The Benefits of a PDA

Should you choose a PDA?

Have you noticed that more of your colleagues have dumped the traditional diary and are using a personal desktop assistant?

Are you out of the office or on the run alot? If so then a personal digital assistant could be for you.

PDAs are hand held computers that can consolidate information. At its most basic level they are a clock, an expense log or a phone.

However, with other programs that support a Palm or any other type of hand held, such as palm time management software, they can do so much more!

Last week I was waiting for an appointment with nothing to do. I got to thinking, how would a hand held be beneficial to effective time management.

Next time you are waiting, or on a bus or train going to work, get your hand held and read an Ebook or reply to some emails. You can even brainstorm ideas.

The great thing is that you are using this dead time in productive way and you probably won't even notice how long you wait.

With a hand held you can get the best of both worlds. If you want to print out your calender for better viewing, then with the push of the button you can synchronize your hand held on the computer and print it out.

There are also a number of other benefits. These include:

1. Cut and paste from emails and the web straight into your calender. What this does is that it saves on writing time, reduces paper and minimizes the chances of mis-copying.
2. It is really very easy to to reschedule, simply by changing the date and time - you don't have to have scribbled notes of changes in schedules


3. You can share your calender with your colleagues, even when outside the office. This allows me to seamlessly coordinate meetings with colleagues by matching our available times.
4. You can view your calender in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly periods. I find this great for scheduling and planning. While a diary can do the same, what is often needed is to write the information a couple of times, say into your daily view and then your yearly view at the front or back of the diary.

   I think these benefits compare well with the traditional diary system - but in the end your choice should depend on what you prefer to use and what is best for you and your circumstances.

   
   
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