Organizing Your Handheld Computer (and your life!)
(Texto capturado em http://www.memoware.com/ em 2003. Autoria: Marc Rosen)
As a fundamentally disorganized person, I have always sought tools to help me force myself to be organized. I've used almost every paper organizing system, software, and hardware out there that is supposed to be a “personal information manager” or to help a person be organized. Most of those systems did not work for me, for a variety of reasons. But the ones that have worked best are computer based, rather than paper. At this point, I've used most of the handheld computers that have been out there, starting with a Hewlett-Packard 95lx, and continuing up through a Sony Clie.
The primary problem with most software today is that it is focused on one master organizing principle, and if you want to approach the information with a different focus, it is very difficult. For example, a calendar program organizes all the data based on dates. A contact management program (such as ACT!) is based on people. While you can use work-arounds (such as entering your Project as a Person), none of the software that I’ve seen brings all the different information together by projects. (I'm not including "Project Management" type software that provides things like Gantt charts and critical path analysis, since that isn't really applicable to day to day planning of the sort most of us have to do.) And none really gives you the flexibility to view the information in different ways; sometimes based on the projects or matters, sometimes organized by people, and sometimes by dates. What I have attempted to do here is explain the system that I have put together which will allow that flexibility, using a handheld which is based on the Palm operating system (OS), and some add-on programs.
I assume that anyone who has invested the money in a handheld (or whose company has done so) is interested in getting the most out of it. If you are a naturally organized person, you may not need this whole system; but it may be useful to you because you might get some ideas which will help you get better use from your handheld computer. If you are like me, and not a naturally organized person, you might want to seriously look at implementing this entire system. You don’t have to do it in one sitting; you could do one step one week, and the next step the week after that, until you’re done. The point is to start setting it up; it isn’t nearly as complicated or difficult as it sounds. I suggest you read this entire document so you’ll know where we’re going. Then you can implement the suggestions at your own pace. (Incidentally, I am an attorney and a musician, so my system is set up to reflect this. You may find it useful to change things to make them more applicable to what you do in your life.)
There are 4 basic steps in implementing this system:
1. Plan your organization system.
2. Set up your Palm.
3. Set up the software applications.
4. Implement and maintain the system.
The rest of this article explains each step in detail.
As with any project, you have to think about it before you do it. When you’re thinking about how to organize the information on your handheld, you need to consider what information you want to have with you at all times and how you want to view that information. (I use the term “view” to mean a particular listing of information, filtered and organized in a particular way. All the information is still in the computer, but you are only looking at some of it.) You’ll need to commit some time to do this. I would suggest at least an hour initially. Your information organization will pay you back greatly from this investment of time.
In order to plan for your information management system, start thinking about what information you get and what you need. We all have lots of information coming at us from all sorts of different sources throughout any given day. You need to give some thought about what information you need to keep available all the time, and how you might want to view and retrieve that information. Does your job require keeping track of date-based information primarily? Are there many meetings you attend which require you to keep track of what happened and what your responsibilities are? Do you generally deal with large projects, or individual tasks? Is e-mail a primary part of your job, or just something that helps you communicate with other people in order to organize and coordinate your projects?
Make lists of how you think you will want to view your information. For example, think about whether it is important to you to be able to list every project you have, or to see a list of everything due this week, or all the calls you need to make, or what is happening on each day. These decisions help determine how things can be set up to be the most useful for helping you find information. Also think about which people or organizations are the ones with which you interact most often. Make sure those people or organizations are entered into the address book on your handheld.
Also give some serious consideration to the extent of the information you'll want on your handheld. Do you want to take, and carry, meeting notes, notes about conversations, emails, and the like? Or will some of this be in paper files, or other computer files, only at your desk? There is limited space on your computer, although expansion cards make this less problematic then it was. It is best to think about all this from an information retrieval standpoint: figure out what you will want to find, and how you will want to view it. Then you'll be able to figure out how to input everything to accomplish this.
In addition, there are some other basic issues about setting up this system you should consider in the planning phase:
1. In my view, the value of having all your information with you at all times is immeasurable, so to the extent possible I want information on the handheld, not just on the computer sitting on my desk in the office. In order to facilitate inputting a lot of data, some of the programs mentioned do have a desktop program. But the primary focus here is on the handheld side of things.
2. You should know how to install software on your handheld, how to use the Palm OS built-in shortcuts feature, and how to set hardware buttons on the handheld to operate most efficiently. I have included an appendix which will describe these things in more details for those who are not familiar with them. Also, you can review the manual that came with your handheld, since things operate a little differently on the various models of handheld computer.
