First action in moving from paper to electronic

[Anonymous]

It looks to me that people using some kind of electronic system have a better success with implementing GTD. And, as I am creating many reference pages, check lists, etc. and my planner is growing thicker and heavier, I can see this is in my future. Does anyone have any suggestions what the first action might be in making such a transistion?

 

[moises]

Jamie,

I hesitantly began GTD with Excel spreadsheets. At work I would update them constantly. On Friday afternoon I would print them out and bring the hard copies home.

I had never owned a PDA but I quickly saw that my "system" was severely limited when I was away from my computer.

I then began to surf the Internet to read up about PDAs. That is my recommended next action for you.

I bought a PDA and have never looked back. My big concern was data entry. It's not great on a PDA but I can't write that quickly by hand either. And the PDA-written stuff is searchable.

You should also consider talking to people who already have PDAs. Ask them to show you theirs and how it works. I did this a lot before I bought mine.

 

[ko]

I would agree with moises - start research PDAs on the web.

Once you've bought yours, I would actually wait before migrating your entire GTD setup - choose a feature and really start to use it. The address book, or maybe creating a few lists in Memos, would be a good start. This would help you to get comfortable with moving around on the PDA, entering data, using graffiti, etc.

When you do add GTD to the fix, I would start with David Allen's description of how his PDA is set up. There are tons of applications out there that you could use instead, but IMHO the Palm built-in apps are the easiest to learn.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, this is helpful

In fact, a family member has a virtually unused but rather old PDA (Palm 3COM), I think I will start using it for some basic function (s) as suggested above. I hope I can locate some instructions!

 

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting thread--I'm thinking of going to a Time Design system from a PDA. I'll keep the PDa for my 900 contacts and the storage of major work files I need with me when I travel around.

Maybe this isn't as good an idea as I thought. It's that little screen, though, that gets me to thinking that I'd like a little bigger picture of the landscape. I struggle with long-range planning without the larger calendar format. Am I alone in this?

 

[ceehjay]

I have moved from paper to PDA, then to a combination of both, back to PDA, and now, I use a "Month-at-a-Glance" calendar with PDA. I have to see the entire month for one aspect of my job, and there's no way the PDA can take care of that need. I don't have to carry the calendar every moment of the day, but it fits neatly in the book bag I carry, and I have it ready for the times I need it.

The info in the calendar is NOT in the PDA, so it's not a duplication of effort. I found that keeping that specific information in the PDA was not useful. I guess you could say the calendar is a tickler of sorts, but doesn't contain the kind of information one would normally keep in a tickler file.

I think we each have to find the way that works best for our own situation. Paper, PDA, both. What works best for you? I think that's the key.

Carolyn