Time Management

Paper Vs. PDA

As the popularity of handheld devices grew, many people shelved their paper organizer for this new handy high tech solution. The paper-based planner market took a big hit in recent years. But then an odd thing happened. Many customers began migrating back to paper.

Around this same time, PalmPilot™ and Handspring™ began to see sales of their PDA (personal digital assistant) devices drop. Wall Street and other business analysts blame this sudden slowdown on such factors as over supply and the sluggish economy. But when Time/Design talked to a sampling of customers who had returned, at least in part, to their traditional organizer, none of these reasons were cited. Instead, the end users offered an alternative explanation - one not yet put forth by business analysts - namely, good old-fashioned human nature!

Interviews with customers who have returned, at least in part, to the Time/Design paper organizer point to seven reasons why PDAs failed to meet their expectations or needs.

The search for the magic bullet. Despite all of the impressive - and unquestionably useful - bells and whistles handheld devices have to offer, many people report using only the most basic functions. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman (PalmPilot™ more capable than its owner) is representative of a lot of PDA users. Like Goodman, many say they found themselves using their handheld device as a very expensive electronic address and date book. Why would anyone purchase a $400-$600 tool when you can get the same functionality for much less?

In her book, TechnoStress: Coping With Technology @Work @Home @Play, Michelle Weil writes, "To get the most from technology, we must choose between what we actually need and want, what we think we need and want, and what we are told we should want." What those, feeling perpetually caught between a clock and a hard place, want is a solution - preferably an instant one. In many cases though, what is needed is an effective method for handling the barrage of commitments, communication and information. A handheld device seems to hold out the promise of instant relief. When it fails to take away the pain, some people simply get discouraged and return to paper.

The bandwagon effect. As Weil points out, sometimes other people tell us what we should want. This is especially true in workplaces where "everyone has one." That's what happened to Oliver Franklin, Chairman, Advisor Board at CS Capital, an SBIC venture fund. When his younger colleagues started beaming files to one another's Palm devices, Franklin admitted he felt out of the loop. In order to fit in among the technologically hip, Franklin decided he needed to get with the PDA program. Franklin is not alone. As Goodman pointed out, "...every day we get more tools to do things that we don't really want to do but feel dumb for not learning to do."

Time. Ellen Goodman's observation that "... we now use more time and energy on the technology that was supposed to save us time and energy" is a paradox not unfamiliar to those with whom we spoke. Most agreed that whether it was mastering the special graffiti handwriting (Goodman herself admits to having not yet figured out how to write a question mark) or the wide array of functions, learning how to make maximum use of a handheld device required an unexpected investment of time.

Deloitte and Touche partner Phil Clifford discovered a PDA to be time-consuming for a different reason. With his traditional paper organizer, he says, it took a few seconds to input a reminder. Not so with a PDA. Clifford found that for a detail-oriented person like himself, all the different fields on the screen - subject, priority, notes, start date, due date, reminder, and more - were hard to resist. "By its nature," he explains, "a handheld device causes you to want to continue to enter more data than you really need." Clifford discovered he was spending "way more time entering data than was necessary." As a result, he says, "instead of making me more efficient, [my PDA] was making me less so."

Speed. Closely related to time is the issue of speed. Technology is supposed to help us handle various functions faster. Most of the time it succeeds. But what many PDA users discover is that they can actually do some things faster on paper. As one PDA user put it: "By the time I got the lighting just right, scrolled to the right screen, tapped through the various functions and wrote in my To-Do item, I could have flipped open my binder, made a quick note and made myself another cup of coffee." Oliver Franklin agrees. "No matter what they tell you," he insists, "a PDA is slower."

Because both typing and the graffiti form of writing typically take longer than plain writing, a lot of users found themselves recording schedule changes and To-Do activities on scraps of paper for later entry into their PDA. Another factor impacting speed is the two-handed nature of a handheld device. "When you're on the phone," says Franklin, "you either have to put the phone down to input information into your Palm or write it on paper first and then transfer it."

For some, the lag time from the mind to one's organizer has become a larger organizational issue. There seems to be a quiet conflict going on in meeting rooms across the country between those who manage their schedule on a PDA versus those still relying on a traditional calendar. It may surprise the handheld manufacturers to know that the ones cooling their heels are the non-technology users. Diane Donio, Manager for Human Resources Development and Training at QVC, is quick to say that there are lots of things she likes about her PDA. Speed, though, is not one of them, especially in meetings. "While I'm trying to get to the calendar screen to key in the next meeting time, it's hard to focus on what people are saying."

