Simplify your System or Throwing away my PDA

[Ecg]

What an oddly topical topic...

Erm, yes, anyway,

I just started a new job in which I have to again keep track of stuff that I do.

I carry a pda, (currently Dell Axim X3i) and have since a Palm Pro in like 1997-98, and I love the things it can do, like play games and let me read books, many many books, like more than 100 a year.

Howsomever, I hate the data entry portion, and I hate trying to keep my lists in there. It feels awkward and artificial for some reason, or at least very unsatisfying and therefore not fun to use and check and update.

So I bought a nice black nylon FC binder with all of the starter kit inserts, threw most of them away and used the templates from DIY Planner Plus some free form list type dealies that I made myself like "music to get" "books to read" (those damn books again!) "home info" (things like furnace filter size, phone numbers for plumber) etc...etc.

I don't know but I FEEL more organized, even if I forgot to call that lady back about the thing from yesterday, because I forgot to put it on my NA list, and I forgot to remember to put the birthday list in my new planner, so I put that on my NA list for tomorrow.

Geez, I don't think I'm even a white belt yet!

Well, the intention is there, so...

Ecg

 

[gator]

Just went back to paper as well. My awakening was when I dropped my PPC / Phone and cracked the battery cover. This caused the unit to not work unless I held on to the battery tightly. I was on the road (outside sales) and no info at my disposal. I now will keep my errands lists, contacts, long term reminders in my PDA. Everything else goes down on paper. Sleeping better already! :idea:

 

[hth]

My system is mostly electronic, augmented with paper, but I've never really felt the need to backup the paper portion. I've lost far more data to computer failures than to lost paper.

Of course one loses normally more data to computer failures than to lost paper. But especially in the GTD-context the PDA with his backup is very useful. I would never carry my paperplanner with me to a camping holiday, a bike trip ... With my PDA I have my UCT and reference material always with me without fear of complete data loss.

The drawback is ... it can brake:

Just went back to paper as well. My awakening was when I dropped my PPC / Phone and cracked the battery cover. This caused the unit to not work unless I held on to the battery tightly. I was on the road (outside sales) and no info at my disposal. I now will keep my errands lists, contacts, long term reminders in my PDA. Everything else goes down on paper. Sleeping better already! :idea:

Nevertheless I can lose may paperplanner, it may rain on it ...
Although I indeed like more to write with a nice pen on good paper, I believe a PDA is the best solution for me.

Yours
Alexander

 

[TesTeq]

I would never carry my paperplanner with me to a camping holiday, a bike trip ... With my PDA I have my UCT and reference material always with me without fear of complete data loss.

I never carry my PDA (or paper planer) to a camping holiday or a bike trip. This is a time when I know I have no commitments and I can fully enjoy the freedom and joy of life.
It is a strange idea to have PDA or paper planner within reach during this free time. The only GTD device that can be useful is UCT (voice recorder built into MP3 player or cell phone for example).
TesTeq

 

[hth]

I would never carry my paperplanner with me to a camping holiday, a bike trip ... With my PDA I have my UCT and reference material always with me without fear of complete data loss.

I never carry my PDA (or paper planer) to a camping holiday or a bike trip. This is a time when I know I have no commitments and I can fully enjoy the freedom and joy of life.
It is a strange idea to have PDA or paper planner within reach during this free time. The only GTD device that can be useful is UCT (voice recorder built into MP3 player or cell phone for example).

I carry my PDA nearly always with me as UCT with the advantage that I am able to write the information where it finally belongs. I use other features of the PDA also in holidays (5 minutes a day learning vocabulary using supermemo).
My main PDA-usage out of buildings is my bicycle-commuting time. I don't know why, but when I'm cycling many ideas come up which want to be written down. I tried using a voice recorder, but then I had to write it down afterwards. I didn't like this second cycle.

Yours
Alexander

 

[student987654321]

I find pda's are cleaner. I can move stuff around, and there's no trace, the old one existed.

Then, as a student, I daily use French-German-English dictionnary, and encyclopedia. There's enough other books, which I have to carry around anyday, so that's kind of a relieve. Same goes for calculator, PTE (chemistry), flash cards, some ebooks...

I luckily don't need a laptop. My desktop is enough. I use the palm for ALL the planning, projects, addresses etc. I don't NEED to sync with the desktop, so the palm is the easiest and fastest way to have things stored. Why does anyone (with a normal schedule) need to have any datebook/project on the desktop???

 

[TesTeq]

Backups!

