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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Hipster PDA: Why?

What is the advantage of the hPDA? I've looked through a great deal of sites that concern themselves with the hipster or variants thereof. Most of them deal with the construction of the hipster, and the physical advantages it offers. So what's the advantage of the hipster otherwise? I understand what to use it for, I just don't see a huge advantage over the cheaper prebound option of a memo book. You know, those tiny little spiral notebooks that cost a few cents? They fit in a front pocket better, and are already ruled vertically. They have a hole punched already, so if need be, any tear-outs can be consolidated. They can't be re-organized, but if that's the only advantage the hPDA offers over the memo book, is it really worth it? You pay the price in the danger of losing all your cards when you remove the clip. One bump on the train, and it's 52 pick-up time. I'm not trying to nay-say the hPDA, I truly want to know.

DINO's picture

The hPDA

Dear Fade,

I gotta say, I am a non hipster PDA user. I tried to be, but it did not work for my system and work load.

THEN SUDDENLY

I did something and it made sense to work in the visual form like that.

I think for me I was confused, the hPDA as a collection device, which for me it failed, versus the use of index cards as an orginizational tool.

For me, I read someone work on GTD and the blackberry. That was a start. The issue for me is the speed at which I want to generate information. I want to be fast. Really fast. The cards and the templates were another layer that I was laying in the wrong place. I needed that layer AFTER collection, for orgnization.

But by that point I had moved to the laptop and kinkless, or omnioutliner, or genreral typing.

I take mind dumping or whatever David Allen called it as the best thing from GTD. Getting rid of information. Dumping. KNowing where it is to look for it later.

 
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