Merlin would better answer this himself, but there is certainly an element of self-conscious humor about the Hipster PDA. For those of us geeks who carried around gee-gaw whiz-bang PDA devices in an ostensible effort to be organized, only to spend productive time fiddling about with Minesweeper, or playing around on the internet, to give up the gizmo and go to paper and pen is quite the logical leap. We have this mindset that if it’s high-tech, it’s automatically better, but that’s not true.

Calling a stack of index cards and a pen a PDA is a joke at our own expense. We laugh, but we understand that, “Hey! Maybe I should just write shit down instead of fiddle with my e-mail during the staff meeting… then I’ll know what to do.”

Also, having used a PDA for a couple years (an old Palm IIIe), switching to a Hipster actually was a wake-up call. I actually write stuff down rather than rely on a big, dumb block of plastic and glass that has more power to distract than to be written upon.

Oh, and taking notes on Napkins? Bad idea. At least with a stack of index cards, or a notebook, or the like, you keep everything in one place. A wadded up napkin with a note looks very similar to a wadded up napkin with my dried up snot, and both are likely to end up in the trash.

By the way, I’m applying for the NYC Teaching Fellowship, myself. I might end up working with you if things go well. If you see me, go ahead and laugh at my ugly, beaten up stack of blank notecards. I laugh at it myself sometimes.

Having trouble with GTD? Try WSD.

And yep, a lot of it is common sense, but common sense isn’t all that common at times. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said to students (and sometimes faculty) things like:

• “You have something to order? Write it down. No, you won’t remember to order it this afternoon. You say you will, but you said that several times before, and didn’t. Write it down.”

• “Label that wire. With a real printed label, not with masking tape and a barely-legible Sharpie scrawl. You can’t guarantee you’ll be the only person to ever assemble this on-site. This is why we used keyed connectors to keep us from plugging things in backwards.”

and similar. Smart people are used to just remembering everything, and when they have to keep up with enough disparate tasks, items, or whatever, if they’ve not developed enough practices to keep everything documented and organized, it’s chaotic.