As you may or may not know, I have issues with ADD. At a recent CHADD conference, one presenter said that she has had great success with the Sony version of the Palm Pilot. She indicated that for people who are completely unable to utilize any other organizing tool, these are quite often successful.
There are a couple of things I’m wondering about that I can’t seem to find on the Palm or Sony web sites.
[ul][li]The presenter indicated that without a computer for support & backup, any ADDer attempting to use these products will be royally screwed. Do they make models of these things that have some sort of permanent memory so that I don’t have to frequently back it up when I forget to recharge? I’m familiar enough with myself, and my access to a personal (as opposed to work) computer, to know that if I am required to download, upload, back-up, and this&that with a computer, the thing will end up collecting dust.[/li][li]Closely related to the previous question, are there stand-alone models that are reliable and require no computer at home?[/li][li]How do I go about shopping for one?[/li][li]Any makes or models that I should pay attention to or avoid?[/li][li]Any other good advice?[/ul][/li]Thanks much.
The right answer for you for your first question rules out your second question. You’ll hot synch with your PC and keep a back up of everything on there. And if your power dies, after you charge up, you over-write your blank palm with your home PC’s last backed up version (set it to PC overwrites Palm first).
The rest I’ll leave to my fellow posters to tell you.
The “backup” with a computer is pitifully easy. I have a Sony model of a Palm Pilot (Clie PEG-SJ30), and you can put it in a little cradle that sits right next to the computer. This charges up the batteries, and if you just press the big button on the cradle, it automatically handles the whole backup thing for you. Takes a minute or less, no fuss, just let it run by itself and it’s over quickly. Do it as often as you feel comfortable with - did you write some important stuff in there just recently? Press the button. Or if you wouldn’t care if the stuff you wrote in today and yesterday would disappear, let it go longer.
Alternately, if you have more access to a work computer, are you allowed to plug in a synching cradle and install the software? I did this at work, and synch at work more than I do at home.
If you’re still interested after hearing that, I’ll check in on the thread and offer some more advice if I can think of good info to pass along.
If I recall correctly, you can backup a Palm to a flash memory card (SD card, if I’m not mistaken). I wonder if the Clie allows one to backup to Sony’s Memory Stick.
I may be way off base here. I use a Blackberry which does not support flash memory cards.
Yes, that can be done using the backup program that Sony has included as part of it’s standard setup. I do a backup to my Memory Stick religiously once per week.
In fact, if you do that, then I suppose you really don’t need to hotsync with your pc. If your battery dies, you can restore from the memory stick.
ADD types spend their lives not being able to do pitifully easy things like that**. That’s why so many grow up believing that they’re worthless losers who are lazy and stupid.
[/Friendly heads-up]
**Of course, the woman did say that Palms, et. al., are effective for even the most intransigent disorganizers, so I guess that should offer me a little perspective.
Good heads-up about the doing it at work thing, I bet that I could pull that off. Thanks for pointing that out!!
I think the point is, js that if the ADDer can remember to hot sync, it can be completed with the push of a single button. The user doesn’t have to deal with a 10 step, 5 minute process, just put in the cradle, press, and walk away.
Sorry about the phrasing there. Trust me, I have something of an idea - I’ve been noticing more and more that I am almost entirely unable to incorporate any new habits/practices into my life without months of effort, browbeating myself into guilt (which doesn’t really help but it seems to come with the territory), and trying to find out the best possible way to make it easy. That’s why I was suggesting doing this at work - if you’re sitting at a computer a lot, you’re very likely to at least notice the button on the cradle and remember you should back up the data. One button push and it’s done; much easier than backing up a computer’s data.
The PDA was the only way I was able to get myself somewhat organized, too. I couldn’t keep thoughts in my head about things I had to do long enough, as other stuff would distract me - even within the space of 10 minutes or less. Having this little “toy” around has helped a lot. I play games on it while commuting via train, plus I have a program or two on it that I use at work. so it’s frequently in my hands and thus accessible for me to write down stuff I need to do when it comes to mind, as well as for me to check on that stuff later and thus actually remember it needs doing.
One thing you might want to do is look at them in the store, and find the “graffiti” program on them. It’s a tutorial for learning how to write in them so that the PDA will recognize what you’re writing and convert it into text. It’s not that tough, but can seem daunting to new users until they’ve used the tutorial a few times.
I use my Palm to remind me to do things like backing up my Palm. I also use it to remember to eat meals, take my meds (and keep track of whether or not I’ve taken them), mail my rent, and about a hundred other things that other people seem to have no difficulty remembering.
As for backups, as others have said, it’s really easy, and I’d like to add another: you can go months between backups. The Palm is able to provide more stability (IMO) because it has protected memory and because it forces the software developers to store almost everything in that protected memory. So even in the occasional situation where the Palm locks up*, chances are very good that the last action you performed was already saved (and protected) before the crash.
Please don’t worry about it locking up – I have a bunch of third party hacks that make it less stable; I’m trying to assert that if it ever happens to you, you’ll probably suffer no data loss.
Many Palm-compatible PDAs have memory slots, allowing you to back up the data to a memory card of some kind (MemoryStick, MMC, etc). However, if you don’t connect it to a computer you won’t be able to install new software. I highly recommend you set up a PC somewhere that you can connect the Palm to.
I currently have my office PC set up to HotSync with my PDA (a SONY Clie 650c). It’s ridiculously easy. All I need to do is to put my Palm in the cradle, push the button and forget about it. At some point later in the day I notice I left it on the cradle, and put it back on my belt case. By that time it’s finished recharging as well. I don’t even need to do this every day; as long as I remember to do it once every 3 days or so I’m set.
