More On the hPDA

Well, continuing on from where I left off last night…

The hPDA, or the Hipster PDA v3, is a sort of organizer/planner/thing that does everything a PDA does, but much more easily and transferably. You don’t have to boot it up, shut it down, or open any stupid folders. It can’t browse the web or listen to an iPod Shuffle, unless you get one of the newer ones and use it instead of a binder clip. Anyway…

It was thought up by the guy who writes 43Folders, and then expanded upon by the cool guys over at D*I*Y Planner. It’s now up-to-date with D*I*Y’s main attraction, the D*I*Y Planner (hence the site name), version 3.

The “Core Package” for the hPDA has more than 200 different sheets, each the size of a 3×5 index card. At the 43Folders site (HipsterPDA.com), you can see that it’s just a stack of index cards and a binder clip holding them together. What gives? Simple… it really is just a stack of 3×5s and a binder clip (or an iPod Shuffle if you so wish). But the forum members of D*I*Y came up with about 57 different templates for cards, like the GTD Reference Card, Agenda sheets, shopping lists, nowMap sheets, product designs, graph paper, horizontal lined sheets, vertical lined sheets, storyboards, character templates (story-wise), and about 47 other kinds of sheets.

There are two versions (download links provided): 1-Up, which prints to individual index cards, and the 4-Up, which prints 4 to a page of US Letter paper (cardstock is recommended). This one requires a guillotine or something close to it for good speed… scissors also work. They also provide the Graphic version, which has PNG/JPEG versions of every template, so you can set it up how you want it.

So that’s the hPDA. I also recommend the PigPogPDA. It’s technically a Moleskin hack, but the PigPog article doesn’t specify that it has to be… I’m using just one of those hardcover sketchbooks you see at Borders or wherever, and it’s working fine. However, he does recommend a Moleskin Pocket Reporter to use the system. Basically, you have three colors of tags, one each for Active, Processed, and Collection Point. Everything “behind” (above, if it’s lying flat on the desk) the Processed sticky has already been done/processed/used. Anything marked Active is, well, active. It can be behind the Processed area. And the Collection Point is the place you currently are. I suggest you don’t use Active tags, and just save a few pages at the front, and jot down the titles and page numbers of active pages, crossing them off once they’re inactive.

So that’s it for PDAs and whatnot. Look around PigPog, it’s a cool site, as is 43Folders. D*I*Y Planner is good, but mainly just for their Planner or the Hipster.