Here are some suggestions to help you integrate your hand-held device into your life:

• Pick one point in the day, usually at the very beginning or very end of the day, where you will enter any business cards that you have picked up into your Outlook Contacts folder. This will keep your Pocket PC business contacts completely up to date. Then you can discard the business cards, or, if you feel compelled to keep them, you can place them in a binder to be kept in your office.
• Whenever someone gives you personal contact information such as a phone number, resist the urge to scribble it on a piece of paper and stuff it in your pocket or briefcase. We all have drawers of unidentifiable scribbled phone numbers that are of little use. These scraps of paper also don’t tend to be in your hand when you need to call that person back. Instead, take the extra 45 seconds to put that person’s information into your Pocket PC. Now it is permanently preserved and will be available to you anytime you need it.
• When you book an appointment or plan an event, even in the distant future, always immediately enter the event into your hand-held calendar. If you are consistent with this behavior, you will learn to trust the calendar in your Pocket PC. If you aren’t consistent, you will find yourself missing appointments or double booking as you try to organize yourself with both a paper system (or worse, your memory) and a Pocket PC.
• If you use your Pocket PC for expense management, use the same diligent technique of once a day entering all your receipts or financial information into your system.
• Whenever you think of something that you need to do, personal or professional, instead of “making a mental note,” put it into your task list. You can categorize it, prioritize it, and assign a date to it.
• Every morning when you get up, look at your calendar and to-do list. If something that you know is happening that day isn’t in your calendar, enter it. If there is something you need to get done that day, put it on your task list. Not only does this help to keep track of your tasks and appointments, it helps you to feel that you’ve accomplished something when you look back on your day. Instead of that “where did the day go, and did I actually get anything done?” feeling that sometimes comes at the end of the day, you will be able to look at your list and see at a glance all the activities and tasks that you knocked off.
• When a special event such as a birthday or anniversary occurs, record it in your calendar as a recurring event. That way your Pocket PC will become a true personal assistant by reminding you to make a dinner appointment or pick up a gift well in advance of the date!
• Try to find things that you are already doing that you might be able to do better with the Pocket PC. For example, I work out at the gym regularly and am an avid runner. I use software to help me track my workouts and fitness goals from www.MySportTraining .com. If you are watching what you eat, check out www.PocketDietTracker.com. If you are an avid wine connoisseur, you can load databases of different wines, and so on. The amount of software now available for the iPAQ is impressive.

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