3. As mentioned in #2 above, in case you didn't know it, you can add software to your handheld. The only program you'll absolutely need to make my suggested system work is called Shadow, which you can get from various places on the internet (see the Appendix for more details.) In order to use the system I describe here, you need to know about tags, filters and linking in Shadow. While I try to keep things simple in this article, if you know about these features you will better understand what we’re doing, and how to modify things to fit your needs better. Read the manual that comes with Shadow, and play with its features a bit before you embark on setting this up.
4. I do not do email on my handheld, so this article doesn't discuss this issue. While there are a variety of programs that will do email on your handheld, including programs which are wireless and provide always available access, I have found little value in doing so, as the desk top system handles email and I don’t have anything going on that can’t wait until I return to my desk. And I think it just clutters up the handheld and takes up important space. If there is information in an email that I may need, I copy it to a memo using the handheld's desktop software, and just transfer it that way to the handheld. You should consider how you want to handle this for your situation.
Overall Philosophy
There are a million approaches to organizing information. Everyone has his own, and there are several experts who have written books and provide consulting services to help people organize. One popular author is David Allen, author of Getting Things Done (see www.davidco.com). Another is Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and others (now associated with FranklinCovey, www.franklincovey.com). Within the system I describe here, you can use any approach that works for you by customizing things to work with those systems (which I will describe in more detail below). I have set the system up using ideas from many different sources (including those mentioned above), so you will see some of their ideas here.
I have several requirements for a good organizational system. It must be really easy to use (or I won't use it). It must be logical, so I can use it without having to think about it very much. The majority of information must reside on the handheld, not on the computer sitting in my office. All information should only have to be entered once, not several times in different places. This system is optimized to implement these requirements.
Systems like this seem to work best when you divide things into three different activities: data/information entry, processing, and retrieval. Information entry and retrieval must be very efficient and easy; processing will take more time to ensure that everything is where it belongs. Retrieval must be very flexible. I don't want to be limited on how I retrieve the information. What works today may need to be changed tomorrow. So once information is in the system, the system needs to be adaptable to my current information retrieval and organizational needs, even when those change over time.
The fundamental approach here is to design places where everything can get entered. Then, each item will be stored in a logical place and tagged appropriately. Filters will then be set up so that you can look at your information in a variety of logical ways. And you’ll be able to link everything important to a particular project or task so you can keep track of it.
Now that you’ve thought about what you want and how you want it, you'll need to get your device set up. Having given thought to your organizational needs above, you'll have made some decisions about what you need to carry on your handheld and what is important for how you work.
The first step is to get the add-on software you’ll need, and install it. (See more detail on this in the Appendix and your user's manual.) To implement this system, the only add-on software that is required is Shadow (www.shadowplan.com). Shadow is a very powerful outliner and planner. It is very customizable and allows a variety of tools (tags, links, and filters) to really make this system functional. Shadow is shareware. The developer, Jeff Mitchell, is extremely responsive. Currently, the application just for the handheld is $15.99, and the handheld/desktop bundle is $22.99. Upgrades have always been free.
There are some other add-on programs that really expand the functionality of your handheld. If you are a date-oriented person, a program I highly recommend is Datebk5 (www.pimlicosoftware.com) that is a very powerful date book manager. Because of its power and complexity, it takes quite a bit of time to learn how to use its more advanced features. Other programs which I recommend to make your handheld more useful and organized are: Isilo (www.isilo.com) for getting information off the web; WordSmith (www.bluenomad.com) for doing word processing on the handheld; and Documents to Go (www.dataviz.com) for reviewing and editing Microsoft Word and Excel files on the handheld. Some manufacturers include Documents to Go software when you purchase the handheld. Unless you are very experienced with the Palm operating system and already know some of this software, I recommend you just start with Shadow, and then add the other programs when you are comfortable with the system described here.
Shadow can take quite a while to learn all of its many features, but for now you just need to know about creating outlines, tagging, and filtering. I suggest you start with the Quick Start manual that is provided, then review the reference manual sections on tags and filters. Of course, over time, you’ll want to delve deeper to learn about all the great features and tools Shadow provides.
Shortcuts
One very important feature of the Palm OS is shortcuts. These are defined in the Palm Preferences application, under the category Shortcuts. After using this application to define them, you can then use shortcuts in any application that requires text entry. You simply make the shortcut character (see the documentation for your device), and then write the abbreviation. The Palm will then replace the abbreviation with the text you defined. This seems to be one of the most under-utilized features of the Palm operating system, for some reason.
