Are you a “list” person? Do you have loads of different coloured sticky notes all around your desk and your home? Are you like me and when your lists start to have items crossed off they get messy, and then eventually the leftovers get consolidated into a new list?
I love lists. Lists are my friends, I would be completely lost without my lists. However, not too long ago I realized that I needed to change my system, but I could not comprehend how I could ever get along without my lists. And then, lo and behold, I discovered the perfect program – Backpack – a.k.a. Heaven for list lovers!!
Backpack is an awesome program that lives on the Web so there is nothing that you have to download onto your own computer. I’m a Mac lady myself, so this is great news for me. It can be free or not, depending on what you want to do with it, but either way the value is good.
Backpack can be used to keep track of to-dos, ideas, and files; it has a calendar that can keep track of reminders and appointments; and it has a whiteboard where you can brainstorm. And, not only does it have these awesome features, but you can also have more than one user logging in to a Backpack and voila! – instant collaboration site that can hold everything!
I use the free version to keep track of my to-dos and lists for both personal and business endeavors. I can have myself and another user signed up to access it, and I can create up to 5 different “pages” to hold all of my various lists. It’s an organizational dream! Not only do I have 5 pages to help me organize my lists in a logical fashion, within each page I can (and do) use Dividers, check-off style lists, and notes. Everything can be edited again and again, and in the case of the check-off lists, even when items are checked off they don’t disappear – they simply get moved to a space below the list and are given a much lighter font colour so that they don’t stand out as much. And of course, they can be deleted if you so desire.
Some examples of how a Backpack can be used are:
- To keep track of to-do lists and research notes for an event you are organizing (e.g. wedding, music festival, workshop, conference, etc.)
- To collaborate with a colleague who is out of town about course or workshop development (share research notes, create to-do lists for each other, etc.)
- To keep track of research you may be doing (e.g. places to visit during an upcoming holiday, pros & cons of different brands of a software program)
Check out the Backpack site itself to see tons and tons of examples of how to use the site; the possibilities are endless!
But, by far the best thing that I love about Backpack is that I can access it anywhere that I can get onto the Internet. How frustrating is it when I know that I have an important list that I need to see or change, but it’s at home and I’m not?!? Aaarrrrggghh! That drives me nuts! But now, even if I’m across the world I can log in to my Backpack and access my info. How lovely!
So, for those who loves to be organized, and for everyone else who should, I recommend signing up for a Backpack. It’s free to try, it may be free depending on how you will be using it, and you will never go back to mere sticky-notes again.