Reminders: Agenda or PDA

We can all admit that we have at some point experienced that frantic panic when one realizes we have forgotten an important meeting or appointment. The question is how to fix this or completely avoid this scenario. We have two basic options, a written reminder in some sort of agenda or calendar, or a digital reminder on a PDA (personal digital assistant). Nowadays most phones are also considered PDA because of their calendar, reminder, and alarm settings and capabilities.

A written agenda is concrete an there is only one way for it to fail and that is if the owner loses it or another human error. Whatever is written in the agenda will not be accidentally deleted or erased. There is no way that an agenda will be affected with loss of battery, signal, or water damage. Although it seems archaic to actually use a pen and write something down it is a very close to full proof way to remember it. Now once it is written in the agenda, the trick is to remember to check the agenda near the crucial time of the appointment. There is no alarm that is triggered 15 minutes before your agenda's appointment. Your agenda cannot send you a reminder email advising of the approaching appointment either. As concrete and certain the written reminder may be, without some effort from the actual person, the appointment might still go unnoticed. Therein lies the most detrimental downfall of the agenda and its success as an appointment reminder. If it cannot remind without the person's own memory aiding the process then it seems to be inefficient as a full-proof method for reminders.

On the other hand we have the highly interactive PDA. Whether it is simply a PDA or a cell phone with PDA capabilities like a Blackberry, iPhone, Palm the calendar function is still superb. Using any of these PDAs a user can enter their appointment into the calendar and then simply remove it from their memory and worry. When the PDAs setting is triggered, whether one day or 15 minutes before the appointment, the PDA will notify the user. The forms of notification vary but the most common is a type of ring or beeping sound that will alert the user. Then there will appear a written reminder on the screen advising of the time, place, or reason for the appointment. The specificity of the reminder is dependent on the how much information the user entered when they created the appointment. It seems like there is no reason to even keep a written agenda with this great advancement, but there is always a downfall to anything.

A PDA is susceptible to many more forms of malfunctioning. A PDA is a like a small computer that cannot encounter any amount of water, because it will completely "fry" and lose all the information it contained. A PDA also may run the risk of running out of battery, and if this happens there will be no alert or access to the information at all (a very dangerous downfall). Yet, it seems that careful precautions can avoid these situations most of the time, and the only thing to worry about would be any accidental drops in puddles, or sinks, and allowing it to run out of battery without the power cord on hand.

It seems clear that for the careful and cautious user the better choice is the PDA. But if you happen to be the person that always jumps in the pool with your cell phone, or simply likes to have the security of a written document reminder, the the agend is for you. This is more of a person choice, but for those that are in between there is no question you should advance with technology and transfer from a written agenda to a PDA (of any sort).