Spend some time thinking about useful shortcut words or phrases, and enter them in the Palm. I have hundreds, ranging from places (Albuquerque is much harder to write than alb), to phrases (“mtg” is “meeting with at re:” which I can use with telephone look-up to insert people’s names). I use “esa” for “Endangered Species Act”, and “lvm” is “left voice mail”. I also have every matter that I’m working on (“smlit” might be “Smith v. Jones Litigation”), so that it is easily inserted in any notes, and is spelled exactly the same way, so I can do searches (using the Palm’s Find command). Depending on your profession, you may have specific terminology that you will want to abbreviate. I found that spending fifteen or twenty minutes just thinking about useful abbreviations (and adding them to the handheld) has saved me many hours of entering legal terms and activities.
Buttons
I suggest you set up the hardware buttons on your device to run the specific programs. Use the built-in Preferences program to set this up. Use the date book button for Datebk5 (if you use it, or leave it so it accesses the built-in date book if you don’t), leave the address book button to access the address book, and set the to-do list button to access Shadow. This makes it very convenient to quickly add information on the fly.
Now that you’ve gotten the software, installed it, and set up your shortcuts and buttons, you need to create outlines, tags and filters in Shadow. We need to set up our main outline, and then add all the features that make the system work.
Initial Outline
Many people recommend setting up your outline with headings to reflect places or “contexts” for the items. For example, a sample outline under this approach might look like this:
I. Home
II. Office
III. Errands
IV. Calls
V. Meetings
The main problem with this approach is when you have something that might fall into both Office and Calls, or Home and Office. There is no easy way to deal with that, other than to put the item in two places and remember to mark it completed in both places. I find that very cumbersome and confusing.
We can avoid that problem in Shadow by using tags to sort our items. So I recommend a simpler set up for the main outline. As you’ll see below, my set up is based on putting the items into the outline categorized by things that are basically one time only types of items, or items that are part of a bigger project. Then you can use the tags to view only the items you are interested in at a particular time. This way you can view only those items that are calls, or meetings, or home or office, in a very flexible and easily changed manner.
First, set up a new outline in Shadow. I call mine MasterList. When you create the list, you'll be able to set your preferences for how that list appears. I suggest that you set it up as a Custom list, with options set to synchronize, and color theme. Set auto-numbering at level 1 to I-II-III-IV, at levels 2 and 3 to Bullet. I engage “New Items take siblings view”, Suppress “title word wrap”, and Suppress “auto check” (These are all a-vailable in the List Preferences settings. You can get information about them in the Shadow Reference Guide. Modify them depending on your preferences and which device you are using.)
By using the Custom setting, you can select what is displayed for each item on your list. I use the Custom options so that for each item, I can see the priority; there is a check circle, and a link arrow; the days until due are displayed; a wide tag column is displayed; and the target date is displayed. This works on a device with a high-resolution screen with tiny fonts, so you can see a lot on the screen. You can adjust this to what works for your eyes on your device. (These settings are also available from the List Preferences settings.) There is a Custom button that appears when you select the Custom list type. Click on this button, and you can select which things ("gadgets") you want to see. Then each item entered on the list will have these properties. If there are certain individual items in the list that you don’t want to have these characteristics, you can set them individually, as discussed below.
Then, create the following headings for your outline:
I. Inbox
II. Items
III. Projects
Similar to the lists overall, Shadow allows individual items to be many different types, such as checklist items, or note items, or general items. The main difference is which gadgets go with the items. For example, a checklist item will have a little box (or circle) where you can check off the item; a note item does not. I recommend you make the headings note items, and allow the actual items beneath them to take on the list characteristics as custom items. In order to make these headings note items (without checkboxes and the like), in the detail screen for each one, from the category selector in the upper right, select Note.
The theory here is very simple: whenever you first enter a new item, enter it as a child item (below the heading) in the Inbox. It doesn’t matter what it is, put it there for now. The only exception to this is if you are doing your processing, and you have time to put it where it belongs, then add the tags and links to set it up. If so, go ahead and do that. If you don’t have the time right now to do all those steps, just put the item in the Inbox section until you are ready to process it.
More theory: The “Items” section is where we will put those types of things that are essentially singular (one time only) types of things, not necessarily related to any particular project. The “Projects” section will contain, well, projects. I use David Allen's definition: a project is anything that takes more than one fairly quick step or one day to complete.
We’ll create some other outlines later.
