organizers/calanders efficiency questions

[Anonymous]

hello

i recently started using a calander or daytimer again… and again i am trying hard this time to write everything down in it the issue i have is the one i am using the layout is not working for me which it seems like this time every year i dicover that the layout is not working for me i am still using pen and paper i am also pondering on getting a new computer and am questioning and researching the most effficient way to document and write everything down i have yet to find a layout which i like when i open to a day the issue i am running into is the space to write things down i am writing in point form because its small and i need to write in full sentences so i can remember what it was about. point form sometimes does not work

i also did not have to re write things three times ex go to my computer enter into the calandar and then write out into my daytimer then enter it onto my phone and then write it on a piece of paper that is not efficient at all i am wanting to know how others do it example

do people with adhd benefit from a blackberry because its like a minicomputer on your phone i do not know but i was toying with it becasue if i am going to get a new computer laptop i do not want to lug around the laptop everytime

so then a sales guy walks me over to a netbook and says i can use that and keep the laptop at home so once again i am entering things three times so i get overwhelmed and i ask about sync because that way i only have to enter it once like a jump drive

then i think when i am overwhelmed that ill stick to paper and pen i am only in the research stage of all of this and my wife told me to mention it and see if people can tell you what possibly works and what possibly i should avoid to not get frustrated because im entering it 3 times please keep it clean thankyou

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[Ivriniel]

I use an iPod touch, and I find it very helpful. The one thing I found is that you need to find a way to attach it to yourself so that you don’t misplace it, that at the same time doesn’t restrict your movement. I find holders that clip on to my belt either get into the way of my bending over, or pop off at awkward moments.

I would not recommend a laptop, because unless you’re running around with it on all the time, you’ll have to wait for it to boot up before you do something, and the wait will probably deter you from actually using it.

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[Patte Rosebank]

I just note down anything important I need to do, on the side of my hand, between my thumb and wrist. The information is there at a glance, and the chances of my accidentally losing this “device” are pretty slim.

If there are a lot of things to do (or details to cover), I’ll write them out on a neon Post-It note, but I’ll also make a note on my hand to check the Post-It in my pocket…and that note is sufficiently detailed that if I lose the Post-It, I’ll at least still have some idea of what was on it, so I’m not totally rudderless.

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[Anonymous]

i set reminders in my phone(in the calaendar section) which i have on me at all times, i even have a reiminder set to tell me whin to go to bed as i can easlily stay up all night on the computer scimming this site and that site for hours! it is full of reminders everyday for the smallest of things, i would be verry verry lost with out it, i got into lots of trouble over the years for forgettin being late etc, my phone is my way of helping me, even though i still do forget to do things even with my rieminders atleast my phnone helps me get one or twon things done that need diong!

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[veronica]

shadow

do people with adhd benefit from a blackberry because its like a minicomputer on your phone i do not know but i was toying with it becasue if i am going to get a new computer laptop i do not want to lug around the laptop everytime

ok, so from my perspective… i LOVE LOVE LOVE my blackberry (i have the storm). i think this is the first time i’ve been so patient with any phone i’ve ever had, only b/c it’s so damn useful. it helps me schedule things out. i receive emails on it and automatically add things to “tasks” or the calendar once i receive the emails (sooooo helpful). i add reminders to each and it bugs me till they are done.

you can sync your calendar from your desktop (and even google calendar), so you just type what you need where you’re at and it syncs it.

then the option for me to place in an item on the calendar to place a reminder and SEND IT TO MY HUBBY, is fabulous!! it keeps me accountable and keeps him informed.

at first i was a little weary, b/c i’m so used to having things out in front of me on paper. but after a while you get over it. i kept losing the papers. now i have written memos, voice recordings, lists of things to buy or look up later. the many tools it has on it really help me stay on top of things as a mom and a person in general. in fact, if i misplace my phone (as i am running after the kids) it’s the first thing i notice. hee hee

you can bluetooth to your computer (if it has that option), or just plug in and copy files that you’ve written to it. seriously it’s that easy.

i even have my budget uploaded to my phone, so that i can view whenever i need to make a last minute purchase and need to see if i can cover it or not.

seriously i don’t know how i ever did it before having this tool. i highly recommend it.

