© Jan Jasper; 2002-2008
Many people buy a PDA (personal digital assistant) such as the Palm Pilot, Pocket PC, or Treo hoping it will magically, effortlessly get
them organized. They may spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy handheld with everything from an appointment book to E-mail & web access -
then end up only using it for phone numbers!
A PDA can be a tremendous help, but it doesn't work by itself. You must be a fairly organized person to begin with. Someone has to
enter the data regularly, not to mention backing it up, plus keeping the battery juiced up. If you manage time badly,
can't prioritize, and your to-do list is hundreds of items long, putting it into digital format won't help you.
Plus, even the most amazing PDAs have their limits. Regardless of their bells and whistles, they run
pared-down verisons of the software programs. If this is your first attempt to get digitally organized, it might not bother you.
But for power users who are accustomed to a full-fledged contact or information management program such as Outlook, Act,
or Goldmine, it can be a big disappointment.
The problem is partly that the bundled desktop software and synchronizing utility that connects
your desktop (or laptop) computer to your handheld is quite rudimentary. Fortunately, there are some good 3rd-party synching utilities.
Look at products from CompanionLink,
DataViz, and Chapura
- these will get more of your data into your handheld. But even with the best syncing conduit, not everything can be transferred to
the PDA. For example, you may not have all the fields you want, links between contact and appointments may be lost, and notes
may be truncated.
Do some testing so you know what to expect. Synch your database from your desktop computer to your PDA, and look carefully to see if all
the information you need survived the journey. Then synch back from PDA to desktop and look again. Take time to set up the sync process
and the field mapping. You may find that some of your information simply cannot sync to the PDA - but it may not be anything you have to
carry with you. Or you can devise a workaround. As long as you know the PDA's limitations, you won't be caught off-guard.
*The usual disclaimers apply. My mentioning these products is not a guarantee of any sort.
Obviously, you should not change anything until you've completely backed up your files.
You already do that, right?
This article is available to reprint if you include my copyright notice and identify me as follows: "Jan Jasper, a productivity expert in the New York City
area, is the author of Take Back Your Time: How to Regain Control of Work, Information, & Technology (St. Martin's Press)."
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