The next step is to create our tags. Tagging is a very powerful feature offered by Shadow. One way to think of a tag is simply as a way to categorize the items you enter. Tags are like an added description for each item. Tags are listed next to the item or in a separate listing from the item. Shadow allows a tag to be added to an item at any time, and each item can have as many tags as you wish. Shadow also allows tags created in one outline to be used in all outlines. Once an item has a tag added to it, you can use the tag to filter the items to determine which items you want to view at a particular time. Since there can be an unlimited number of tags, Shadow allows you to put each tag in a Category. You can create an unlimited number of Categories for these tags.
As we discussed, the primary benefit of using tags, rather than listing each item under a specific heading, is that it gives much more flexibility. And, since you can tag an item with as many different tags as you want, you don’t have to list an item in more than one place. For example, assume you have a call to make that could be made from either your home or your office. If your list were set up with different headings for Work Items and Home Items, you’d have to list it twice and remember to cross it off in two places when it is completed. With tags, you can simply list it in one place, tag it with Calls, Home, and Office, and then you’ll be able to find it when you view your items using any of those tags as a filter.
There are several different ways to add a tag to an item. One way is to use the Tag Manager. From the list, go to the Tools menu, and select Manage Tags. (You can also get there using the little “F” pop-up in the upper right of the main listing screen for the outline.) Press New to create a new tag, and use Create categories to create the categories for the tags as listed below:
Category Tags
Location Home, Office, Errands
Status Waiting For, Delegated
Other Expense, Pers.Fin., Billable, CFOP, Comment, Reference, Funstuff, Quote
Activities Call, Meeting, Court, Telcon, Issue, Draft/Revise, Review, Research, Follow-up, Hearing, Rehearsal, Gig, To Buy
By the way, Pers.Fin. means Personal Finances. CFOP means “commitment from other person”. Telcon means “telephone conference”. Funstuff items are things that you might want to do in that spare half-hour at work or at home, such as a web site you want to look at, or a friend you haven’t called in a while. I use Quote for interesting and informative quotations that I find, and “To Buy” for books, music, or anything else I might want to buy (although I have a separate list for groceries.) If you are the type of person that has a lot of things like this to buy, you may want separate tags for music, books, or musical instrument accessories, so that when you are at that type of store, you can quickly filter on only those items that you might get there.
In order to make use of built-in features, I use the priority assignmr me 5 means CRITICAL, 4 means Important, 3 means Usual Course, and 1 means no big deal.)
[Já eu prefiro usar em ordem decrescente:]
Also, Shadow he dates (Target Date, Start Date, Finish Date) are used to provide flexibility and take advantage of other built-in features, so things like a Pending tag is not necessary (if there is a start date, but no finish date, it is considered Pending.)
In my system, Waiting For, Follow-up and CFOP are different, although they may appear similar. Waiting For is used to designate an item that is stalled because someone needs to get something to me. CFOP is used to designate a commitment someone made to me that I want to be aware of, but it is not stalling or delaying something I’m doing. Follow-up designates something that I have to take action on. For example, leaving a phone message with someone generates a follow-up, even though technically I am waiting for her to call back, because if she doesn’t call back I’ll call again. (Of course, you could use one tag to mean all of these things, or, since you can have as many tags on an item as you want, you can use any or all of them on a particular item as you see fit.)
Again, think of your tags as criteria to determine how you want to view your items. Set up the tags as necessary to allow you to use a filter so that you see only those items you want to in a particular situation. If you follow the Getting Things Done approach, you can create tags (under the Category Location, or set up another Category called Context) named @Home, @Office, @Calls, @Computer, and the like. Remember that since you can attach as many different tags as you need to an item, you won’t need tags such as @Computer-Home, since you can just add the tag @Home to an item with the tag @Computer. If you follow the Covey approach, you can create tags for different quadrants, and “Sharpen the Saw”.
Linking Items and Information
Another powerful feature of Shadow is the ability to link items to listings in your address book, or in the memo pad, or to other Shadow outlines. You can also link to items in the built-in date book or to-do list application. Linking allows you to set up an item or a project, and have a quick way to keep track of the people or organizations that are related to that item. When you are in the detail screen for an item, the button on the lower right is the link button. Pressing that button takes you to the Link Manager screen. Pressing the Add button allows you to link to an address or a memo. This is very useful, as you can maintain information in the memo pad, such as meeting notes, and link the information to the appropriate project. You can also link the relevant people to a project so that you can quickly find someone's phone number who is working on the project. You can also choose to list the linked addresses so they are visible as children of the project. You can also filter on the address listing, as will be discussed below.
