And yet, I still haven’t been using it in my daily work. You see, a couple of years ago I found Backpack from 37signals and was smitten with it. I created Backpack pages for everything: tracking client information, article ideas, concerts I’ve attended, purchasing, research and more. If I started something new, it got a Backpack page.

However, as much as I loved Backpack, there were some gaps. I found the calendar lacking, instead using the Google Calendar. Reminders and To-Do items were much better handled by Toodledo, and the sheer volume of information I was managing with it often got unwieldy.

So when I had a look at the new iteration of Springpad that was released earlier last week, I finally took the plunge. Goodbye, Backpack … Hello, Springpad.

At first glance, the two products might seem very similar, but there is a fundamental difference between them. In Backpack I can create pages that are essentially containers for the items that I am trying to organize. On these pages I can add notes, lists, files, photos etc. I can move items around these pages, even drag and drop them between pages. But the various items I’ve created have no properties or tracking abilities of their own. Each item gathers its context only from the page on which it exists. It’s all about the pages. In a literal analogy, a page is a drawer and the items on it are all of the things you dump in there.

In Springpad anything I can create exists independently of pages. I can add anything to “My Stuff,” which is what it calls the bucket that all items exist in. These can be a note, a list, a task, a contact or business, an event, a restaurant — anything. When I find something I like or want to save, I just add it to “My Stuff.” What’s cool is that each of these items has its own properties, and can be customized further. I can add tags, notes and links to each item. Have a picture you want to add to a note? No problem. Want to add a file to a list? You can do that. So before I even start to organize these items (put them in their drawers), they already have all of the building blocks required to be useful on their own.

This is where apps and groups come in. In Springpad, these are the drawers. Custom groups can be created to associate items together, and various apps exist to help utilize and further organize your stuff. There are apps for GTD, budgeting, task management, date planning, and more. These apps help provide an additional layer of context for the items I’ve gathered, and each item can be assigned to as many groups or apps as I need.

For example, say I find an interesting web service that I think might be worthy of an article for WWD, and perhaps might also be useful for a few of my clients. In Backpack, I would note this web service on a single specific page, and there it would remain until I happened upon it again. But with Springpad, I can quickly capture the information from the web site using the “Spring It!” bookmarklet and place it in my unfiled bucket. This item might contain a snippet of text from the web site, a URL, and some notes for me to remember when I review it later. I tag the item appropriately with “WWD” and some client names. I add it to a “web apps” group and also to the specific client notebooks apps I have set up. The same piece of data is applied to multiple areas. This is like keeping the same screwdriver in both the tool drawer in the basement and and in the junk drawer in the kitchen. I can find it in either place, because it really should exist in both places.

Not only can each item appear in multiple groups or apps, but individual items can also be pulled together from these groups and apps and viewed in aggregate fashion. For example, for each of my current projects, I create an app (the “notebook” works extremely well for this) and then I add events and task items related to that project right to that area. With multiple projects running concurrently it might be difficult to keep track of all of these things, but Springpad will then aggregate these items to my calendar and master task list automatically. This allows me to view my work in overview, or drill down to a project level. I can store my data more contextually, without giving up the ability to pull everything together, or fear losing track of something on an infrequently accessed page.

While there are many apps available in Springpad,  I find myself using the “notebook” app for just about everything. It’s customizable, I can add tabs to help further organize it, and I can add any type of content I want to it. Some of the apps do allow for different presentation styles and I use a couple of them for specific purposes but generally the notebooks work well for just about anything. There are plans to introduce the ability for users to create and distribute their own apps in the future.

While I’ve focused mostly on the functionality that I use for business and other work endeavors, Springpad is equally adept at organizing other areas of life as well. It is getting tremendously popular in the food community as recipe sharing and acquisition is remarkably easy, and a recent partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk is introducing his Wine Library TV content to the system as well. Integration with Yelp allows me to easily add and track my favorite restaurants and the grouping and public sharing capabilities let me put together cool things like this quickie guide to some of my favorite places to eat and things to do in New York City to send to friends who are visiting there.

I’ve been working on migrating my content over to Springpad for a few days now and am still discovering new and interesting ways to put things together. I am finding a few things I miss from Backpack — like dividers and the ability to copy pages — but the benefits really outweigh these minor annoyances.

Registration and use of Springpad is free and works well in all the major current browsers. A mobile app is also available.

I’ve made the switch to Springpad — have you?

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While most apps of this type tend to be free form or even business focused, Springpad is a series of online notebooks designed to be a whole life organizational tool. Stay on top of not only your business or professional projects and items, but also track your personal life as well.

Much like other notebook or organizing applications, Springpad uses a familiar notebook and page metaphor. Each page can feature data in the form of notes, lists, maps, files, alarms, events, etc.

Every item can be tagged, flagged or annotated for even more filing flexibility. Items can also appear on multiple pages but remain connected to the original. Everything is drag and drop capable so it is easy to move items around on or between pages.

