| By Melanie Scott | January 19, 2010 |
It’s not until something goes wrong that you realize what a role technology plays in our lives these days. I’m a self-confessed gadget girl and I joke that I’ve outsourced my brain to my iPhone but I’m starting to think it’s increasingly true. My iPhone has my calendar and my to-do list (love checking off those little boxes and having an electronic to-do list keeps them front and centre) and my notes on things I want to buy or see or read. My DVR tapes my TV programs, my computer automatically backs up my files and organizes my music and my photos. The internet lets me talk to friends all over the world and see what’s happening around the globe, research obscure topics for my books and provides entertainment when I need it.
Being more organized and keeping a bit more order amidst chaos is one of my goals this year. I’d be pretty unorganized without technology. But I also still love notebooks and pens and writing things down on paper, particularly book notes and plot ideas. I love going to stationery stores and feeling the paper and finding a pen that writes well so it feels like the words flow easily. I have a paper diary as well as my iPhone (which may be overkill but it works for me – after all, you can’t tuck bills into the pages of an iPhone!
So I guess I’m not ready to go completely cyber yet, even if sometimes it feels that way. My iPhone had to go to the iPhone doctor for a few days last year and having a regular cell phone was decidedly odd but my paper got me through the crisis. Don’t even mention the times when there’s no power or the internet goes down. The thought of losing one of my paper notebooks is also pretty scary. I need a scanner so I can have virtual copies of those.
So how about the rest of you? Are you list makers? Calendar schedulers or do you like to play things by ear? Do you love gadgets or does the thought of figuring out how to make your phone talk to your computer make you want to run screaming from the room? Are you a high tech digital guru or a devotee of low tech paper or ink or like me, somewhat straddling the two, finding the middle way, and hoping I never have to pick just one or the other?
January 19th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Definitely calendar writer! If I don’t, my four kids would be playing video games instead of basketball games while I hole up in my writing office!
I’m not all techy either. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t life without my blackberry or laptop, but I do still write my first draft long hand in a pretty little notebook!!
January 19th, 2010 at 8:58 am
My head would explode if I tried to play it by ear, day by day. Within one or two days away from my calendar I’m feeling totally crazy and out of whack. I’m a calendar person and even keep all my calendars from years past, sort of like a journal!!!
January 19th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I’m sure my phone does things I have no idea about. I only use it to make calls if I’ve remembered to charge it. I’m a technodunce.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Hi Melanie!
I’m a combo–like you. I keep my calendar on my computer–which is great because when the dh or kids add something to their calendars in their ipods, they automatically sync to mine. Love that!
But I keep my to do list in a notebook and I like to write longhand sometimes.
Despite my eldest’s despair–Mom–nobody actually *talks* on their cell phone anymore–I like being a combo. I use the techno gadgets that work for me and ignore the rest!
January 19th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I go back and forth. A few years ago, I never went anywhere without my Palm and couldn’t WAIT until someone came up with a way to combine those features with a phone. Well, now lots of phones like that exist, and I have a crappy old phone, that’s rarely turned on, and my Palm drained of it’s battery and erased itself. (and the back up data is on an old PC that’s not hooked up to a monitor or keyboard.)
But I need to get a system going again. Seriously cannot rely on my brain or the various sticky notes all over the place.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I use the alarm on my phone to remind me of appointments, but the family uses a central calendar in the kitchen to co-ordinate the family’s schedule.
I’m not a big techie but I have a desktop alarm, calendar, post-it note plus a slideshow of pictures for my current story on my Vista sidebar. However, I sometimes forget to look at them, which is why I missed the post-it note my husband left on my computer (Kiss husband) until he pointed it out. 
January 19th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Tonya, your whole first draft longhand? I’m impressed! I definitely write parts of mine longhand (usually when I’m stuck) but my writing is too messy to do the whole thing : )
Caroline, I keep my old calendars too!
January 19th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Kelly, I figure you go with what works for you. I probably send more texts these days than calls on the cell (mainly because my Mum discovered how to text ; ) ) but I make more calls on my cell than I do on my landline, that’s for sure!
Deb, I love things that sync. My phone syncs to my calendar and my to-do list on the computer! Bliss! If I could figure out how to get my computer to read my paper diary and notebooks, that would be perfection lol
January 19th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Maureen, you should try one of the new phones, they are great. And yes, my brain has passed the point where sticky notes can help me too.
Gail, forgetting to look at things is why I like the alarms on my phone and computer calendars! They make me look at things. If I really want to remember something I wrote down I end up sticking it on my front door so I have to see it when I leave the house in the morning!
January 19th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Melanie, I’m still evolving
I salute you gadget people. I just got my first digital camera this year, sent my first text message two years and I still can’t bring myself to trust electronic calendars so I have the hard copy. I turn green when I see someone write sent from my Blackberry because it seems so freeing. Just not quite there yet. Signed T-Rex
January 20th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Donnell – lol
Love my digital camera – I’ve taken so many more photos since I got one than I did when I had a film camera. My theory is use the gadgets that appeal to you and don’t worry about the rest!
January 20th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Hey Melanie,
I love calendars and day planners and I go insane if my internet service goes down. Does that answer the question? lol It’s almost sad how many electronic gadgets I have, and I also have to stick my notes/reminders in front of my face or I forget to look at them.
So much for the simple days!