PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
Net-Based To-Do Lists
Permit Collaboration
By Family, Colleagues
By THOMAS E. WEBER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 26, 2005; Page B1
Submit expense reports: Check. Buy school raffle tickets: Check. Finish
writing column: Not quite.
For all of us trying to meet the myriad demands of work and home, a
comprehensive to-do list can be indispensable. Part of the checklist's
power is its simplicity. Just a few minutes with a stub of pencil and a
scrap of napkin can help supercharge your productivity for days.
Of course, anything you can do with a 10-cent pencil can also be
accomplished with a 3-gigahertz computer chip. Email programs like
Microsoft Outlook can track your obligations and hassle you until they're
completed, while PDAs and even cellphones offer task lists and reminder
options.
The latest twist is to-do lists that you keep on the Web. Several new
services promise to store all the details of your responsibilities online,
from your loftiest career goals to how many bananas you need from the
supermarket. Once the list is online, you can allow a colleague to update
project milestones or let your spouse add to the roster of household chores.
Can a high-tech list help you accomplish more? I've been testing several in
hopes of getting my own life better organized. I discovered some clever
features and found that the shared-list capability works well for those who
need it. But as with other organizational tools, from day-planner notebooks
to PDAs, what you get out of these sites depends on how much you invest in
their approach.
The best example is a new service called Backpack, located at
<http://www.backpackit.com>www.backpackit.com1, which has been drawing
attention among bloggers who focus on productivity tips. (More on those
blogs later on.) For those who want to give an online organizer a try,
Backpack is relatively simple to use, with a clean look, clear menus and
instructive "help" screens.
To use Backpack, you create a user name and password to sign on. That takes
you to a home page that serves as your main to-do list. Clicking a button
labeled "list" lets you type in a to-do task -- "Have oil changed," for
instance. Then, after you hit return, the entry appears on the page in
classic to-do style, with a small box next to it waiting for a triumphant
checkmark.
While the home page serves as a top-level to-do list, Backpack also lets
users create other pages to focus in more detail on individual projects. To
juggle professional and personal demands, a user might create a page titled
"Prepare Presentation for Meeting" that lists subjects to research, and
another called "Plan Summer Vacation" ticking off possible hotels and items
to pack.
What sets Backpack's Web approach apart is its sharing ability. By clicking
a button, users can choose to make their page available to others -- either
anyone on the Web or only those individuals whose email addresses the user
provides.
The sharing option works well, but it isn't for everyone. I found that
whether a colleague or family member took to Backpack depended partly on
how that person felt about taking a digital approach, and that only those
who were highly motivated to keep their lives paperless collaborated
easily. Still, some of the niftier features may help persuade others to
give it a try -- particularly the automated reminder service that nags you
as desired with email messages.
Backpack gives away free accounts that limit users to five pages of to-do
lists and notes. Paid accounts, starting at $5 a month, offer more pages,
as well as storage space that lets users attach computer files and photos
to their pages. Backpack's producer, 37signals, also offers a service
called Basecamp (<http://www.basecamphq.com>www.basecamphq.com2) with more
features for business projects. Another sister site, Ta-da List
(<http://www.tadalist.com>www.tadalist.com3), offers a no-frills to-do list
for no charge.
I also tried a service called Use Tasks
(<http://www.usetasks.com>www.usetasks.com4). It charges $3.95 a month for
a "personal" online task manager. Use Tasks included some nice features,
but I found it tougher than Backpack to master.
Ultimately, the usefulness of these services depends on your willingness to
stick with the approach. I also discovered a major obstacle to acceptance:
email. Many of my to-do list items are generated as a result of email
correspondence. Unless I want to switch back and forth between my email and
a task manager, it's often easier to organize things with folders in my
email inbox -- even if it means giving up some bells and whistles. Backpack
includes some features to bridge this gap, but it still requires some juggling.
The desire to become more productive and better organized is a powerful
drive, and it has spawned interesting blogs. For anyone looking to exert
some control over the daily chaos of work and home, these make for
interesting reading:
- Lifehacker (<http://www.lifehacker.com>www.lifehacker.com5) is published
by Gawker Media and focuses on productivity shortcuts. Recent entries range
from an extreme home-office makeover to finding cheap gasoline.
- 43 Folders (<http://www.43folders.com>www.43folders.com6) focuses more
closely on organizational methods. This site is of particular interest to
fans of "Getting Things Done," a useful book by David Allen. One lengthy
discussion on 43 Folders debates the merits of a pocket organizer made from
index cards and a binder clip, dubbed the Hipster PDA.
- To-Done! (<http://www.to-done.com>www.to-done.com7) is another blog
catering to followers of the "Getting Things Done" method, known simply as
"GTD" to devotees.
Walt Mossberg is on assignment.
� Email me at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL for this article:
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111705821195243399,00.html>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111705821195243399,00.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) <http://www.backpackit.com>http://www.backpackit.com
(2) http://www.basecamphq.com
(3) <http://www.tadalist.com>http://www.tadalist.com
(4) http://www.usetasks.com
(5) <http://www.lifehacker.com>http://www.lifehacker.com
(6) http://www.43folders.com
(7) <http://www.to-done.com>http://www.to-done.com
(8) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Prusky
Software Product Management
650-464-7456
ResumeBlog� http://jonathan-prusky.profconnect.org
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