disclaimer

First thing, I'm not sure I've got the mix right. I used to be fully hi-fi, though, and I've recently moved to a combination of hipster pda and my own homebrew, computerised project management system. But I'm still searching for the best way to do things.

My system

I'm currently keeping my calendar, projects and next actions in a few text files. I run a program on those files which sets up my computer's ticker with work tasks, and prepares me a sheet of A4 for printing with all my out-of-office actions and calendar entries on it. I print this page out every evening and it gives me something to look at after work and at the weekend. I keep that page in my hipster along with other notes I'm taking, plus items I've yet to add to the computer.

And some random thoughts

To a limited extent, a computer can act like a personal secretary, offering you reminders or noticing conflicts or collating things. The more things your computer does for you automatically, the better. For example, I've always been terrible at filling in my weekly timesheets; with the right todo system, these can be filed automatically by your PC. Automating things frees up your time.

I think computers are effective to the extent that they automate routine tasks. If you just use Outlook to manage your todo lists, there's no significant difference between it and a piece of paper. If all you're doing is typing a list instead of hand-writing a list, typing in meetings rather than penciling them onto a paper calendar, then your computer isn't really offering you much. Kinkless (http://kinkless.com/) adds an automated collation step, and hence makes a better, cleverer system.

So perhaps a criterion to use when judging lo- and hi-fi systems is, 'what will this system allow me to automate and never have to do again?' If the answer isn't particularly impressive, use paper.