I'm just finishing off term 3 of college, which means I'm half way through my second year. At the start of the term I made what turned out to be my greatest investimate of all time: a PDA.

I picked it up fairly cheap off of eBay. I grabbed an iPaq 3785. I used to have those little day planner books, which I wrote stuff down in, but hardly ever looked at outside of class. Then I'd lose them or misplace them for days. They werent very effective.

With a PDA, I have EVERYTHING scheduled in it. When you turn it on, the today screen shows you all of your appointments for the day (or next few days). I have all of my classes scheduled, with the times and locations. When I get assignments or whatever, I go to the class of the day its due and add it to the notes for that day. So usually whenI get up I try and look at the days classes, and its notes, so know what I need to have done for the day.

I take most of my notes on it too. Problem is I cna hardly keep up with a pen, let alone a stylus. So my best bet is to record stuff. Though I never seem to actually listen to it. I like to open up a note for each class, scrible down what's important, and hit record for what seems to be something major, like a description of whats on a test for example.

I can also put all of my word, excel, email and access documents on here. Powerpoint, PDFs... Hell anything you can put on your PC can go on the PPC with the right software. Nothing beats having copies of all your digital stuff on hand.

If you're lucky, you can even get online at school. My school has a few hotspots, but not are near any places I go to. Well, the one computer lab I hang out has wireless access, but I might as well use a PC while I'm there.

I can imagine going without this thing now. Having all of my files, all of my contacts, appointments and the internet in my pocket at all times is just incredible. I'd say this has helped me more in school than anything else ever had. I love being able to take a note at the press of a button, so much stuff comes to my head that gets forgotten... Now I can jot a lot of it down and then a week later I might find the note, and actually get it done.

Any of you ADDers out there in school should consider one of these.

There is actually a thread on them under Tools...

But DARN the last thing I need is yet another thing that lodges itself on my wish list and that I will no doubt end up running out to buy with my Christmas bonus... ;)

You are of course right, not just for studies but for just about everything else, too. Notebooks DO NOT WORK for me because I forget to look stuff up in them but when you can set up an alarm things must be lots easier!

I love my Axim. I also have one of those quicklink pens that i can scan text from a book and add it to my notes on my axim or laptop

I got a PDA from my brother. It was supposed to be mainly used as an electronic dictionary.

I did use it a lot before, but I fell out of the habit. I find that the layout doesn`t always agree with the way my brain thinks, and it`s also in japanese... so I don`t know ALL of the functions on it.

I made my own weekly planner which is great! I use that as a planning aide and then I (try to remember to) enter the information into my PDA.
I now am using it more often, and I HAVE TO MAKE SURE I FORCE MYSELF to put ALL info into it AS SOON AS I HEAR IT. Getting into the habit of using it for EVERYTHING definitely is a big help. It was the whole "I`ll enter the info later" ideology that screwed me over one too many times.

And then, of course being ADDer, I don`t realize why it wasn`t working to my advantage to have one of those things... duh...


Hee hee...

I just wish the alarm on it was louder! I have a cell phone and I think I might start using the vibrate thing on it more often to remind me to take meds, but it`s a little bulky to have in my pocket all the time. It`s better than hearing my watch go off every 3.5 hrs though...

I bought a Palm m100 and a folding keyboard a year ago. I used it for one semester, but didn't use it at all this past one. I used it mostly for typing up essays since I sometimes find it difficult to do at home. It's not the smallest PDA, so I think I would've used it more if it were slimmer and fit more easily into my pocket.

Originally posted by Slowpoke
I got a PDA from my brother. It was supposed to be mainly used as an electronic dictionary.

I did use it a lot before, but I fell out of the habit. I find that the layout doesn`t always agree with the way my brain thinks, and it`s also in japanese... so I don`t know ALL of the functions on it.

I made my own weekly planner which is great! I use that as a planning aide and then I (try to remember to) enter the information into my PDA.
I now am using it more often, and I HAVE TO MAKE SURE I FORCE MYSELF to put ALL info into it AS SOON AS I HEAR IT. Getting into the habit of using it for EVERYTHING definitely is a big help. It was the whole "I`ll enter the info later" ideology that screwed me over one too many times.

And then, of course being ADDer, I don`t realize why it wasn`t working to my advantage to have one of those things... duh...


Hee hee...

I just wish the alarm on it was louder! I have a cell phone and I think I might start using the vibrate thing on it more often to remind me to take meds, but it`s a little bulky to have in my pocket all the time. It`s better than hearing my watch go off every 3.5 hrs though...

I got a GPS to help me get where i wanted to go, instead of the opposite direction, and I too set a "use it always rule." i am curious that we both took that attitude toward it.

But since lack of reliability is the issue, and all or nothing rule makes a certain kind of sense!