Six months after switching to a Mac, I can say with full confidence that I have tried the majority of GTD applications available for the platform. Most of them were deleted right after the installation. Even though I have found some applications that I actually wanted to use for a while, there was always something about them that I didn't like. They were either too complicated, or didn't offer enough functionality, they were too slow, or their interface didn't look good enough for me.

None of them just felt right.

Since I have already tried a lot of GTD web apps like Remember the Milk, Mojonote, or Todoist while I was still stuck on Windows, and never really wanted to keep using any of them as well (for similar reasons), I thought I would never find a 'perfect' tool for me.

It turned out though that there was still one decent app out there that didn't get enough of my attention earlier. Inspired by Patrick Rhone's popular productivity whitepaper, as well as Jason Fried's talk at Business of Software 2008 conference, I decided to sign up for the 37signals' Backpack solo plan and see if it works for me. Having previously used Ta-da List, a simple and ridiculously easy (and fun) to use to-do app developed by the same company, and also having heard a lot of good stuff about 37signals itself, I figured it might be the right choice.

For those not familiar with the application, here's an excerpt from the product's homepage:

Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your information incredibly easy. Backpack lets you make pages which can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files, etc. You can keep these pages to yourself or share them with colleagues, co-workers, friends, or family.

It's been only a month since I started using Backpack on a regular basis but I think it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this is my favorite GTD tool so far. I'll try to explain what's so special about it and why it appealed to me so much.

Why Backpack rocks

1. It gives me freedom.

Being a creative worker, I prefer to do things my own way. I love customizing. Moving stuff around. Organizing stuff the way I want. Reordering it.

Backpack and its Pages allow me to do all of that - whenever I want, and however I want. One page can serve as a giant list of next actions I need to do, the other one can contain 10 small to-do lists related to a project. Plus some images that I might need. And a note over here. And a few links over there. I can divide it into sections, or just leave it messy. Move the stuff that I need most to the top. Oh wait, it shouldn't really be here... let's put it back on the bottom.

Backpack doesn't tell me to do anything - it makes me feel like I'm the one in control. No more 'required info'. No more filling unnecessary fields. No more following rules. Freedom. Lots of it.

2. It's dead simple.

Jason Fried, the 37signals' CEO, talks a lot about simplicity of their products and emphasizes the fact that their software has less functionality than the competing products. While this may seem counterintuitive at first, it's quite amazing how well this philosophy works in practice.

Backpack doesn't have a lot of features. It's meant to do just a few things and does it well.

Also it's hard not to fall in love with the design: beautiful in its simplicity. Even though I like rich designs with a lot of cute graphics and icons, this is obviously not the way to go with an application meant to be used every day and, thankfully, the folks at 37signals perfectly understand it.

3. Everything in one place.

A couple of months ago, I used a GTD system consisting of three different applications: iCal (for events and daily to-dos), Things (for projects) and Anxiety (for displaying all the tasks for a given day). It worked fine, but at some point I realized that I often get lost in it. Three apps for getting things done is just too much.

The cool thing about Backpack is that it provides all the tools that I need in one place. Unlimited to-do lists, notes, calendar, e-mail reminders - I can control all this using just one tool. It's perfect for GTD, but could also serve as a journal, or just a note-taking tool. Or everything at once.

4. It actually makes me more productive.

The problem with a lot of GTD software is that it makes you focus on the application instead of getting yourself to work. This is a trap that many people tend to fall into (including myself).

Backpack's advantage is that operations like adding tasks, events, or reminders can be performed very quickly - it is not possible to include, for example, any additional info in a task (like due date, a note, or tags). It means you are not able to spend that much time labeling, tagging, or putting stuff into folders. Which leaves you with more time to actually complete all those tasks :)

Give it a shot.

If you are a GTD person, I believe you should give Backpack a try as soon as possible - if you haven't already. If you don't care about any productivity systems, you still might want to use it as your organizational tool. They offer a free plan as well, so you don't have to pay any money to try it out.

If you are already a Backpack user, post a comment and tell me how you feel about the app and what else you like about it that I forgot to mention here.