Pen and Paper Beats a Digital PDA
Posted Saturday, April 19th, 2008 11:39 am by Dave Moyer
I, too, used to be a big Palm fan. I had a Palm III, a Zire 21, and a Z22 in my time. As one of my previous posts describes, I recently tried out Merlin Mann’s Hipster PDA and absolutely loved it. After thinking about it for a while, I started to realize that old school pen and paper is the best solution to organize your life! Here are my top ten reasons
10. It’s enviro-friendly - Hug a tree, then recycle your planner when you’re done with it. Saves lots of space in electronics dumps.
9. Who needs beaming? - Especially with the Hipster, giving others information is incredibly easy! Instead of hitting all sorts of buttons and waiting for your devices to “beam” a calendar event, just hand them a card. Done!
8. Any size you want - Let’s see you try to fold a Treo into fourths. Yeah. Not so easy, is it?
7. Great Getting Things Done integration - When I get home each afternoon, I just drop the “open loops” (each on a different card) that I’ve collected over the course of the day into my inbox. Simple quick, and easy.
6. Built tough - You’re not going to have any problems if you drop a notepad, now are you?
5. Faster “data” entry - We don’t need no QWERTY keyboard! Why mess around with buttons (or worse, a stylus and that Graffiti stuff) when you can just write a note! On paper, writing is freeform and completely unrestricted.
4. Eternal charge - Wall adapter sold separately. The reason? You don’t need one.
3. MUCH more secure - No need to back up your data! Just file things away where you want them. Lock and key is a lot harder to hack for your secure data. Also, if you’re a hPDA or pocket notepad user, nobody’s going to want to steal that. Look at that! I just saved you $20 on a Kensington lock.
2. It’s fast - One, two, three, DRAW! Watch everyone around you turn on their smartphones and PDAs and start pushing buttons like a madman, while you simply flip to next week and write down the meeting.
1. So much cheaper - Why spend hundreds of dollars on a new PDA when you could spend two bucks for some index cards or paper, and have infinite storage space? Need more space? Head over to your local office store and buy another gigabyte of space for 99 cents.
photo credit: desi.italy
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Great post! I use a hipster for everyday stuff, and a moleskine (see photo) for more of a diary and journal. Much to support it’s use. Cheap, easy to carry, fast, no energy source needed, disposable. Perfect!