The Joys of Paper and Pencil

I've worked as an accountant for 20 of my 46 years and it feels like a life sentence (probably because that's about the time you spend in jail for murder). I'm not complaining; it's had some really fun moments but it's also been stressful. The mountain of planning and organisation required just to stay on top of the job can daunting.

During all these years of working (and part-time studying), I've had always had some sort of organisational tool.

I started with a Day Runner, upgraded to a Time/System and then I went digital. Over the last 15 years or so, I've used:

Casio B.O.S.S.
HP 95LX
HP 100LX
HP 200LX
HP 360LX
Palm Pilot 1000
Casio E-10
Palm III
HP Omnigo 100
Newton Message Pad 130
Psion Series 5
Jornarda 680e
Rex Professional
Palm IIIXE
TRP Pro
Palm m500
Palm m515
Clie NR70
Clie SJ22
Palm Tungsten
Palm Tungsten 3
Palm Lifedrive

More money than common sense huh? I've had a great deal of fun with every PDA but now I've gone back to the traditional loose leaf planner. I got sick of having to monitor battery life; over the years the battery life of PDAs has decreased from 1 month for my first black and white palm pilot to 4-6 hours for the colour Lifedrive.

My latest choice is a nice Filoxfax A5 City in bonded leather with a Mont Blanc pencil. I forgot what a pleasure it is to go to the bookmark and see a real week to a view. I've pruned by address book from 600 to the 50 or so that really matter. Nothing beats the joy of ruling a real line through an item in the action list!

Pen on paper beats stylus on screen anytime - I can read my own handwriting which beats having a PDA misinterpret or just plain reject my graffitti. I love the smell and feel of real leather, I just wonder why it took me so long to come back to paper and pen!