A PDA is a very effective tool to implement GTD. My piece of advice would be to keep things simple and stick to the basic, native applications that make the PIM (Personal Information Manager): calendar, contacts, ToDo and memo or notes.

This may sound quite a strange statement: forums are filled with enquiries and testimonials about so many attractive softwares, used for GTD or even designed for it. Well… if you like to experiment with applications and spend loads of time on it, my advice is not for you. But if you intend primarily to implement GTD and if wasting time tweaking hardware, software and synchronization is not in your objectives and projects, read further!

Implementing GTD on PDA means actually on PDA and computer - at least - in order to be complete and effective with mail, files,…

Then, as a matter of fact, it is highly unusual to keep the same hardware / software configuration for long. Only to illustrate this point, in the past year my work computer was changed, the e.mail client and the PIM changed twice (not to mention the upgrade). My PDA and phone were replaced. I was not calling for these changes, and it sounds a lot for a year, but stuff get obsolete, stop working, get replaced, company IT policies do evolve, OS and software are upgraded, compatibility changes… Of course, adding home devices in the picture (in order to be in sync there) only multiplies the combination of changes and reduce the life span of a given configuration.

In this context of frequent migration, the beauty of sticking to basic native applications is that standard data and standard organization will transfer seamlessly (or almost, crossing fingers…) to new systems.

Then… is it possible to implement GTD effectively on a basic PDA PIM? Absolutely! Let's review how another day…

Keep it Basic, and you will Migrate without Headache !

Ericlodi