Greetings Readers…

On Sunday evening, about 8:15pm, I finally settled down to do this weekly post. It was a pretty good weekend all around BUT as far as “the best laid plans of mice and men”…(you see where I am going with this), :-) neither Pareto’s Rule nor a high grade in reaching all my task goals happened this weekend. I blame it partially on the great weather (yeah, that’s the ticket).

In all honesty, I did accomplish a few things on my list, with the help of my usual tech tools in assistance, but not to any great satisfaction.  In any event, if I didn’t have my usual assistance, it could have been worse! Speaking of which, I came across an interesting article from a NEW favorite blog of mine (thanks for the Twitter post, Deb). The site is The Time Management Ninja, and the post is entitled 9 Ways The iPad Will Change Time Management.

When I first learned of the iPad after it’s official release, I said what many have. “It’s pretty much a big iPod Touch” (being a 2nd gen iPod Touch owner myself), and I subsequently (without further investigation) wrote it off, saying I wouldn’t purchase one. Interestingly enough, after reading the above article, I changed my tune. What really became a catalyst to that change was that I was reading the article on my iPod Touch, while waiting for the barber to finish cutting my son’s hair.

It was then that I really wished for, at least, a bigger screen. The article makes many other good points that I now subscribe to, especially since I was an early user (as a long time Apple fanboy) of their Newton MessagePad.  Without getting too deeply into it, I believe Apple was way ahead of it’s time with the Newton, despite it’s early demise. I still find ways to use my Newton MessagePad 2100, but believe the iPod Touch and iPad are today’s resurrection of it.

The issue, for me, lies in the fact that the iPod Touch, form factor and all, makes a great time management tech tool, mainly because of it’s size and portability. The iPad is even greater, but while screen size makes it easier on the eyes, that same size reduces it’s portability (see my post about how I frequently use the iPod Touch as a portable video player). I was exclusively using my iPod Touch as my PDA for a few years (before I got my Blackberry Curve), and the only downside was that I had to rely on an open wifi connection for any time management tasks that involved the internet. Then again, I had no net connection with the Newton either. Either way, I give the iPad a thumbs up but I feel it’s a bit too big, portability-wise.

I will happily take all monetary donations toward the purchase of one, though! (wink)

Have a productive rest of the week!