I’ve been trying to work with Basecamp for about a year now as a project management tool. While there were some appealing aspects to the overall approach — list-focused, web centric, highly flexible — the structure seemed so heavily focused on collaboration that I often suspected it was the wrong tool for keeping my own work organized and on track. But I finally got around to buying [and implementing] Getting Things Done, which has realigned my approach to projects, actions and lists.

David Allen defines a project as a goal which requires more than one action step. This revelation moved me to use Basecamp to manage my own projects [goals] through lists of specific actions, rather than simply maintaining so many “amorphous blobs of undoability.” At any one time I have dozens of open projects to track; the paid version allows me to track each project separately, with its own list of action items and team of people who may be involved.

In Basecamp, your project actions are by default assigned to “Anybody”, which I use to mean a generic Unassigned status. Any action from any project can be given a “Next Action” status simply by assigning it to Me [or to a context, see below]. Since my intention behind using this system is to improve my own processes for productivity, I’ve avoided imposing this structure on the people I work with. I use the People feature to track items that have been delegated or have a unique context. Most of the “People” I’ve entered into Basecamp serve as representations of the various team members I work with. Actions that have been delegated — things I’m waiting for from other people — get assigned to the person who has taken on that item.

Not surprisingly, much of my work happens with a computer, so I consider that to be the default context. I’ve added additional “people” to represent different contexts that I regularly find myself in: “@Phone”, “@Travel”, etc., for immediate access to items that are dependent on specific types of situations. Patrick Rhone’s entry explains that strategy clearly.

Once your Projects, People and Contexts are set up, every defined action falls into one of three categories. It can be a Next Action item, which is assigned directly to you or to a context you work in. It can be a Delegated Action, reviewable by project or person. Or it can be Unassigned — an item which is in the system, easily reviewed, and off your mind.

The Basecamp interface gives you some specific data views to quickly review these various items. Each project can be reviewed individually in its entirety. And at any time, the list of “to-do’s across all projects” allows for:

• a quick review of your current Next Actions across all projects,
• a recap of items you’re waiting for any member of the team to complete, or
• a complete review of all unassigned actions, to quickly determine which projects need a new item to be promoted to “Next Action”

Of course, if you choose, you can add milestones, files, and notes at the project level. I’m guessing the milestones feature has potential for integrating with GTD, but that’s still TBD.