An Open Letter to 37signals
I just sent the following letter to 37signals:
This isn’t a problem, in fact I’m about to gush on the fact that Backpack has changed my life and made the work/family/life stuff so much easier to manage — and made it easier for my wife and I to maintain a semi-normal working schedule while taking care of our 6-month-old twin baby boys, Jackson and Tyler.
I’m a full-time freelance UI designer, and my wife is a full-time web developer telecommuting to her job with a great company in Syracuse, NY. When our boys were born (August 24, 2010) my wife took a few months off for maternity leave, and I took a month off for paternity leave. That first month was really hectic, in fact there’s large chunks of time that I simply don’t remember — having a baby can be crazy time in your life; having twins… well, I’m sure you can imagine.
Right before the boys were born, I had just finished converting a workshop in my backyard into a full-fledged office. After my month off, I was excited to get into my office and do some work. I started slow; just a few hours a day, and only one client. I quickly learned that finding even 2 hours a day to get work done was going to be tough. We made due, but once my wife, Amy, went back to work, those few hours a day become nearly impossible to find — for both of us.
About a month ago I realized that my work and personal life was become way to hectic to keep track of, and I was in danger of losing business due to being so unorganized. I used Backpack for a little while when it first launched, but at that time I was unmarried, and didn’t have two kids. I decided to give it another chance — with the first month free, and a coupon code for a discount on the second month, it was a no brainer.
The first day I created the Backpack account was one of the most productive-feeling days I had in months. I quickly set my wife up with an account. In the days following we’ve found so many uses for Backpack. My wife has the great idea of setting up a work schedule calendar, so now we know who’s working when, and who’s watching the boys. Amy also setup a babysitter calendar, so we both know when we have friends and family over for an afternoon, or an evening out. For work, I’ve setup a page for each client and keep track of todos, client emails, notes, etc.
Its great knowing that, at a glance, I’m working tomorrow morning, and have baby duty at 1pm, and that at 6pm a friend is watching the boys so Amy and I can enjoy a night out.
I guess what I really wanted to say is, Thank You! Backpack has changed our lives, and made dealing with the work/life balance so much easier. I’ve even found time to start writing more (using writeboards, of course) and have started keeping track of some of my passion projects (Spendly.com) and am making progress on my goals.
Thank you so much for creating such a useful and easy-to-use tool. Backpack is great, and I look forward to being a happy customer for years to come!
