iPhones, Illusions and the Information Age
A few weeks ago, I was at a meeting with colleagues and we were choosing dates for our upcoming Christmas cantata. We all pulled out our personal organizers and started flipping through our calendars. The tapping of the keys and rolling of the track ball has replaced the rustling of the planner pages. I noticed that our head director, Tony, was flipping through his calendar, but his phone did not make the same sounds as our PDAs. Looking over to investigate, I found out exactly why he wasn’t making the same noise that I was. In the proverbial light shining down from heaven, I caught my first up-close and personal glimpse of the infamous iPhone. I do admit, the iPhone is very convenient and not to mention stylish. But until I learn how to plan my life using pen and paper (only because I’m a writer), an iPhone would make my life miserable.
About four years ago, I got a shopping itch that I needed to scratch. I wanted a new toy and it just so happened that my close friend, Junior had the gadget I thought I needed. He was about to buy a brand new PDA and wanted to get rid of his old Palm pilot. So I bought it with a single intention – to say that I had a Palm Pilot. (Keep in mind that I did not know the difference between a Palm Pilot and a PDA). But when I started using it, I found out that it would sync to my computer but I could not integrate the software into my current planning system. At the time I was using Microsoft Outlook to help organize my goals and information. So after hopping on the internet to research whether my Palm could accomplish my planning goal, I was left with a long face (lip poked out). It seems as though the Palm I had just paid $300 for could not be used with Microsoft Outlook. So I had to make a choice:
- I could continue to use Microsoft Outlook in addition to Franklin Covey’s paper planning system (yes, I was that determined to learn how to manage projects), letting my new gadget go to waste. No fun in that, is there?
- I could have used my palm in addition to Microsoft Outlook and my paper planning method. That would mean I would now use 3 planning methods for one schedule. The problem was there was no way to streamline the process.
Sidebar: This seems like a no brainer, but it happens in large corporations all the time. For instance, 12 departments would use twelve different types of bookkeeping software that cannot be synchronized. Many companies have saved millions by simply streamlining the type of software they use and amount of personnel on staff. - Or I could sell the Palm Pilot on eBay and lose my new tech toy forever
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