Paper or Plastic?26 January 2004 I've talked a lot about David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology in this column, but there's one very important departure I make from his implementation. While Allen does carry a Palm (a Tungsten T1) for lists and calendaring, he does not use the Palm for data capture. Instead, Allen and many others still use paper for recording thoughts as they come up, only entering then into a Palm later if they turn out to be actionable. I can see the reasoning here. Allen uses just the stock Palm applications (commonly referred to as a "plain vanilla" setup) and there really isn't an easy way to use that setup for quick, on the fly data capture. There's no good way to get information out of Note Pad, ditto for the Tungsten's voice recorder. And most people just aren't fast/accurate enough with Graffiti to use it for writing down stuff on the go. Let's face it, paper has some compelling advantages. It's cheap, readily available and everyone knows how to use it. A cheap ball-point and a little spiral notebook gives you a pocket-sized data capture system for under one dollar. When something comes to mind, you scrawl it down. How hard is that? Not hard at all, really. The trouble starts when you have to do something with that information. If you carry a Palm for planning and a notebook for, well, note-taking, you have to carry twice as much stuff, and that's not even taking into account carrying a pen as well as a stylus (unless you have a nifty pen/stylus combo, like this cool little number with a "laser" pointer I just picked up). Even worse are people that write quick notes on scraps of paper, then carry those scraps in their pockets until it's time for "processing." A couple weeks ago I mentioned Slap, and I still think it's a great way to record stuff without having to decide what to do about it right away. Granted, it's far from ideal for random thoughts on the go, but nothing's better for jotting down varied information in meetings. I've gotten quite a bit faster than before jotting stuff into Slap now that I've rediscovered Fitaly. Installing FitalyStamp on my Tungsten E has completely changed how I enter data into my PDA. In a lot of cases, it's no longer worth the time and effort to break open the Palm Wireless Keyboard if I'm not going to be writing long passages. For "burst" writing, Fitaly is far more efficient. Combined with Slap, it really makes data capture during meetings or sit-down, contemplative times like weekly reviews a snap, an the ideas are already in digital form. Nothing else to carry, no mess of scrap paper in my pockets. That's all fine and good, but what about quick data entry? What about capturing that "out of the blue" thought when you're walking down the street an it's not convenient to tap away at Fitaly? (For all Fitaly's advantages, you do have to look at it while you type.) I have a solution here, too: Diddlebug. Diddlebug is a freeware program similar to the Notepad application that comes with just about all Palms. The differences mean everything in Diddlebug's usability as a quick note-taker. First off, the resolution on Diddlebug seems a bit higher than on Notepad, allowing you to write smaller without sacrificing readability. I've found that I can write in characters roughly half an inch high and still be perfectly capable of making out what I wrote later. It's a small advantage, but a significant one. Much bigger is the (and forgive me, but I'm not making this up) Intellibooger plug-ins. These allow you to "pick" a plugin by doing a quick left swipe from the timer bar. This turns the timer bar into a text entry field, allowing you to write text based on the scrawled note, then "flick" it (again, sorry) to the plugin's associated application. While DiddleBug comes with plugins for all the built-in applications and a dizzying assortment of popular third party add-ons, I tend to use the basic To Do plug in the most. Here's how it works. When something pops into my head, I break out the Palm (always within reach) and thumb the Notes button to turn on the device and run DiddleBug. I grab the stylus and scribble down a note as fast as I need to, then put the Palm away and continue with what I was doing. If I have a number of things to write down, or one lengthy thing (like a scene of dialogue), a single extra tap on the Note button brings up Slap instead of DiddleBug, thanks to DiddleBug's ability to map the hard buttons to other programs. My Notes button now toggles between Slap and DiddleBug, giving me the power and flexibility to write down anything I need. At the end of the day, or whenever I have a few minutes and want to get things processed, I fire up DiddleBug and take a look at my notes, one note per "page". For each one, I decide what, if anything, needs to be done about it. If it's a one-step action, I formulate the next action verbiage (Clean cat box). If it's a project, I visualize a successful outcome and come up with a statement to describe it (My car has new brakes.). Then I do a leftwards swipe of the timer bar, which shows the following.
Once I have the "flick" icons and text field up, I write down the verbiage I came up with ("Clean cat box" or "My car has new brakes.") and tap the bullet. The device beeps to let me know that the task has been created and the note disappears. I can process as many notes as I have this way, but keeping with Allen's concept of an Inbox, I do them in order and don't stop until there are none left. Then I go about my business. I've found that using DiddleBug in this way is just as fast as any paper system I've seen, without the need to carry, organize and dispose of paper. In a pinch I can get away with carrying just my 4.6 ounce Tungsten E, using its stylus rather than a pen-sized combo and still get everything captured and processed normally. I have a "bucket" of minuscule size and nearly infinite capacity. Jeff Kirvin
Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today! |