I don't NEED to sync with the desktop, so the palm is the easiest and fastest way to have things stored. Why does anyone (with a normal schedule) need to have any datebook/project on the desktop???

If you do not sync PDA with desktop and do not make any backups just pray that you won't lose your PDA. You must do backups. It is essential for peace of mind expected from GTD.
TesTeq

 

[Jason Womack]

Data entry

If you do not sync PDA with desktop and do not make any backups just pray that you won't lose your PDA. You must do backups. It is essential for peace of mind expected from GTD.

If I may add... there are days when the first three phases of Mastering Workflow

-Collect
--Process
---Organize

will indeed be seperate activities. I personally wouldn't dream of taking meeting or class notes (COLLECT) into my PDA, nor would I want to stop someone mid-stream to open my Palm calendar and Grafitti something in there...t'would take too long.

Also, after collecting on paper, and getting back to a work-station, it might be that the first time I PROCESS something - by virtue of the location/tool set-up there - I won't actually have to organize it into the list system... can Process/Do right there at the desk.

And, finally, ORGANIZE for me is always best done as a seperate activity where I'm not distracted or rushed in between meetings, phone calls, travel.

This - by the way - is the reason that paper is my favorite collection tool. I can get it in, and then process everything at once in one sitting later that day.

http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Jason_Womack/article43.html

 

[mscudder]

Simplify your System or "Throwing away my PDA"

This - by the way - is the reason that paper is my favorite collection tool. I can get it in, and then process everything at once in one sitting later that day.

Same here.

I use my pda primarily as a reference database for contacts, addresses, maps, city guides, travel notes, and so on.

Except for appointments and, occasionally, contacts, I found my pda (Palm) cumbersome at collecting. Instead, I use a small (3" x 4") note pad with quadrille paper and a pen with waterproof ink. I deposit notes, receipts, business cards, and the other bits of paper I accumulate into a wooden cigar box which sits on my desk. (Larger sheets -- such as meeting notes -- go into a file folder labeled "data input".) Once every day or two, I process the contents of the cigar box, using my computer to organize. Then I either download (sync) pertinent information -- tasks, appointments, notes, contacts, and so on -- to my pda or print it, as appropriate, for later reference when I'm out-and-about.

 

[jrj102]

Restricting your mobile lists

I use Outlook with the excellent GTD Add-in, so I have a list of projects (a quick glance shows 63) and next actions broken down into the various "@" contexts (182 right now.) I should mention that the GTD add-in was not particularly useful to me until I figured out how to view my actions by project when I need that kind of vertical thinking-- until then, it hardly got used... now, I couldn't live without it.

Your post talks about what you need to take with you. I stopped carrying a PDA recently (Always had a PocketPC) and have started using a Motorola SmartPhone. Those of you who have used a SmartPhone know that the task functionality is... ahem... shall we say "abbriviated." You can add a task, mark a task as completed, and view the list. There's no notion of categories (i.e. contexts) or even priority! It's pretty bare bones.

When I first synced it, it was useless. There was nothing you could do with the 200+ entries (actions+projects.) It was almost worse than not having it at all.

Then I had what DA calls a "blinding flash of the obvious:" Only take what I need.

Now the only tasks that get synced to the SmartPhone are
@Calls
@Errands
@Anywhere

This list is more like 18-25. Managable. Perfect.

Now I have the info I need, but I'm not distracted by the stuff I don't. When I'm in meetings, I have my TabletPC with my Outlook data, when I'm out and about, I just have this perfect little subset of my lists.

 

[beirne]

I do fine using my Palm for GTD and am a desk worker. It may depend on the tools, though. I use Life Balance (http://www.llamagraphics.com) to manage the system. I have it running on both my work PC and on the Palm. LB organizes both actions and projects well and seems a lot easier to me than using the to-do list would be. This way I have one system so that wherever I am I can see what my next actions are and I can add items as I think of them. I do lots of other things with my Palm, though, so I happily have it with me everywhere, even when hiking up a mountain or going for a bike ride.

 

[tourdebill]

For those who abandoned their PDAs and are strictly paper-based, how do you handle e-mails that become tasks?

 

[Day Owl]

If they are long: print them out, then delete.
If they are short: write a note in the appropriate place, then delete.

 

[AMS]

If they're less than 2 minutes, I just do it. If longer, I'll make a note on my paper list and drag the email over to an "Action" folder in Outlook.

 

[PDAJunky]

I'm with AMS - except I use Entourage!