Where things get cool is when you visit your Personal Organizer section. This area aggregates the content from all of your springpads together into one place. For example, if I create a unique list of to-do items on each of my project pages, I can go to this master list and view them all pulled together for action.

Or say my wife has a shopping list for our general meal planning but then she also creates one on a party planning page. No problem, the organizer pulls the shopping lists together so she is prepared for her trip to the store.

The same goes for contacts, addresses, and other types of data. By letting Springpad know what these bits of data are, it can be organized and presented back to me in unique and useful ways, becoming much more than just notes on pages. Dates and events automatically appear on your agenda while addresses automatically connect to a Google Map.

Springpad is primarily aimed at those who are looking for a tool to help them get organized, but who also want a bit more help than they would get from most applications of this type. By providing templates and ready made lists and organizers, Springpad makes it easy to jump right in and get started.

There are a wide assortment of templates already available covering everything from your workouts to your job search. Springpads can also be tied together, for example the meal planner tracks recipes and ingredients and allows you to quickly create a shopping list.

Future partnerships with content providers will allow you to pull in branded templates, lists and content from these partner sites. The plan isn’t so much to have Springpad be ad supported but rather to allow you to easily import data from other sites and have it maintain branding and links back to the original content. You can already pull in restaurant reviews from Yelp and make reservations using OpenTable , and future similar integration is planned with other providers.

Springpad aims to be a database for your life. It is structured enough to be consistent and easy to use but the pages are flexible enough to handle most routine day to day projects and planning. You can have unlimited springpads so you can create one for all of the things that you are juggling.

This demo video does a good job of highlighting these and other key features:

Springpad is still in beta and there are some features like mobile access that are still forthcoming. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen frequent updates and enhancements and they seem eager for feedback and suggestions.

Registration is open now and accounts are free. They are currently featuring a Thanksgiving Menu Planner which should be a great way to test out the service and make sure you’re prepared for the upcoming holiday.

Could you use a Springpad to help you get organized?

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If you haven’t found satisfaction with any of the productivity tricks you’ve tried, it’s possible that you’re mistaking some of the myths for facts.  These myths could come from something you’ve read, or they could be your own preconceived notions.  To get productive, you need to get rid of these myths.

What are they and how do you debunk them?

There is one system to rule them all.

Once you get into David Allen’s Getting Things Done, or other similar productivity systems, it doesn’t mean you have to stick to its rules permanently.  There is no perfect system that’s already pre-made for you.  You need a bit of time, as well as trial and error, to find something that works.

Organized = Neat

If your office is neat, does it mean that it’s organized?  If your office looks messy, should you clean it up?  Before we start criticizing ourselves for not being neat enough, we need to get our semantics straight.

Neatness or cleanliness is more of an aesthetic value.  Organization, on the other hand, is more about how things function.  For example, if you have a stack of folders and all those folders are aligned on top of a dust-free desk, that’s neatness.  The stack of folders are only organized if they are arranged in a way that makes each folder easy to access.  So even if the desk is dusty and the folders aren’t perfectly aligned on top of each other, as long as they’re arranged in a way that makes sense to you (chronologically or alphabetically), then they are organized.

If you’re the type of person who has a messy office and hates it when someone comes in to “clean it up”, you know what I’m talking about.  Just because things don’t look orderly or like they were arranged by a robot, it doesn’t mean you’re not organized.  If you can find anything in your office within 2 seconds, you’re doing great – whether you’re neat or not.

The more tools you have, the better.

With all the number of Web 2.0 tools out there, and the number of web workers eager to try out each tool that comes along, it’s a surprise that we get any work done.

As for me, I prefer to stick to the least number of tools, and I try to avoid daily usage if it isn’t necessary. Tools should be there to help you out, not suck up your time and attention, which, of course, is better spent on other things.

Your schedule should be tight.

As someone who focuses mostly on creative work, I’ve realized that both routine and randomness have their place in your schedule.  My partner used to be very specific about my schedule.  She even created a spreadsheet that listed what I was supposed to be doing every hour.  When I told her I wanted some randomness, she blocked out a few hours in the weekend and labeled them “Randomness”.  Not quite what I meant.

The one thing that should be absolutely rigid and non-negotiable are your peak working hours.  These are the hours of the day when you are most productive and creative.  As such, those hours are when you should get the bulk of your work done.

As for the rest of the day, I prefer to make a simple list in Google Calendar of the major things I should accomplish, both business and personal tasks are included.  I find that I can’t do more than 7 major tasks each day.  What I do in between those tasks depends on what I feel like doing, whether it’s taking a walk, reading a book, carpentry, or even working.  It’s the random tasks surrounding my routine that makes my day more interesting.  They even make my work feel more fulfilling.

The key is not to worry if you feel unproductive at times, there are still some ways for you to feel accomplished at the end of the day.  As long as you get your few major tasks done, you shouldn’t obsess about working during every waking hour.

What preconceived notions on productivity did you have?  Which of these notions were true, and which were false?

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