, how does one objectively decide on a winner in a “quality only” battle. In the end we are both winners because it had the end result of our posting more often which is what we really wanted to come from all of this anyway. As for the prize? Well, we had decided to go out for dinner anyway and just pay for ourselves, which we also do not get to do often so we are winners in that as well.