**forgot to add** i also have sounds set up for each individual person calling. so i know who it is and whether i need to answer right away or not (like if it’s work)… and for my emails, too. work emails have a burping sound. hee hee makes me laugh every time. personal emails have homer simpson. those little features come in handy. hell, even my kids know when it’s dad calling and that they have permission to answer. **ok, i’m done**

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[allovertheplace]

Veronica- you sound way too organized! Can you do a training workshop on BB for those of us who are technology impaired? ;o)

(I’m only half joking).

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[veronica]

allovertheplace

Veronica- you sound way too organized! Can you do a training workshop on BB for those of us who are technology impaired? ;o)

(I’m only half joking).

there is nothing in the world i would like to do more than train people with add/adhd on how to use their BB to benefit them.

i can tell you that if you have one and have a bunch of questions on how to use features…. crackberry.com/forums is wonderful place to start. i have learned so much about the use of this phone from here.

and on another note… computers have not always been a huge deal for me. meaning that they aren’t something i’ve looked into learning about to know how they work, but they are to my hubby. so, for me this was a big deal… to learn more about the phone’s capabilities without his help. i rarely ask him anymore how to use a feature on the phone and it feels so nice and empowering. squee!

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[Ivriniel]

Just a little warning about blackberries. My boyfriend has one with the “pearl” and it’s a bit of a pain because it dials 911 on its own at least once a month. (The problem is directly related to the pearl.) It’s a common enough problem that all he has to do is tell the 911 dispatcher that he has a blackberry, and they don’t bother sending the police around to the house anymore to check on things.

He’s also had trouble with the pearl falling out, and Blackberry doesn’t cover that with their warranty.

They’ve since some out with a new model that has a mini trackpad instead of the pearl, and I’d recommend checking that one out.

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[Patte Rosebank]

I’ve heard that there’s quite a problem with false 911 calls coming from cellphones, especially from Blackberries, due to the set-up of the one-button-911 option.

When the phone is locked, you click any key and it asks you if you want to unlock or make emergency call. With those tiny buttons, and the screen’s tendency on some models to suddenly rotate to landscape (or vice versa), its way too easy to accidentally select “emergency call”, and with no “Are you sure?” option, the phone immediately dials 911. According to a 911 operator in Canada, this set-up is ILLEGAL in most parts of North America. Kind of makes you wonder how the phones got approved for use here, when they have this illegal design flaw.

If your phone (whether cell or landline or even fax machine) accidentally dials 911, DO NOT HANG UP! Stay on the line and explain to the operator that the call was made in error. The 911 system is designed to call back any hang ups, and, in many cases, to automatically dispatch Police, Fire, and Ambulance. That’s far more costly and embarrassing than just apologizing to the 911 operator.

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2F20100401%2Fns_911_100402&feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=False&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=False

http://forums.crackberry.com/f132/bell-storm-update-201265/index13.html

http://graymerica.com/wpblog/technology/worst-cell-phone-feature-ever-key-locked-blackberry-8820-calls-911/

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[Anonymous]