Virtually less satisfying. A common sentiment among those who jumped to a PDA is that in making their commitments "virtual" they'd inadvertently given up a sense of satisfaction and connectedness. "Putting pen to paper," states Clifford, "is tremendously gratifying." Technology consultant Loretta Lorden uses her Visor for contacts and scheduling but still keeps her To-Do list and client notes in her Time/Design organizer. That's because for Lorden there is a "flow to writing that speaks to another side of my brain."

IT project manager for Amerada Hess Corporation, Kim Kinser, missed a different kind of gratification - that of highlighting (Time/Design's equivalent of crossing off) a completed item from a list. As Kinser, who uses a Blackberry wireless handheld, explains it: "I like being able to see how much I've accomplished. Having the item just disappear on a screen tends to have this numbing effect." Donio says she solved that problem by setting the defaults so that completed tasks remain. Yet, she says, "even though I can sort tasks and check them off, somehow it's still not as psychologically satisfying as the highlighting method."

The issue of satisfaction looms large for Oliver Franklin as well. For him, the difference between using a paper organizer and an electronic one raises "an existential issue." "I felt like my life had been reduced to a lot of shorthand and abbreviations." As he sees it, "your past is in nether space, in part because unlike with paper, there is no 3-dimensional context." While you can't beat technology for managing a large contact file, he laments the fact that, "You can't think on a PDA."

Inability to see the big picture. Central to the Time/Design Focus Management™ process is the practice of concentrating on the big picture. What many of our customers discovered was that Palm and other handheld devices are great for managing the "trees." But, where they fall short is in helping them to see the "forest."

Screen size alone makes it all but impossible to do the kind of long-range planning central to achieving most high-impact goals and projects. There is no way to see a year at a time, and seeing how one's July commitments relate to those in August, never mind September, is difficult at best. On this topic, IT project manager Kinser is adamant. For him, there is simply "no useful way to manage projects or do long-range planning with a handheld.' That's because, he explains, "With technology, you are stuck with how the programmer designed it; paper is infinitely adaptable to your individual needs."

Digitally out of sight, out of mind. Once some users loaded their PDAs with all their activities - both work-related and personal - they were taken aback to find that things started falling through the cracks. "You stick your activities in there," says Kinser, "but then they don't show up in a way that's necessarily useful." It's not just a matter of disorganization. Anyone who knows Diane Donio knows she is highly organized. Much to her own surprise, she says when she made the switch to a PDA she somehow made a couple of scheduling errors; something she says she never did with paper.

Even some Time/Design employees have caught the PDA bug. Application Specialist Lisa Tarrant's primary organizer is TaskTimer, the software version of Time/Design. When she is away from her computer she uses a handheld device to capture To-Do items and appointments to later hot-sync into TaskTimer. While doing Time/Design's recommended "mental download" - an exercise for periodically clearing out all those unfinished activities taking up space on our mental hard drive - Tarrant had a revelation. "My PDA was full of stuff I had to do for work." But she realized, "I'd all but stopped putting in anything from my personal life."

In talking with other PDA users Tarrant discovered she was not alone. She also thinks she knows why. "When the company pays for your paper organizer you leave with it. But when the company springs for a $200-600 PDA you are expected to return it when you go. I think on some level we realize we may have to turn over all of our personal information so we simply leave it out.

Which is best for you? Paper alone? Some combination of paper and technology? Technology alone? A lot depends on the human factor. Attendees at From Time Management to Focus Management are told to bring their PDA, sticky notes, weekly calendar or whatever organizing tool they like. They will get to decide for themselves what function is best served by which tool. In other words, when it comes to getting it together and keeping it together, The Power is in the Process - not the tool.

©2002 Time/Design. To learn more about Time/Design's Focus Management™ tools, training, and coaching call 800-637-9942 or visit http://www.timedesign.com.

Time/Design, 150 Front Street, West Springfield, MA 01089; phone: 800-637-9942, outside the U.S.: 1-413-737-8117; fax: 800-269-3075; outside the U.S.: 1-413-737-7647; email: customerservice@timedesign.com.