In search of the ideal device to capture ideas

By Chuck Frey

When you get an idea, why not use a handheld computer -- or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) -- to quickly record it in electronic form? It's an easy and highly effective way to capture your ideas and insights, so you can recall and implement more of them.

To paraphrase the late self-help expert Earl Nightingale, ideas are something like slippery fish: unless you gaffe them at the point of a pencil, they're likely to get away. I firmly believe that adage, and I've used it successfully for many years to capture and capitalize on many of my ideas.

Over the years, I've experimented with many methods for capturing ideas, including 3-by-5 inch index cards, a variety of pocket-sized note taking systems, and even a microcassette recorder.

The shortcoming that all of these systems share, however, is that they capture ideas in "analog" -- or non-digital -- formats. Ideas captured on paper (or audiotape) tend to be difficult to manipulate and work with, because they are literally "anchored" to the paper (or the audiotape on which they are recorded). Here's one example of what I mean: I have a stack of roughly 100 index cards with several years' worth of my ideas and insights written on them. If I want to locate one idea within that collection, I will have to look through each card until I find the one I'm looking for.

This collection of ideas would be far more useful to me if they were recorded in a digital format -- say, in a text-based file on a computer.

The PDA: The ideal device or capturing ideas

Recently, my search for the perfect tool for capturing ideas led me to Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) -- handheld computing devices that you can carry just about anywhere. My current handheld computer is a Compaq iPaq 3835, equipped with Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. It's highly portable, and its handwriting recognition is good enough that it doesn't get in the way of the "flow" of recording my ideas.

I can also input ideas and insights into my iPaq using a Compaq portable keyboard, which plugs into the bottom of the PDA and helps me to be even more productive. When folded up, this keyboard is only slightly larger than the iPaq, which makes it very easy to carry nearly anywhere. Unfolded, the keyboard is a marvel of engineering, and is surprisingly easy to type on.

PDAs like my iPaq or the popular Palm and Handspring handheld computers have some attributes that make them ideal tools for capturing ideas:

• Unlike laptops or desktop PCs, which take a minute or more to boot up, PDAs are fully functional the moment you turn them on. That means they are always ready to capture your fleeting ideas.
• Because a PDA is very small and unobtrusive, you can carry it just about anywhere. Mine goes nearly everywhere I go, in my pants pocket. Often, I find that when I'm in a relaxed mood away from work, my mind will present me with ideas, hunches and insights, which I can quickly and easily enter into my iPaq.
• Finally, the Pocket PC operating system and its ActiveSync software makes the process of moving files back and forth between the iPaq and my laptop almost effortless. Any files I create on my PDA are synchronized to a subfolder located within the "My Documents" folder of my laptop. I can then work on these documents on my laptop; any changes I make there are automatically synchronized back to the iPaq. Why is this seamless partnership important? It makes it easy to develop an article, plan or idea using both your PDA and your desktop PC -- whichever is convenient at the time -- without having to worry about where the current version resides.

This article illustrates the value of this strategy for recording your ideas. This article began life as a brief outline on my iPaq -- a collection of key points and thoughts on capturing ideas on a PDA. Over time, I "put flesh on the bones" -- adding sentences and paragraphs to each of the key points, expanding upon them and refining them.

On many other occasions, I have used my PDA to jot down a few ideas about an upcoming project -- idea starters that become the seeds of plans that I can cultivate later on my laptop. Because I know that this set-up minimizes the "friction" of moving and manipulating my ideas, I have found that it makes me more likely to record them. In short, this set-up gives me a creative freedom that is quite awesome!

Conclusion

While there are many ways you can capture your ideas, recording them digitally offers you some very significant advantages. And the most powerful, flexible digital tool for recording your ideas -- whenever and wherever your creative muse strikes -- is a handheld computing device.

If you own one, why not try this technique today? Chances are, you may have never considered using your handheld computer in this way. But once you do, you'll be delighted at how well it works!

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Published on 5/23/2002

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