Essential Pim - Your Free Pda

From time to time I miss not seeing what I regard as a typical 80's businessman. Whilst I am slightly too young to have firsthand experience I consider my repeated watching's of "American Psycho" all the experience I need to pass judgement. I think of a man with oiled backcombed black hair, dressed in an Armani suit with a briefcase. This briefcase would presumably contain a Filofax, that would directly represent how important they considered themselves to be.

In the 00's we appear to have lost the Filofax only to have it replaced by something equally pretentious; the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). When I first went in to business I bought myself one of these but put it back in the box almost completely unused when I realised that I spent more of my time working on prioritised lists of things I needed to do than on the actual tasks in hand.

Even now I cringe slightly when I have a meeting with someone and the time comes for them to make a note. Instead of simply writing down 'Phone Chris tomorrow' on a scrap of paper or even writing it on their hand they search their bag, eventually pulling out a PDA, turning it on, open notepad, write, save the note, set an alarm, turn the machine off, and put it back in the leather sleeve before placing it back in the bag. I understand how such a gadget can be very useful for those that need to store a large amount of information relating to contacts and schedule information, but I do dislike it when is completely completely dependent on a machine to organise them.

For those abovementioned individuals who do happen to have a lot of data and activity that requires some organising in their lives there is an alternative that doesn't need an expensive doohickey that has to be hauled around to eventually be lost or stolen. As the majority of people typically have access to a computer at any given time, regardless of the situation this information can be kept using software instead of hardware.

EssentialPIM is a free download available in both desktop and portable versions, both of which can be downloaded by way of a tiny 2.8MB file from www.essentialpim.com. It has all the standard features that we have come to expect from such software including appointments, tasks, to-do lists, notes, and contacts. Whilst, it can be argued that most Smartphone's have a similar set of features unless you have one I am sure you will find this a worthy download.

For you own use I found it best to download the portable version chuck it on a USB Flash Drive which I immediately attached to my key ring minimising the possibility of leaving the house without it, or indeed losing it (much more likely for me). To access the data just insert the USB drive in to any PC/laptop and all your information will be easily available with none of your data being saved on to the computer itself to cut out any security worries. However it may be best to set up a password from within the application as if you were to lose your keys you obviously would want to avoid the finder knowing which locks they belong to.

Whilst I have to admit that EssentialPIM isn't for everybody, for those that constantly skip from office to office or have by other means regular access to a computer then it could certainly prove a worthwhile download.