Filters
The next step is to set up filters. Filters are another powerful feature of Shadow. Using filters, you can choose which items in the outline to display. All of the items are still there, some are just not displayed if they don’t meet the “rules” set up for the filter. For example, you can display only items that are tagged “Office”. Or display only items that have a priority of 5, have a target date (due date) this week and are tagged “Office” and “Calls”. This way, if you are sitting in your office with a few minutes before your next meeting, and you want to see what important calls you need to make, you can easily find them. Filters can be saved so they can be used as often as you want.
To set up a filter, go to the Tools menu in the list view, and select Manage Filters. (You can also get there using the little “F” pop-up in the upper right of the screen.) When a filter is active, the little “F” is darkened so you’ll know that some items are hidden.
I use several of the built-in filters (such as This Week’s Target Items), so you should investigate to see which are useful for you. Building custom filters allows you to use the tags and other information we have created. To create a custom filter to use the tags, go to the Filter Manager, choose Custom Filters, and press the big plus sign. Enter a name for the filter (such as Undone Office Items). To create this simple filter, press the plus sign next to Rules, and Shadow will give you a “checked equals no” rule (which means an item is not done), which is fine. Press okay, and add another rule (with the plus sign) where Tag Association contains Office. Click okay twice, and you now have this filter saved.
If you just want to view things assigned to the Office tag, simply select this filter, and only undone items (not checked) assigned to Office will appear. You can (and should) set up filters like this for any of the tags you’ve made, so you can filter on any tag or group of tags appropriate for your needs.
Another filter I use is Pending Items. As I mentioned above, you can set the rules for this filter as: not checked, start date present, finish date not present. This will show you all pending items. Of course, you can add rules so that you can have different filters which show All Pending Items, Office Pending Items, and Home Pending Items. These are set up by including the appropriate tags in the filter rules for each.
Additionally, you should also set up filters for important People or Organizations that are in your address book. To do this, use as a rule for the filter that the Addresslink (set up as discussed above in the section on Linking) needs a particular address (which you can select from the address book), and now you can easily view everything related to that person. So, for example, if you have an upcoming meeting with that person, you can see everything related to them and see if there are notes about things you needed to speak with them about. (For example, you might have an item for your boss, such as "Talk to Ann about taking next Thursday off." Once you link it to Ann in the address book, and you filter based on an Addresslink to Ann, that item will show up and you can talk to her about it.)
Summary
So, you now have a Master List set up, with three places to put things: the Inbox, the Items section, or the Project section. You’ve defined a variety of tags that are useful to you, which can be added to each item. You’ve also set up filters so that you can view particular items of interest at a particular time or place. You’re most of the way there; the rest is just frosting on the cake!
Other Outlines
As I mentioned earlier, I recommend setting up other outlines. If a project gets really large, you could move that to an outline of its own, although that makes filtering more difficult, and I like to have everything in one place as much as possible. But I suggest you create another outline called Goals. In that outline, I have headings of Goals and Accomplishments. (The Accomplishments section is so that I can keep track of things I’ve done towards my personal goals, and also that I’ve done at work [I use the Office tag], so that at performance review time I remember what great things I did!)
Another outline that I recommend is one that Shadow can automatically create, called __ARCHIVE__. This is where Shadow will move tasks, events, or projects that are now complete. This way, I can still get the information on them if I need it. I only move a project to this outline when the whole project is completed. If I have a lot of items in a project that are completed, and cluttering up my view, I make a section called Completed Items as a child of that project, and move the completed items there. Then, when everything on the project is done, it all gets moved to the __ARCHIVE__ outline. It is easy to have Shadow create this outline for you. Under the Edit menu is a selection which is called Delete All Checked. (You can also do this with Delete All Checked Children). This will delete all the checked items in the outline. When you select this item, you will be given an option to cancel it, and there is a button on that screen called Archive. If you select that buttion, Shadow will either create the archive outline, or append the checked items to an existing archive outline. You can change the name of the file after it is created if you want different archives (for different time periods, or projects, for example).
Another outline that I use is called Diary. It simply contains ideas for items, comments and observations that are not time or date sensitive, or tied to a particular project, and the like. I also have an outline called Library. This outline contains references and summaries of articles or cases or web sites or other information that I want available. If something is related to a particular project, it lives in the project list for the duration of the project. When I complete a project, if there are things that are more generally applicable, I copy them to this outline for future reference, and leave the original copy in its place in the project. I have a template set up as the first item in the Library list so I can quickly copy the item, fill it in and make sure I have all the information I need on that case or article.
If a project involves paper files, I use an item to summarize the paper document, and its location, so that I know where things are. That is the purpose of the Reference tag. Anything that refers to something not on the Palm is tagged as Reference.
