Oh Keyboard, Where Art Thou?

Okay, I have to fess up. I totally blew it on the TextMaker review, which still isn't finished. Why? Because I'm not typing it.

I'm planning on getting a T-Mobile Pocket PC soonish. It will be my next device. So as an experiment, I decided to switch from my trusty Jornada 565 to my Toshiba e570 until I get the T-Mobile. The idea is to get used things like the lack of a flip cover and side controls now, so that the T-Mobile feels more "normal" when I finally get one.

For the most part, I've been pretty happy with the results. The Toshiba (nearly identical to the popular Audiovox Maestro) is a sweet little machine, and I'm already losing my trademark Jornada-owner contempt for the flip cover challenged.

What I do miss is my Stowaway. I can't believe I wrote most of "Do Over!" with Graffiti on my Visor, although I do understand why it took me four years to finish a 24,000 book if I did. Even with Fitaly, pen input is so slooooooow compared to touch typing. The pen is great for jotting down an appointment, but a 1,000 words will really take it out of you.

What about you? What are your favorite input methods, and how many of you do serious word count with the stylus alone?

That "Vision" Thing

I've been having trouble with my life planning recently. I knew I wasn't making much progress in improving my life, but I couldn't make myself move on anything. I felt like I just didn't have any goals. In the words of a (insert adjective here) American president, I was lacking "that vision thing."

So I engaged in a little exercise called visualization. I thought not about what I don't like about my life today (what I want to change) but rather what I want my life to be like in 2007 (what I want to achieve). I wrote down a number of observations about that vision of my future (a completely wireless, mobile "office" that allows me to conduct business anytime/anywhere; sparse, minimalist living quarters without a lot of distractions; a thriving career as a self-published novelist) and those became the goals of my Five Year Plan.

Once I had those written down, it was simple to start breaking them down into their component tasks. I'm using StreamLiner for this, which offers some really nice outlining and project management features. It doesn't allow for the synchronization of action items with Pocket Outlook, but I'm not too concerned about that. When I want to create a task or appointment from StreamLiner, I just use the New^ popup menu in the lower left corner, then mark the item in StreamLiner as done. Works great so far!