I'm considering getting an old-fashioned paper calendar again. For years I carried a pocket Day-Timer everywhere I went. Then, in 2003 I got a Palm Pilot PDA. I could justify spending the money because I would no longer have to buy those expensive Day-Timers every year.
Well, the PDA was not everything I had hoped for. It did a fair job keeping me organized, but I never enjoyed entering "graffiti" with a stylus. When I got my first laptop in 2006, I could carry my computer with my Outlook calendar. Who needs a PDA? I used Outlook's calendar fairly well for a few years. This year I had to get a new laptop, and I planned to purchase the Microsoft Office suite, including Outlook. The clerk told me that MS is moving away from Outlook. They have something newer and better. Fine. I got Office without Outlook, and went looking for a new calendar system.
For now I'm using Google Calendar. It's OK for an electronic calendar.
But here is my problem with electronic calendars: There is no real permanent record. I suppose I could dredge up my Palm PDA software and try to find the files on my old desktop. But I think that all those files have now been deleted. I can turn on my old laptop and pull up my Outlook data from the archives.
Eventually I'll donate these old computers to Good Will or something. Before I do, I'll reformat the hard drives and get rid of all that information. I suppose I could copy the files onto some storage device, and hope that I could pull out the info later if needed. Nah. It's too much trouble.
But with my old paper calendars, I've got all that history right at my fingertips. I know right where they are (more or less). When I pull them out, there are no compatibility issues, no archives to dig through.
Popular formats of electronic calendars will probably change every few months from now on. Whatever I choose will be obsolete in a matter of mere months. But paper is always there. Yeah, I could print out my electronic calendar every month, but that's too much trouble. I'm not even sure how to do it.
So, why do I want a permanent record anyway? Hey, I've looked back through those old Day Timers many times. I nearly always find exactly what I'm looking for. But rarely have I looked through my Outlook or Palm files. I'm not sure that old info is even there.
