I have been using an Olympus VN-2100 digital voice recorder since mid-December. It has become by primary collection tool, when I'm away from the desk. Using it has been much more convenient than the notebook that I was relying on. I can collect in the car, while walking, wherever. I would highly recommend such a device for any GTDer.

I've added "process voice recorder" to my daily checklist, and I process it to empty every morning.

My wife bought it for me from amazon for less that $25, although the price isn't quite that low right now. There were more advanced models, but I thought that I would start cheap and see how it integrated into my system.

I think I prefer a wrist watch otherwise i will end up losing that machine too. The problem is that I only saw analog watches and I would prefer a digital one with a small display to check recorded files, bluetooth...you know.

most mobile phones these days have a voice recorder.

i use that one if i need one.

Keep in mind that voice notes have the disturbing property of not being able to glance over a bunch of them and read them :)

A better alternative could be a PDA with great text input mechanism. I find it very slow and unpractical entering notes in a phone.

Nextel users can pay for a function called nextmail. This is where you can direct connect yourself a voice note that gets directly sent to you email.

You can also set up other email addresses and send notes directly to other individuals.

If you can still find one, I use an HP Capshare. It is a battery powered flash memory handheld scanner. It was discontinued when sales dropped around 2000 because it wasn't marketed very well. It uses the standard OBEX IRDA protpcol to transfer files which is the same protocol used by the Microsoft windows IR file transfer but the HP marketing department didn't know that and never marketed it (you had to use their software for anything pre windows 2000). Basically any time I'm handed paper I whip out the scanner and swip it across then transfer to my laptop, usually while everyone else in the meeting stares at me in wonder.

My absolute number one best capture tool is a piece of software called Gyronix GyroQ.

Its awesome in its simplicity. It lets me throw random thoughts as they happen into a daily mindmap that I can review and prioritize on my schedule, not when the distraction comes up. Typically it takes me a single second to fire and forget the thought. And this instantly appears in my mindmap. and in my GTD system when I choose to let Gyroq process the list. It has added hours to my day.

Its an add on for Mindmanager. Doing GTD without Mindmanger is like writing and not using your arms.

When I don't have access to my laptop I use a rememberthemilk.com RSS feed into mindmanager so I am always up to date. This tied to gmail and google calendar means that if someone gets my laptop or I drop it and break it I can maintain continuity if not convenience. All my systems and at work have multiple redundacies.

My boss still lives in the abyss that is Outlook. Nothing is ever backed up and every little thing is of critical nuclear-reactor-meltdown priority.