Deluttering My Productivity System: the PDA

Photo by By Olly M Pus

I was poking around on my PDA a few weeks ago, and was horrified to see that almost all my memory was gone. I took a look at the application list, and sure enough, there were many programs on there that I don’t use regularly or at all. It was time for a purge.

Using the Copy function and a memory card, I moved things I don’t use frequently onto the memory card. This included almost all games, most utilities, and all photos.

Next I started deleting. I deleted applications I had loaded to review. Then I started deleting from within the applications. I archived off tasks and calendar items, deleted extraneous information from my checklists.

How much do I routinely use, though? Here are the applications I use on a daily basis:

• Agendus
• Bonsai
• SmartListToGo
• HandyShopper
• YAPS
• ReDo
• TextPlus
• Backup
• BigClock

The applications I use more than once a month but less than daily:

• WWCalc
• Keyboard
• PDoan
• PDACookbook
• Woman
• Remote
• Slap
• DiddleBug
• Sudoku
• Solitaire
• Pluckr
• BDicty

Everything I hadn’t used in a long time got copied to the memory card and deleted from main memory. Total free after decluttering: 8.5 MB

I challenge each of you to look at whatever your productivity system is and do some housecleaning. I bet that no matter what format you use, you will find things that don’t have to be carried around with you all the time.