I can remember my first PDA, one of the original Palm Pilots. With as much aesthetic appeal as a 1980's Dodge K-Car, the original Palm was clunky at best and featured more of the color gray than anyone should endure. Visual appeal aside, the original Palm struck a chord for many of us interested in getting more done in less time. It made sense then and still does today.

Now 10 years later, my PDA of choice is the Palm Treo 650. Having overcome an annual PDA-upgrade addiction (no counseling needed) by signing on with Verizon for two years, I now settle into using my Treo and wait patiently for something smaller and lighter.

Here's what I enjoy about my Treo:

It's a competent capture device. While the Treo isn't as fast as a Moleskine or simple note card when it comes to capturing information, you can't fault the little guy for trying.

It's sexy on any given day. Silver, sleek and shiny- what else can I say.

It keeps me in touch with folks around the world. When I can jot a friend a note to say "happy birthday" and they least expected it, I thank my Treo for reminding me of dates and key bits of info.

It reminds the heck out of you. When you've got alarms going off to tell you to buy flowers for your wife before you get home, the Treo becomes an important reminder device. Your wife will be thankful too.

It's easy to use and has a simple OS. I've had Windows devices and between the crashes and lock-ups, I've since returned to the Palm operating system. It's all that I need and nothing more.

From a productivity point of view, I can't really imagine a system without a PDA of some kind. Sure, I still couple my Treo with a FranklinCovey daily planner (which helps me to write things down and take notes faster), but my Treo is the heart of the operation.

On another level, the Treo helps me to free up my mind so that I can work on other things like building relationships and becoming a better person. To others out there who are also betrothed to their PDA, I say here's to you Mr. Palm Treo Person!

Resources for the Road

Slacker Manager: GTD for Palm
LifeHack: GTD with Palm and Mac
GTD Wannabe: Syncing Google Calendar with Palm

I have been working with a church in the DC area in order to better serve their student population. Our desire was to find a user-friendly way to get helpful information from several people groups. You guessed it- survey time!

We discovered a fantastic product called Survey Gizmo. I was able to set up an on line survey, with over 12 different styles of questions, in under 30 minutes. You're also able to generate multiple flavors of reports when all of your data is inputted. Finally, the connect-to-website feature is robust, allowing you the copy HTML into your site or just provide a link. I chose the latter and posted it here. I found Survey Gizmo easy to use and the interface is very slick. For me, it's a must-have app for my survey needs.