The built-in software is very basic. I recommend getting one of the shareware applications for calendar and ToDo management; I use DateBk5 but there are other good ones too. You can find them all on PalmGear.
No sweat. I hope my heads-up didn’t come across badly, it wasn’t intended as such and I apologize if it did.
I think your idea about keeping the docking thingie at work is excellent, quite frankly, since I spend most time at or near my work computer.
It’s good to know about the memory stick as well, that sounds like a pretty handy device. I’ll definately look into that as well.
The games idea is really good as well. Keeping it handy and used as an entertainment device will help me stay in the habit of using it, which is a good thing.
If you have a computer that is on at home 24hrs, then you can get into a very easy routine. Before you go to bed everynight, chuck the palm in the cradle to charge and hotsync at the same time. Wheny uo wake up in the morning, just snatch it and go. (Personally, I hotsync in the morning as I like the grab the latest newspapers to read over breakfast)
Do you have any recommendations for an application that’s easy to use and good at reminding on stuff like that? I don’t want to fill the Calendar app with recurring bill payment reminders and such, since it clutters up my work calendar. Mostly household chores, bill payments, etc.
Not at all, I just hoped I hadn’t caused offense. I was trying to stress the one-step nature of it. Plus the cradle system lets the PDA be in front of you almost constantly, and thus you have a lot of opportunities to back up the system and keep the battery charged up.
I loved paper planner systems like the DayRunner, but even after buying all sorts of stuff for it, I never used it. It wasn’t something I had with me a lot, but I like electronic gadgets and having stuff to do while commuting via train, so the PDA really works pretty well for me. It’s not perfect, and I keep having to take it back out again to make a note right away rather than doing it later, but it has helped so much - my husband talks in glowing terms about what it’s done for my organization.
The writing down part is why I want some kind of application that easily handles reminders about chores and similar things - it’s easier to pick an item from a list (even if you had to set it up beforehand) than to write it all out when the thought occurs to you. I added a free program called HandyShopper that’s useful for more than just grocery lists, but I was hoping for something more calendar-like for the average daily tasks.
I use Datebk5 as a Date Book replacement. It uses the same records as Date Book, so the Date Book conduit performs the synchronizing. Datebk5 has categories and an integrated view with To-Do list entries, and you can define custom views that have particular sets of categories.
So … I have a view for “To Buy” (which generally only has To Do list entries from my To Buy and Food categories), another for “Work”, another for “Work+Peoples’ Availability”, another for To Do + To Buy, etc. Once you’ve got categories in a calendar application, you’re living in the high country.
All of my med-related alarms are in a personal (though not “private”) category that I filter out when actually trying to do work. (Occasionally, I’ll launch the regular Date Book and, as you wrote, it looks like a horrible jumble of alarms all over the place). And the interface for these alarms is such that I press and hold down on the alarm and it pops up a calendar selector so that I can easily move alarms to the next day or the next week (or whatever). Similarly, pressing and holding on a displayed To Do item will pop up a menu to reschedule it for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or the next Friday or the next Monday. These are really handy features.
And (I swear I have no stake in Datebk5) it has color icons that show up in the Month view, so I can see when my blankity blank water bottles need to be left out. (I also have to set an alarm that goes off the night before so that I’ll remember to place my empties just inside my front door).
I also once used an outliner/checklist called Brain Forest for hierarchical checklists of “Stuff to do before work”, “Stuff to do early evening” and “Stuff to do before bed,” but as Datebk4 evolved into Datebk5 and added more features, I’ve gradually just moved everything over to Datebk5. (Also, I think the maker of Brain Forest may have left the business).
I found Iambic Agendus to be better than DateBk5 but YMMV. IMHO, its a lot cleaner, albeit less powerful interface. DateBk5 can be quite daunting to get into.
ADDer checking in! I live and die by my Palm, and it is the ONLY calendar, phone book, alarm, and calculator I have ever been able to keep track of. Best ADD feature: you can enter something in the date book and at the same time, set an alarm for that event - even if the event is a year away! My kid would never make it to an orthodontist’s appointment without that. You can also set your date book entries to repeat themselves on a schedule that is easy to manage, which means on December 31, you will not be copying birthdays and anniversaries onto the new calender you bought in October and can’t find now anyway.
I don’t know a lot about different brands, but definitely get the kind that has the rechargeable battery. When the other kind use up their triple-A’s, you never have the batteries on hand and by the time you remember to buy some, you have to reset the whole darn thing.
My hint: Start getting in the habit of dumping your keys on your computer desk next to your Palm cradle. If your ADD is as whacked as mine, it will take you months to remember to do this regularly, but you WILL get there, and when you do, you’ll remember to put your Palm in the cradle and hit that sync button. Then you can just leave it in the cradle to recharge all night and you’ll remember to grab it in the morning when you grab your keys.
There are better outliners now. I use Shadow Plan. IIRC aother popular one is called Bonsai. I find it useful for creating checklists which aren’t exactly “To Do” items, like packing lists for trips. It’s also useful for preparing outlines for papers and presentations.
The program I use most on the Palm is AvantGo. It downloads selected web sites automatically every time you HotSync. And I really mean automatic - during the HotSync process, the AvantGo conduit (a software that interfaces with the Palm) downloads the latest version of pre-selected web pages and transfers them to the Palm. This way whenever you have idle time to kill (subways, waiting in line, etc) you have something new to read. It also give you an incentive to perform a routine HotSync.