For many years, long before I joined 37signals, my wife and I have been using Basecamp to manage our personal lives. Recently I noticed we topped 1,000 discussions. That seems crazy even to me, but it really shows how incredibly useful and versatile it is.
Most people probably think of Basecamp as a tool they use at work to manage their projects. But for my wife and I, daily life is like one big personal project. And with twin boys just over a year old, life is more hectic than ever. Basecamp helps us organize the chaos of our longest-running project.
So how do we use it?
Really, just like any other project would. For example:
- If there are groceries to buy or errands to run, we add a to-do in Basecamp and assign it. Things get done and checked off.
- When the boys have a checkup with their doctor, we write up a brief recap so we can always remember what happened and how they’re progressing. Any associated files – bills, notes, height and weight measurements – all go in the same thread.
- Any important emails like tax bills, a product recall, car repairs, etc. get forwarded into Basecamp. No more searching through thousands of emails to find the few crucial ones.
- Events, big or small, are tracked in the calendar. This lets us discuss a specific event, and cross link it with other discussions, to-dos, etc.
- We use text documents to keep track of things that change frequently over time – stuff we have in our attic, gift cards that we haven’t used yet, and even menus we created for parties.
Sure, we’re pretty organized now, but it wasn’t always like that. After a few stressful situations where information got lost, we knew there had to be a better way.
Now we’re never really concerned about forgetting. We don’t panic about trying to remember what happened and when. It’s a little strange to say, but we have a sense of calm because we know where everything is – in Basecamp.
So what’s the real benefit of doing all this?
Put simply, using Basecamp at home means that the mundane parts of daily life are stashed away and don’t need to be discussed in person.
Like many couples, my wife and I both work. We’re together as a family for maybe a few hours a day. We want that time to be spent talking about stuff that really matters – how friends and family are doing, work happenings, and other more interesting, fun stuff.
Spending time at the dinner table discussing all the things we need to do is a waste of time. So we don’t do it. Instead, we focus on each other and our kids, and not the noise of daily life.
Got an interesting use of Basecamp?
So that’s my story. But that’s just one semi-creative use of Basecamp outside of work. And now with Basecamp Personal, I’m hearing about even more great uses, like coordinating a sports team, keeping friends connected, and even managing a rental property.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge Basecamp nerd, so I really love hearing about how people use it in creative ways. If you’ve got an interesting story about how you use Basecamp, drop me a line at dan@37signals.com and let’s chat.
Don Schenck
on 20 Jun 13This is interesting in that it ties in with the Quantitative Self movement and a business idea I have.
Thanks.
Fred Bartholomai
on 20 Jun 13Hmm, never thought of using Basecamp in this way. Interesting… I am thinking about this.
I have a question. With regards to your article about using Basecamp for managing your personal life, are you using just one project to do so ? If not, how many are you using ?
Michiel
on 20 Jun 13Cédric
on 21 Jun 13Very interesting article.
I recently start using Basecamp Personnal with my wife to find and buy our dream house. And we found it … and buy it. It was our first Basecamp use. And it was so easy to keep organize with all the meeting with banks, documents we get, etc. We can’t be enough thankfull to Basecamp. I plan to open a new Basecamp Personnal project to use it as “home organizer”. So your article is very inspiring.
Joakim
on 21 Jun 13Great article. Thank you for that.
What really got to me though, was the last few lines. As a administrator of rental property, I would really like to hear more about this story. Would you care to share?
Michael
on 21 Jun 13Thanks for writing about this. My wife and I used Highrise to get through a difficult year in our lives a few years ago. I really like business products that are good enough to be used personally.
Dan Kim
on 21 Jun 13@Fred – Yep, I just use one project for home. I have more projects for things like personal side projects, but for home/family it’s just one.
@Joakim – I’ve heard of a few people using Basecamp for rental properties, but I haven’t gotten a lot of detail. Maybe you can try it out and let us know how it goes? :)
Christopher Watson
on 22 Jun 13This sounds fantastic, but my wife and I don’t have the money to subscribe to the full Basecamp nor do we work at companies who would be interested in subscribing (sadly). Can we use Basecamp Personal exclusively, and if so do we each have to pay $25 for our home project?
Anonymous Coward
on 23 Jun 13sdsdsd
Joakim
on 23 Jun 13@ Dan Kim – Sure. The article got me thinking, and I will start looking into whether or not basecamp could be of any help to me and my team. What I was interested in however, was in what ways other had used it. Could be interesting to hear about. To me at least. :)
Todd Doyle
on 24 Jun 13Great post Dan. Clever use of the tools, which will surely spur other ideas and uses. Looking forward to seeing other readers ideas as well.
This discussion is closed.