Other Considerations
Another important thing to help in your quest for organization is to decide how you want to handle such things as meeting notes. I use an external keyboard which attaches to my Sony Clie, so I can take rather extensive notes. I have set up templates for Meeting Notes that I use. I can then link those notes to a particular Project so they are viewable from the appropriate Shadow outline. (Given the limitation of 4k on memos, if there are really extensive notes I simply use a succession of memos, and link them all. In each memo, I use a Palm shortcut for each project so they can easily be organized even outside of Shadow.)
Another approach would be to keep the meeting notes as a note in the date book entry for the meeting, and then link that to the relevant project. I don't use this method primarily because I like the flexibility that having the notes in the memo pad application provides in terms of searching, organizing, synching and the like.
Another issue is use of documents on the Palm. With the various expansion cards, such as secure digital or memory stick, you can have a lot of information on the Palm. While there are several programs available for this purpose, I suggest using Isilo (www.isilo.com) to get information from the web that may be useful for you. For example, I have the Endangered Species Act on my Palm (which I got from a website), and it is hyperlinked and set up using Isilo, so I can easily find the section I'm interested in very quickly. Also, Documents to Go (from Dataviz Software, www.dataviz.com), allows you to view and edit Word documents on the Palm, which can be very useful, especially with a keyboard. Currently there is no way to link these types of documents in Shadow, but you can make sure these documents have the project identifier in them, near the beginning, and use the Palm OS Find feature to locate them.
Implementation and Maintenance
So, now that we are basically set up, let’s look at how to best use and maintain this system. It is very important that you enter as much information into this system as you have. The more you enter, the more robust and reliable your system will be. As we discussed above, there are basically three steps to using an organizational system: information entry, processing, and data retrieval. Let’s look at each part in turn.
Entering Information and Data
As you go through the day, you get all kinds of things thrown at you. People tell you things, you read your email and get information, you get a telephone call or message, and your boss assigns you projects. Where do you put the information so it will be available when you need it? I suggest using this system for everything, home and office, and not trying to have more than one system.
Fundamentally, as we discussed above, you need a central repository, or an inbox. Everything that comes in goes into the inbox until you get time to process it. While having one inbox is ideal, most people have several. If you use email a lot, you’ll have an inbox on your desktop computer (for most people these days, that is in Microsoft Outlook). You’ll also have an inbox on your desk for paper documents, and now you’ve also got one on your handheld. The point here is that however many you have, data entry is just that. Write something down or put it in the handheld, but get it into an inbox. Then process it in a systematic way later. If you use the paper approach, make sure you put the paper into your physical inbox for later processing. At your weekly or daily review, you process your inbox. For each item, write an indication, such as a big H in a circle, next to it once it is entered into the handheld. Then you can pitch the paper when everything has been entered. If you want to put it directly into the handheld, enter it into the Shadow inbox area we set up, especially if you don't have time to process it right now.
My approach is to be very strict about what goes where on your Palm. Events that have a definite date or time are entered into the calendar program. Names and address and phone numbers only go into the address book program. Everything else goes into Shadow, either as an item or under a project. Thus, you only use the date book to deal with those “hard landscape” items that have a definite time. All the “to do” items are in Shadow, so I really don’t use the built-in “To Do” program at all.
I suggest limiting each item you enter to no more than a short sentence or at most two. Any extra information can go in the attached note. This keeps down clutter and makes sorting and reviewing information much faster. I also suggest you consistently organize each item when you write it down, such as “call Joe about XXX project.” That is, start the item with an activity (call, write, meet with, review, draft, telcon, etc.), then if there is a person involved put the person’s name and then the project or topic. If all these activities are set up as Shortcuts, as discussed above, and the projects or topics are all Shortcuts, it will be very simple and quick to enter the item. Of course some items (such as reference information) won’t fit into this approach, but use it whenever possible to make organizing and identifying the items easier.
Processing
As part of processing, you must set aside time for a review of the items in the system. David Allen suggests a weekly review of everything; others recommend that your system should be reviewed more often, such as daily. I suggest quick daily reviews, with a comprehensive weekly review.
Daily Review
Depending on your schedule, a morning review or an evening review might be better. Either way, commit a few minutes to performing this review. Start out by reviewing the date book, so you can see what appointments and time commitments you have.
Then review your Shadow Inbox to see if anything needs to be processed that is relevant to today or tomorrow (or this week, if you operate that way). If it isn’t, leave it there for now. Then use a filter such as Target Items for This Week, or Today, to see if any Item or Project has anything pending for today. That’s it. Now you know what is coming up today that you need to deal with.
