Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

If it Ain't Broke

 

You know the rest; don't fix it! I'm thinking about the quest for the perfect digital calendar.

Some people keep track of their appointments with their iPhone or other mobile device.

Some people use Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar or whatever their corporate calendaring client may be.

I confess; I still use a pen and the back of my checkbook.

I was with a friend of mine yesterday arranging a time to get together. She still uses a Dayplanner (You know; those things that come in three ring binders with the calendars printed on real paper). We had a moment while shrugging off our mutual luddite methods.

But hey, if it ain't broke...

The truth is that I've tried for years to make the jump to organizing my time in a way that wastes electricity and/or battery time, too. It just hasn't happened for me.

I've tried for years to reverse the simplicity of just writing my committments on paper on the fly, whether I'm sitting in a business meeting or on the phone while dripping from the shower in need of making a note that I have a job interview next Tuesday. Who needs that? I want more steps involved. I want to wait for things to boot up, click on some icons, as well as type in several fields of information (and preferrably with a little plastic stylus, if possible).

I long for a solution that means combining my business obligations with my personal life obligations in a place that compromises my privacy (like my employer's corporate network). Who wouldn't want that?

Even better; I want "collaboration" calendaring. Naturally, I want my co-workers put on notice to adapt our meetings around my next gyno appointment.

Here's why I think I haven't found a perfect digital calendaring solution yet. One does not exist.

Until then, I have the back of my checkbook and what's written there is between me and my God.

Sometimes, it pays to be a luddite. See you you-know-when, Janice.

 

 

 

 

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio