PDAs - How We Use Them

Have you been tempted to purchase a Blackberry, an electronic organizer, or PDA, but you're not sure if you'd actually use it or just end up adding it to your collection of stuff that you don't use? Maybe you don't have the kind of job that demands that you keep track of expenses or appointments. Can you still get some use out of an electronic organizer?

PDAs - How We Use Them (Including the Productive Playing of Games):

• Appointment reminder (the alarm sounds - which has actually kept us from missing many appointments)

• Address Book: The PDA Address Book is easier to update than a paper address book, so it is usually more up to date. You can change info instantly when you are informed of a change - as long as you have your PDA with you! Entries are automatically alphabetized.

• Timer: You can use it as an alarm clock (at home or traveling - less chance of mixing up the AM and PM), or timer for any number of things.

• External keyboard attachment (for some PDAs): Use to take notes. We have used these keyboards at large gatherings and have found that the typing enhances concentration just as fidgeting might. The people sitting nearby have not been distracted by keyboard noise (Targus Stowaway keyboard is fairly quiet).

• Playing games as a coping strategy: If you are having difficulty paying attention to a lecture or phone conversation, play a game if you find that this helps you to focus on the speaker. Of course, use good judgment as this may be frowned upon in certain settings.

• Play games on your PDA if you find yourself in a waiting room or in line with nothing to do. It makes the time pass more quickly.

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That may all be very well, will you actually use it? When we first got our PDAs, we used them and used them and used them. Those were happy times. The alarms were sounding all the time. The people we lived with - notice I said lived - had finally had enough (kidding - they are still around here somewhere).

With the passage of time, we have found that PDAs are not the main way that we manage our schedules. We have not eliminated the more visual systems of wall calendars and datebooks. However, PDAs are quite useful as a backup for the daily schedule so that appointments are more likely to be kept.

Those who use Outlook or another computer program that can be synchonized with a PDA, should consider investing in one. Calendar pages can be printed out each day or week after syncing with your PDA.

Use caution when setting alarms. If an alarm is set for every little thing that needs to happen throughout the day, you will begin to ignore the alarm and your family will be greatly irritated. In general, use alarms for reminders of the following:

• Appointments

• Deadlines (If you have a monthly deadline, set the alarm to repeat every month automatically.)

• Social events

• Special dates like anniversaries, especially your own. (Set the alarm to repeat yearly.)

• Gift alarm: a few days before the gift will be needed. (Set the alarm to repeat yearly if it's for an annual event.)

In order to make a habit of taking your organizer or phone with you, mentally link it to something you always take with you - like your keys. Try saying, "keys/wallet/phone" as you are getting ready to go. (I know it sounds like something from Dora the Explorer, but it WILL help you remember.) Then you will have your organizer with you when you need to add something or when you are about to forget something important.

Dual Reminders: You must learn that writing an appointment on your wall calendar (the visual reminder), although good, does not add it to your PDA (audible reminder). If you are using a wall calendar and an electronic organizer, try to set a time each day or week that you check to make sure they have the same appointments entered.

Be Selective: Set the alarm only for reminders that are important, like appointments, and paying your mortgage/rent bill. Otherwise it will drive you nuts and you may end up not using it at all. (We have also found that prolonged exposure to overused alarms upsets friends, family and pets.)