The Launchpad lets you access all your 37signals products from a single screen. But Aleks Nesterow, an iPhone developer at Screen Customs in Biełaruś, decided to take the concept even further. He set up a system where he can view all his 37signals projects at once in Firefox. He explains below.
I installed Speed Dial add-on for Firefox, arranged the panels with my accounts vertically and set update to 24 minutes for Basecamp, Highrise and Backpack, and to 4 minutes for Campfire.
So to observe some new activity in the accounts all I need is to go Home in my browser or create a new tab and look at the panels. I can see that somebody entered the chat, that the milestone is getting closer each day, that what I forwarded to Highrise reached it successfully (sometimes an issue) and that I have some uncompleted tasks.
When I need to reach deep concentration on what I’m doing I close Gmail and now I’m not interrupted by new emails. Still I have the ability to watch the activity in my accounts. It happens automatically while I’m browsing the web and create new tabs (just taking a glance in the moment while a new page is loading). So I can decide whether it makes sense to make a break and reply to the whole pack of new messages. Thus I’m interrupted only once instead of multiple interruptions.
Do you have a cool tip for other 37signals customers? Tell us about it.
The desk makeover: Make your environment conducive to working. Clear your desk of any distractions. Have the things you use on a regular basis at the ready. Everything else can go on a shelf. I use an online system by 37signals.com, which offers a virtual office management system so you can be paperless! I can access it anytime, anywhere. This is also a useful tool if you have clients whose progress you monitor.
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