WOW THATS CRAZY THANKYOU EVERYONE WHO POSTED

K A FEW WEEKS AGO ONCE AGAIN I NOTICED THIS AND I WAS FRUSTRATED TO THE BRIM TIRED OF IT

I HAVE AN DAYTIMER AGENDA PAPER AND PEN I WRITE THINGS DOWN BUT A FEW MONTHS INTO THE YEAR RIGHT AROUND THIS TIME I REALIZE THE LAYOUT OF THE PAGES AND FORMAT OF THE PAGES ARE NOT WORKING I AM WRITING IN THIS TINY LITTLE SPACE AND I NEED TO WRITE FULL SENTENCES I PULL OUT MY DAYTIMER THAT WAS BIGGER ONCE AGAIN THE COST OF IT MY COMPUTER A FEW WEEKS AGO CRAPPED OUT AND TOOK IT IN TO GET A DIAGNOSIS MY HARD DRIVE IS FAILING AND DEAD HE TOLD ME THE COST TO REPLACE THE HARD DRIVE IS THE COST OF A NEW LAPTOP MY LAPTOP IS OLD NOT ANCHENT LIKE A 286 BUT ITS TIME SO I THOUGHT GO WITH AN ELECRONIC ORGANIZER SO I ASKED ABOUT PALM PIOLETS REMEBER THOSE IN THE LATE NINETIES YEP I THOUGHT I WOUYLD BE ABLE TO GET ONE NO THEY ARE A PHONE NOW AND PRETTY MUCH DO NOT EXIST YOU CAN GET THEM BUT PEOPLE ARE GETTING BLACKBERRIES INSTEAD. MY CONCERN IS I WANT SOMETHING I AM GOING TO USE AND LIKE AND I AM GOING TO ENJOY AND MAKE IT FUN I AM CONSTANLY MISPLACING MY DAYTIMER NOT WRITIG IN IT AS OFFTEN SO I THOUGHT GET A BLACK BERRY A GUY AT A RETAIL STORE RECOMMENDED A NETBOOK SO I AM DOUBLING MY PRICE WHEN I CAN GET A BLACK BERRY

I AM CONCERNED I WILL GET ONE AND THE RETURN RATE WILL BE 80 PERCENT

ALL I NEED IS AN ELECTRONIC ORGANIZERS I AM DEBATING BLACK BERRY OR PALM I DO NOT KNOW THE PALM PRE I NEED SOMETHING THAT IS EXCELLENT AND WILL NOT BREAK DOWN I KNOW NOTHING IS PERFECT BUT COME ON I JUMP ON A WEBSITE AND I AM JUST OVERWHELMED WITH IT IM COPYING MY CONTACTS INTO MY EMAIL ADDRESS ACCOUNT and i just hit the refresh clean up the double triple contacts OF THE SAME PERSON I GOT THEM IN ONE DAYTIMER AND ANOTHER DAYTIMER MY CELL PHONE AND I AM TRYING TO SIMPLIFY MY LIFE I AM FRUSTRATED AND I NEED JUST AN ELECTRONIC ORGANIZER BUT I WILL HAVE TO GET A BLACK BERRY OR SOMETHING SIMILAR BUT I DO NOT WANT TO BE IN A DEALER EVERY THREE MOTHS CAUSE THE BUTTON STICKS OR MY SCREEN GOES WACKY I ALSO DO NOT HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO SPEND ON A PHONE PER MONTH EXAMPLE IF I GET A BLACK BERRY AM I GOING TO GET A BILL THINKING I AM ONLY PAYING FIFTY A MONTH AND THEN FIND OUT ITS EIGHTY I REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME SOMEONE GOT A PHONE BILL 300 PAGES LONG I;M NOT SAYING I AM GOING TO GET THAT I AM CONCERNED THAT I WILL BE PAYING 200 A MONTH WHEN I WAS TOLD OR THOUGHT I WOULD BE SPENDING 60 PER MONTH BECAUSE ITS LIKE WHAT 40 FOR DATA PLAN THEN 40 FOR THE PLAN THEN ANOTHER AND ANOTHER THEN WHEN YOU ACCIDENTLY GO OVER YOUR DAYTIME MINUTES YOU GET PHONE CALLS SYAING FOR EXTRA 3 DOLLARS WE CAN UP AND I SAY OKAY BECAUSAE I DO NOT WANT TO EXCEED MY AIR TIME I WILL GET IT FUIGURED OUT BUT I AM OVER WHELMED AND CONFUSED WITH IT

WHICH ONES TO GET I AM LOOKING AT THE MODELS AND SEEING COMPLAINTS AND THE MOST COMMON COMPLAINTS BUT I AM STILL DO NOT KNOW ANYWAYS TALK TO YOU SOON I SUPPOSE JUST A LITTLE FRUSTRATED THANKS FOR LISTENING BUT CAN U PLEASE HELP ME I DO NOT WANT A BLACKBERRYOR A PHONE THAT HAS ISSUE I WANT SOMEHTING THAT IS GOINT TO WORK

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[Ivriniel]

Hey Shadow,

No offence, but it’s generally considered bad netiquette to type all in caps. It’s considered equivalent to shouting.

