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BUSINESS BASICS CHANNELS 
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PDA's
vs. Paper Planners: Jealousy is a terrible thing. You see all your friends and co-workers with their new Palm Pilot or other personal digital assistant (PDA) while you are still writing things in your Daytimer, Franklin Planner, etc. And you WANT one of these new electronic toys. Well, before you get out your checkbook and run down to the local adult toy store, read on. Let's explore the differences between PDA's vs. paper planners. Please note that while there are several companies that make these electronic wonder devices, I am a Palm user and for ease of writing, I will continue to refer to the little handheld device as a Palm. (Hmmm. Think Palm will send me a free upgrade for this shameless plug for their company? Probably not, but it's worth a shot.) The first issue to address is cost. Paper planners are very reasonable. Anywhere between $ 25 - $ 100 bucks depending on what bells and whistles you want with yours and what size you choose. Of course this is a cost you get to incur every year. PDA's come as cheap as $ 150 or so and can run you in excess of $ 600. Size and convenience are important too. Most of the Palm type devices are small. Hey, they fit in the palm of your hand. Is that a mere coincidence? I think not. Paper planners come in several different sizes from tiny to "I need a forklift to carry mine" for the really busy person. And if you sit on your paper planner, you might be taller. If you sit on your Palm, you might get to replace the plastic screen and possibly pick plastic shards out of your rear end. Most Palm devices have a calendar, phone directory, to do list, memo function, etc. So do most paper planners. One big advantage to the Palm is the way it handles your to do lists. With the paper planner, you have to manually copy your to do list to the next page and you risk dropping an item in the process. Or you get just tired of writing that item you keep putting off, so you omit it altogether. The Palm device continues to remind you about the task to do until you check it off or delete it. Okay, now here is where the Palm device pulls ahead. You can input your phone numbers, lists, etc. either directly into the Palm itself or into the computer with which you sync your data. With a push of a button, the data on the Palm and on the computer are synchronized with each other. And if you lose your Palm device, you still have your records in your computer (which you back up regularly, don't you?) This "Hot Sync" feature is the best thing about the Palm (at least in my humble opinion). While sitting at your desk, you have access to the information from either your Palm or computer. You can pull up your calendar, make a phone call, or write a memo using your desktop dinosaur and with the push of a button, it downloads to your Palm and you are ready to go be a road warrior. You can take down driving directions for a meeting on your full size keyboard or type that really long memo and there it is in your Palm to carry with you. Okay, now here is where I get the Palm people mad at me. The biggest problem with the Palm is getting information into it while NOT sitting at your computer. And if you're always sitting at your computer, why do you need a Palm? You can either input data via the little hunt and peck keyboard on the machine, or you have to learn their "graffiti" language to hand write items in. Now it isn't hard to learn the "graffiti" language, but it is SLOW: One character at a time. If you want to capitalize a word, it takes an extra stylus stroke. If you like taking notes at meetings and memorializing them in your paper planner, you will hate the Palm. But fear not, the geniuses at Palm have thought of this. For only another $ 100 or so dollars, you can buy a fold-up keyboard to take with you and plug into your Palm. Then you can type away to your hearts content, and at a price way below the cost of a laptop computer. (But less functional than a laptop computer, too.) Some Palm models allow you to send and receive email from the road. If you are frequently away from your desk and need access to email, you will love this feature. Try sending email from your old paper planner. The Palm wins hands down. All in all, Palm type devices and paper planners both do many of the same things. Keeping track of appointments, things to do, memos, phone numbers, etc. are all done by each type of planner. My palm has a calculator built in but you can put one in most paper planners as well. You can download many types of software (utilities, games, etc.) to your Palm. You can even download books to read into your Palm. Whether to buy a Palm or renew your paper planner is largely a personal choice. I know Daytimers will not being getting my annual payment this year. For me, the Palm works, and works well. (And if the Palm people read this and send me their newest biggest device for thorough "testing and analytical review", I will let you know.) |
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