racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

If you’re anyone like me, you’re probably dyslexic, obsessive-compulsive and have a mild case of attention deficit disorder (without the hyperactivity). And so I’ve often relied on handheld gadgets to help track down tasks, schedules, short notes and whatnot. But I often lose track of these anyway. Somehow, PDAs and big-ish smartphones are not really ideal because I tend to leave these on the desk or in the bag somewhere. Paper-based notebooks are easily lost, not to mention my handwriting is really bad.

The best tool I’ve had so far are my mobile phone. And right now, I think my main phone, a Nokia E51 is very much an ideal device. I’ve configured it to do pretty much anything I can get my main work computer to do, such as access my various email inboxes (through Gmail mobile), browse the web, and Twitter (through Gravity). It also wakes me up every morning with an alarm (if I do wake up from the alarm at all), and it keeps track of my tasks and schedules.

But still a lot of times I lose track of tasks and schedules. I guess it’s really a matter of discipline and focus. No amount of gadgetry can help me keep my life organized if I’m always distracted by a lot of things. I’ve therefore arrived at a conclusion that the best productivity gadget would be of no use if you don’t actually pay much attention to it. Or at the very least, usefulness is subjective. A smartphone could be a great get-things-done tool for me. But other people might prefer pocket-sized notebooks. Yet other people have their internal clocks wired to tell them what to do at any given time without any external sensory inputs. Talk about an internal clock!

For now, My Nokia E51 serves as my main PDA. I get my email, web access, multimedia, and even YouTube access (with Google’s recent release of udpated apps for the Symbian Series 60 platform). Not only is it a PDA, it’s also a great big time-waster, with YouTube video access and Gravity for Twitter (which can be addicting, but of course is still part of my work and business).

Still, sometimes I forget to do things on the todo list. Sometimes the list gets so long that I tend to ignore it altogether. It’s like that bad habit of thinking something will just disappear if you don’t think about it too much. Tasks, unfortunately, don’t just disappear into thin air. You have to do them.

And so, I’m still on the hunt for that great productivity gadget. Pretty soon I might have to take meds that help me focus more so I won’t have to ignore my way into disappearing tasks (is it the blue pill or the red pill?). Or maybe when someone graciously gives me a free iPhone, I could use that as a productivity gadget.

Image credit: flickr/pigpogm