Another powerful review happens when you finish something and need to decide what to do next. You can quickly check your list by using the relevant filter to see what needs to be done in that context. If you are in your office and have an hour, you can just look at your office items, and decide which to tackle.
Weekly Review
This is a David Allen concept. The weekly review can be very time consuming, especially at first. But once you are on track with it, it can be pretty quick. Set aside time as appropriate for your schedule. Many people find Friday afternoons are a good time. Others like to do it on Sundays. Whatever works for you, be prepared to devote sufficient uninterrupted time to it. At the weekly review, take off all the filters, and go through all the items, projects, and the other lists to see if you need to modify or move anything. Review the date book entries for the previous week to mark those things done or glean necessary information from them, and review the upcoming date book entries to ensure they are set up and marked properly.
I don't usually link from Shadow to date book items, such as meetings, since I keep the meeting notes as a memo, and link the memo to the project. I may link to an actual appointment, though, if it is a billable item, and tag it as such so I can see it when it comes time for billing. (Although I mostly use a great program, called TEAK, which stands for Time Expense Automobile Keeper (available at www.eb7.com) for tracking time, billing and related purposes.)
Go through any new memos and copy action items into their own places as an item or project, and add appropriate links and tags. Review the previous week and add any accomplishments or ideas to the appropriate lists. Set up your next week so you have everything you think you’ll need organized appropriately. Also take the time to set up new filters or tags you may need. Also review any paper documents and organize the information from them into your system.
Retrieval
After processing, you are ready for information retrieval. For example, the following Monday, if you have a few minutes and you're near your phone, you can use the appropriate filter to view all your calls and determine which to make. If you have projects with several steps, and you want to just see the next step (in Shadow terms, the first unchecked child item) for the projects, there is a built-in filter to accomplish that.
When you have completed an item, use the check box (or check circle, depending on your Shadow Preferences setting) to mark it done, which automatically puts in a Finish Date. If you have time to process it right then, you can move it to the Completed outline to get it out of your way (if it is a single item, not part of a project); if not, do that at your next review session.
Examples
As a simple example, let's say that you are in the hall and someone tells you about a meeting for next week. Enter the data in your Shadow inbox. Later when you process it, put it into the date book. At the same time, you can set up your meeting notes for that meeting (i.e. copy a generic meeting notes template you've made, link it to the project, and fill in the meeting time and date, and list attendees you're expecting). When you get to the actual meeting, you'll be ready to take notes, add attendees you didn't anticipate, and the like. If there are action items that come from the meeting notes, simply copy them to Shadow and go from there. (Or add an Item to review those notes at your next review session, and do the processing then.)
If your boss gives you a new project, you'll need to set it up under Projects. Give the project a name in a note item, and set up a Shortcut for it. Then link all people from the address book who are relevant to that project, and add any appropriate tags for the general project. Then, when you have an item that relates to the project, simply enter it as a child for that project (with appropriate tags and dates). If you have a list of items, each depending on the preceding (e.g. get information, draft memo, have supervisor review memo, distribute memo), list each in order as a child under the main item (such as Write Memo on Some Issue) under the project (Smith v. Jones Litigation), and you can check them off as they're done, in order. If you took notes about the project on paper when you were discussing it with your boss, either transcribe them into the handheld, or just take the relevant information, such as dates or descriptions of tasks, and list those appropriately under the Project. If you want to keep the paper notes, put them in an appropriately labeled folder, and make a note under the Project that there is a folder called X in Drawer 2 of File Cabinet 3 in the file room. If you need to remember to review those notes, make that a “To Do” item by adding appropriate dates and tags.
Back-Up
Be sure to hotsync and backup your information often. Every day is best, a couple of times a week is okay, and less then that is asking for trouble. That way all your information will be available even if your handheld is lost or stolen, or run over by a car, or whatever. Shadow automatically backs up your outlines when you hotsync.
Additionally, you should make a safety back up of the information from your PC that is transferred from the handheld. If you look in Windows Explorer (assuming you're using a PC), there will be a directory under the Palm directory on your computer which is entitled with a version of the user name on your handheld (Marc Rosen might be RosenM). I suggest that you back up this directory periodically (to a CD or some other media that you can store) to protect all your data. You should make this an entry in your date book or in Shadow to remind yourself to do it.
Conclusion, Contact and Copyright Information
Congratulations! Now you’re (more) organized. I hope the suggestions here have given you some ideas on how to use your personal digital assistant in a more organized and efficient fashion. I appreciate any questions or comments you might have on the approach suggested here. If you have questions or problems with the mentioned programs you will get the best answers using the support systems (such as posting boards or Yahoo Groups) for the individual programs.
