Organisation

[Rhys Sage]

I'm curious how you organise yourself...

At the moment I have a notepad and scribble everything in a notepad and on a wall calender. The only downside is that people who ask if I'm free on date X have to put up with "I'll have to check my calender" and then I have to ring them back.

Do you:
1. Use my method of a notepad and a wall calender.
2. Have everything on your PDA and upload to PC nightly?
3. Use an iPhone or similar with built-in PDA (if so, how can you check stuff mid call?)
4. Use a pocket diary.
5. Use a Filofax/Day runner?

I'm currently trialling a PDA. It's something I've had for years but I realised that I needed a new diary and also realised that my last diary had zero use (I used a notepad more) and was thus a waste of cash. Thus far I find the PDA to be bulky, heavy and fragile.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I'm curious how you organise yourself...
...

Do you:
2. Have everything on your PDA and upload to PC nightly?

This is what I use most, and I have been using it for 10-15 years. It's especially useful when schedules need to be adjustable, you just drag and drop or change times without retyping (or rather re-writing, with automatic handwriting recognition) all details and notes.

Thus far I find the PDA to be bulky, heavy and fragile.

Don't know which one you are trying, but my 'Palm Tungsten E2' is not that bulky. I don't know how to rate it's fragility, I'm careful with it. One can add an aluminum case for additional protection, but that would make it more bulky.

I do not only use it as an organizer (calender/contacts), but also as a memo pad, a calculator/solver for photographic calculations (e.g. DoF), a planetarium for the calculation of sun position and sun rise/set, and as a quick password generator when I don't need super strong cryptography class passwords. I also occasionally use the Expense module for keeping track of stuff while en route. I don't use its communications/network capability, so I can't comment about that. Of course it also supports MS Office documents, so one could carry/prepare documents for reference or later use.

I have not tried a Palm Treo, but that might be useful to eliminate the need for a separate phone and organizer, and thus eliminate one device, although it looks more limited on the calculator side.

Bart

 

[Rhys Sage]

I have a Palm Zire 31 and while I like the fact I have an up-to-date database with me, I find it's something extra that I have to carry and worry about dropping, getting wet, forgetting etc. I like a notepad because it's lightweight and easy to carry, not fragile and doesn't even have to be a real notepad - just a few sheets of paper would do.

I'm looking around at phones with built-in PDAs because I think that's the way to go. My problem is that I already carry a lot of stuff around...

I carry a wallet that's pretty thick as it holds all my cards. Actually, it's a women's purse/wallet that I got from K-Mart that doesn't actually look feminine. It's handy because it has a compartment for my cards and for my cash and a front pocket for my driving licence etc. That lot all used to take up two wallets before! I also carry a business card holder and two mobile phones. On occasion I have to shift my wallet to my shirt pocket (not all shirts have pockets) in order to carry my personal protection in my trouser pocket. Thus I'm walking around with all pockets bulging.

I could cut down to one mobile phone. I used to use Virgin and Suncom but these days I seem to use Suncom and Skype. I guess my Virgin connection is a bit redundant now!