On the Levenger website they have an RFP of sorts up for how people are using index cards and paper in a “WiFi world”.
So I wrote them a letter, which I have just been informed as been sent to their product design team.
Capturing here for posterity.
You said you wanted to know how people were using 3×5’s in a digital world.
First of all, you guys need to really bring back the ballistic nylon pocket briefcase. I was lucky enough to find one in the Levenger store in Boston. Thank God I walked past that store or I never would have bought one. The leather one just didn’t appeal to me and looked like it would be slippery and hard to use every day. I’m glad I saw the ballistic nylon, but would love to get it in a dreamy dark blue flavor.
I’ve been working hard on David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system. I also have as one of my daily reads the 43Folders blog, which is targeted mainly to GTD users with Macs or other non-Windows workstations. This is the same blog where Merlin Mann wrote the famous Hipster PDA piece; HipsterPDA (which redirects you to the right place at 43folders.com ;))
When it comes to PDA’s and such, I’ve owned them all. A Pocket PC, several PalmOS devices, an Apple Newton (!!!), and various smartphones, BlackBerry’s, and other HiFi organizers and devices.
So I’ve jumped from platform to platform, place to place. None of the web-based solutions are a perfect fit, and they’re also not all fully functional on a mobile phone. This precludes me from relying on them. I’ve also found that relying on my PowerBook or ThinkPad will not work, because I’m not always near a computer and I have many computers that I work on throughout the course of my work. I need my projects and tasks with me no matter where I go and no matter what connectivity I have.
What I’ve found is that in spite of these devices being digital and therefore super extensible, they are completely limited in the freedom of motion that they give the user. You are at the mercy of software updates, developers in the marketplace, and hamstrung by limitations in the devices themselves that make it very difficult to manage multiple projects concurrently. You can only look at one item at a time on a digital device. There is no such thing as peripheral vision and a “horizon” when you’re on a digital device. No big picture. No overview. Everything you do on a PDA or smartphone is manual.
My current solution to my mandness as an information security research analyst and writer, is to use a versatile mobile phone and a hipsterpda wrapped in a Levenger pocket briefcase.
The phone? A Nokia N90, on the Nokia S60 platform. These are one-handed smartphones that offer great email capability and browsing, as well as media capabilities. It plays music, it browses the web, it takes amazing snapshots with the 2 megapixel camera (perfect for capturing whiteboards and “used” index cards) suitable for 5×7 prints. It is my communications device, my messenger, my mobile browser, and a source of entertainment. It also is the home of my reminders, alarms, alerts, appointments, meetings, and ticklers for things I should do on certain days. My “hard landscape” lives in iCal on my PowerBook and syncs wirelessly to my Nokia N90.
I have been totally underwhelmed by project and task management on PDAs and smartphones. I don’t use tasks in iCal or my mobile phone for that very reason. They are too focused, too narrow-minded, and completely obtuse when you need to see the big picture.
Which brings me to you Levenger and the Hipster PDA.
I picked up a ballistic nylon pocket briefcase after sampling all of your wares in the local Levenger store.
Photo Set on Flickr
As you can see, I’m using it as a portable home to my many index cards of Next Actions, Projects, and other captured bits that are important to me and my life.
The beauty of the index card isn’t that it is merely an inexpensive bus for various inputs and outputs, it also allows me to really visualize all of the things I’m working on and sort based on situation.
My Next Actions cards are titled ”@home”, ”@office”, ”@calls” and such, like any good GTDer would have. I can easily pull my pocket briefcase from my pants pocket (because it fits so well) and slip out the appropriate card, tuck it under the flaps, and get working.
When it comes time to review my current projects, or brief my management on my progress and workload, I can easily deal out my deck of projects and follow along with each of them. Since I’m capturing all of my tasks on the same index cards, it makes review and processing that much faster.
Upon finishing the tasks on a card, I take a snapshot with my smartphone for archiving, and tear the sucker up. I have to tell you that this one of the most satisfying things ever. Not only is checking off a box on a to-do item nice, but tearing the card up? Exhilarating.
While the digital devices are fun, they are remarkably inflexible in spite of themselves. I don’t need to wait for software upgrades and patches with my HipsterPDA and my Levenger pocket briefcase keeps my cards neat and organized, and also has a room for blank cards (ammunition), and space for a few business cards when I’m out and about.
All in all, I’m very happy with this system. Happier than I’ve been with any all-in-one device that ends up doing everything with mediocrity and limitations in software. It is also the fastest method to capture data ever. No opening a laptop, no thumb-board, just a Fisher Space Pen and my Levenger which are out and ready for action in about three seconds. And since it fits in my pocket, I am always at the ready.
So thats it. How I’m rocking lofi in a hifi world.