Certain things mentioned above may be registered by the various owners of those products or marks. Nothing in this article is intended to violate those rights, and all rights are reserved to the respective owners of the respective products or marks.
This article is Copyright 2003, Marc Rosen. All Rights Reserved. Marc Rosen can be contacted at mjaredrosen@yahoo.com. Permission is hereby given to reprint this article for non-commercial use (only) in its entirety or as an excerpt, as long as this entire paragraph containing the copyright and contact information is included in the publication, and the author is notified of its use. Publication of this article (or any part thereof) in any form for commercial use or in any commercial publication is prohibited, unless the potential publisher contacts the author in advance of publication and obtains permission and licensing terms for its use.
To get the most use out of your handheld computer, you should be familiar with its basic operations and some more advanced concepts. Each of the available handhelds that use the Palm OS are a little different in operation, so you should review what is said here with your owner's manual to see how things are done on your particular computer.
The Palm OS includes basic information management software, including a date book, an address book, either a note pad or a memo pad, and a to-do list. I won't go into the operation of each of these here, as the manual that came with your handheld covers these operations for your particular computer. But you should be familiar with how this software operates.
Shortcuts
You should also review the use of the Shortcuts feature. This is accessed through the Preferences application. Pull down the list in the upper right of the screen to go to the Shortcuts feature. You'll be given a screen that will allow you to enter the abbreviation (such as "lvm" (without the quotation marks) and the full phrase (such as "left voicemail message"). Here are some tips for abbreviations:
-Use three or four letters so you don't run out of options. If, for example, you enter an abbreviation as "lv" for Las Vegas, then you want to use "lvm" for left voicemail message, then you'll have a conflict. So enter "lvg" for Las Vegas, then you won't have a problem.
-Enter as many abbreviations as you can think of that might be useful to you to automate data entry, including people's names, projects you have, special terms such as legal or medical or technical terms, places you frequently travel to or write about, or anything else. The more you have in there, the more useful it will be.
-Every few months, review all your abbreviations. Maybe there are some you don't need or want anymore, or some you have forgotten you entered, or some you want to change.
-Leave the built-in ones (such as "dts" for date and time stamp) and learn them so you can use them.
Installing Add-on Software
Many people do not know you can install additional software on your Palm OS handheld. There are literally thousands of programs available for your handheld. I've listed some in the article that may be useful. These can either be obtained at the sites mentioned above, or at general Palm OS software web sites such as www.palmgear.com or www.handango.com. You will have to download the software after purchase (or when you get a trial copy). The software will usually be in a compressed file format (on the PC) called a zip file. (On the Mac, it may be in a file called a .sit file.) You will then need software to uncompress the file.
If you're not familiar with unzipping files (on the PC), you may not have the software. WinZip is an excellent program for unzipping files. It is available at www.winzip.com. You will have to download the zip file (from PalmGear, for example), run WinZip to unzip the software to a location on your PC's hard drive, and then install it on the handheld. Installing it on the handheld requires that you have the Palm Desktop software on your PC, so that you can do a hotsync. A hotsync is the process whereby the handheld can communicate with the PC. This is probably the first thing you'll do to set up your new handheld when you get it, so that you can hotsync and exchange information with the PC.
The Palm desktop software has similar features to the basic software in your handheld (date book, address book, etc.) It also handles hotsyncing and the Install function. You select Install, press the Add button in the installer program, and Browse to your unzipped file (which will generally be a file with the extension .pdb or .prc). Select Done, and the next time you hotsync the new program will be on your handheld.
I have left this description somewhat generic, because each handheld has slightly different ways of accomplishing a hotsync or installing software. So please review your manual to ensure that you can do this successfully.
Remapping the Hardware Buttons
Most Palm OS handhelds have hardware buttons that launch the built-in programs when you press them. This way you don't have to turn the computer on and then tap something to go, for example, to the address book. You can just press the address book button and the computer will turn on and run the address book program. Or you can switch between, say, the address book and the date book by using the hardware buttons.
You can reprogram the hardware buttons to run other programs. So, for example, since my suggested system does not use the built-in to-do list program, you can change that button to run Shadow. Go to the Preferences application, and select Buttons from the drop-down list in the upper right corner of the screen. Each button is shown, with the program it will run. Each button has a drop-down arrow next to the program name. Drop-down that list, and you'll see all the programs on the Palm. Select Shadow for the To-Do button, and you'll be able to run Shadow every time you hit that button. Very handy! If you use other programs I've recommended above, such as Datebk5, you can change the Date Book button to run that instead.