On a practical level it makes it harder for other people to read your posts because people generally recognize words by their shape. When you go all caps they have to look at each word on a letter by letter basis.

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Shadow, when I’m faced with a tough decision, especially one that’s technology-related, I do what my dad does, and make a chart, comparing the different features of each. That way, I can easily weigh up the pros and cons and make an informed decision.

A lot of online stores have comparison charts like this on their websites. Future Shop, Best Buy, etc.

Even if you have to make your own comparison charts, it’s easy thanks to all the websites that compare technologies and gadgets. Just google “Blackberry vs Palm”, or “Pearl vs Storm”, or “PalmPre review” (or similar searches), and you’ll find the information you need.

Also, many devices have synching software, that allows you to copy information between your computer and the device. That way, even if your device craps out or gets lost, as long as you’ve synched the information onto your computer (and done it recently, so the info is up to date), it’s quick & easy to copy the information onto your new device just by plugging in a USB cable.

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[veronica]

here you go bud, so you don’t feel odd….

I SUGGEST GOING TO CNET.COM. THEY HAVE GREAT VID REVIEWS ON ALL SORTS OF ELECTRONICS.

ANOTHER THING THAT I REALLY DO ENJOY ABOUT THE BB IS THAT I CAN (LIKE LARYNX SAID) JUST PLUG IN MY PHONE TO MY PC AND JUST TOGGLE FILES B/W THE TWO. I HAVE YET TO TRY TO SYNC CONTACTS THAT WAY, BUT I’M SURE IT’S JUST AS EASY, IF I EVER DECIDED TO DO SO.

ok, enough of the cap locks. hahahaha, it’s confusing me. hee hee i’m sure you can look into all sorts of features on the devices individual sites. i mean go to blackberry.com or iplam.com, or whatever and look through the site. the forums. get a feel for what people like and don’t like about them. another thing is to do on sites that allow purchasers to review the items. and read the reviews. sometimes someone may post something that you would be concerned about, or a feature that you would have not even thought about being useful on your device. personally i like the BB, b/c it’s just easy (since it’s the most like my computer). i can locate files as quickly as i can on my PC.

anyhoots, good luck in your decision. larynxa had a great point on the listing of pros and cons. write down what features you would DEFINITELY like to have and start checking off which devices have those. that’s where i’d start at least.

~v

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[Patte Rosebank]

As we debate which electronic organizer is the best, I think it says a lot that so many electronic organizers have come, been rendered obsolete, and gone, but the Post-It Note has been around for 30 years.

It now comes in many different shapes, sizes and colours, but the technology (a piece of paper with a repositionable adhesive—discovered by accident—on the back of it) has remained the same. And you can still get it in the original format: 3″ by 3″, canary yellow.

What other 30-year-old technology is still just as popular, and still available in its original format?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100425/oddities/us_society_consumer_offbeat

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[Anonymous]

The cardboard box? x)

In all seriousness, as soon as the contract runs out on the phone I have I am going to be getting a BB. I’m going to get a lot of razzing because of all the complaining I used to do about workaholics and their crackberries. Oh well. My little samsung flip phone just isn’t smart enough for what I want to do.

I do a lot of my organizing on my computer and then copy it into my planner once I’ve decided what really needs to be done. It’s nice to have the computer to do the Big Picture Planning. I use Microsoft OneNote for this kind of stuff. I can’t rave about this program enough. It automatically saves everything for starters. It organizes things into different “notebooks” and those notebooks have different sections which are further divided into pages. You can highlight things, tag them with stars, question marks, exclamation marks, etc. The most useful tag is the checkbox that you can number in order of importance that you click to check it off. It also helps you keep track of where you got things by hyperlinking wherever you copied things from, even if it is another file and not the internet. It just does so much of the thinking for me that it saves me a lot of hassle. I highly recommend it.

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[Author]

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