In the first shutter of this file, we saw why it is judicious to consider the employment of the organiseurs paper such as hipster PDA while at the same time the electronic organiseurs have the wheel in motion.

This article is the obvious result with a small guide to make the turn of the various possible solutions to conceive a hipster PDA. One will base oneself here on the various models which one meets through the fabric

A small bracket: I realize that I did not clarify yet the significance of the English word hipster. Apparently, it would be the equivalent of hippie. Thus hipster PDA is in fact the PDA hippie. It is rather well found like name being given the values of freedom, return to the simple things and even of ecology which are attached to him!

Let us close again the bracket and start with a little history:

The ancestor of hipster PDA

The ancestor of hipster PDA could be well the system of catch of note of Thomas Jefferson.

For memory, Thomas Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was the 3rd president of the United States. He had also left the intellectual elites of the Age of Enlightenment. Become inveterate observer, it was accustomed to transporting a variety of portable instruments to take measures. And it noted all with the pencil on ivory shelves:

The evening, it could recopy this information in one of its 7 books where it maintained a history for its finances, its farms, etc It erased then the shelves out of ivory with water.

One thus realizes well that the concept of hipster PDA is certainly not new and allured already our ancestors with the enlightened spirits. Here, the ivory shelves have even the advantage compared to paper of not requiring of refill. If you are tried by this antiquity, will know that you can get a similar ustensil with pencil integrated on the site of Jas. Townsend and Sound :

Hipster PDA of Merlin Mann

Certainly less prestigious than the ivory shelves of Thomas Jefferson, hipster PDA of Merlin Mann to the advantage of not almost costing anything and much of followers the method Getting Things Done still use it without any modification. To reproduce it, you will need a grip to connect and cards:

The grip to be connected (binder clip)

The grip to be connected is a simple but effective system. Invented in 1911 to be able to connect documents in a temporary there way - at the time one perforated the sheets to be able to make pass a wire - the grip to be connected appears as vices triangular black which one draws aside thanks to metal levers. When the grip is closed again, one can then fold back the metal levers along the maintained documents or straightforwardly withdraw them to form a permanent binding:

One will prefer them with the jaw grips of the kind bulldog clip, stronger but whose levers cannot be folded back:

One finds them in the trade in various format. Merlin Mann affectionate small grips of 0,75 inches (19mm). But I find that the format 1,25 inches (32mm) with the advantage of offering a catch to slip the handle of a pen there, the binding is also stronger.

The cards (index cards)

Original hipster PDA of Merlin Mann is composed of cards linked with the format 3�5 inches (75�125mm). This format offers a good ranging between portability of the system and space available to write: one can easily slip such a hipster PDA into the back pocket of trousers and space is sufficient to write short sentences.

Caution: in the trade - in France in any case - one finds generally only the cards Bristol-board with the format A6 (105�148mm), which return with difficulty in the pockets. In the worst case you will be able to cut them into 2 to arrive at a correct size (A7 format). If not you can order in line of the cards 75�125mm here.

On the capture of screen, one sees that Merlin Mann uses cards of color to establish categories. Personally I am against because that requires to maintain several stocks of card. You will be able in the place surligner or to blacken the edge of certain cards to at a glance differentiate them compared to the other cards.

A last detail: if you wish to obtain a really ecological PDA, you will be able to use entirely recycled cards.

Miniature hipster PDA

Hipster PDA carry-key was recently evoked in a preceding article :

It is not really an alternative to hipster PDA of Merlin Mann but it can be useful to store your calling cards and to write small notes with the back. You can use a grip to connect format 19mm to conceive it thus that pieces of card. Annoying with such a system is that the keys and other accessories in your pockets are likely to damage the cards and to dirty them. To use two cards reinforced for the cover will be able to thus prove to be judicious.

The card-index box

To use one limps to transport your cards to the advantage of protecting them effectively. On this photograph found on Flickr, the Gideon user had the chance to find one of them which correspond exactly to the format of his cards, neither too broad, nor too skimped:

Zipster PDA

If you have of the old discs zip which trail on your premise, you will be able to use the box to create Zipster PDA. As this one protects your cards, it will not be necessary to use reinforced paper. You will be able even to brighten them by printing the models from Sanctum Mekkanicum :

Notice that the box being transparent, the first card will be always visible even if the box is closed. Moreover, you will be able to rectify the box on your desk to read the cards more easily.

Hipster PDA with ring

The problem with hipster PDA of Merlin Mann is that you must remove the grip to consult the cards. FullContactGEEK proposes to us to solve this problem by perforating them to connect them by a ring:

Note the rubber band to maintain the cards.

The problem here, it is that you will nevertheless be obliged to open your ring if you must change the order of the cards, and it is then necessary to align all the cards to give it.

Hipster PDA with snap hook

Here finally hipster PDA with snap hook presented by solutionjunkie.com :

Since the snap hook marries the size of the perforation, one is not forced to use a rubber band to maintain the cards. However, this snap hook is perhaps a little too large for a organisor of pocket.

Other systems?

Among the other systems, one can quote the pile of adhesive cards Post-it kind, the wallet of cards or the flip failure hipster PDA. With you to find the system which is appropriate to you!

Which pen to choose for a hipster PDA?

Obviously, any pen ball of small size can make the deal. But one will privilege especially a pen with retractable mine because one is never safe from a loss of stopper, and thus of a pen which runs.

Those which want a pen of quality will privilege space PEN of Fisher, since he does not flee, lasts 3 times longer than a pen normal (approximately 48km) and written in almost all the situations:

But at the bottom, why be encumbered of a expensive pen which one will regret in the event of loss?

My personal choice: a pen 4 colors biro. You will be able to thus write color and in the event of dry ink, there will remain to you always the 3 other mines!

Levenger: luxury for those which can pay the price of them

To finish this guide, will know that the Levenger site sell organiseurs of pocket of style rather sympatic hipster PDA, like various other relative accessories. However, it is necessary to put the price at it, and I am not sure that they deliver in Europe. But their catalogue is a good source of inspiration.

Conclusion

I hope that this small guide has you permi to decide which hipster PDA is appropriate to you best. Personally, I conceived the miens with a small snap hook and cards with the format 75�125mm accompanied by a pen biro 4 colors, a rubber band allowing to maintain the whole. I use also a miniature hPDA on my key-ring for the calling cards.

And for you it will be what?

Tags: GTD, hipster PDA, hPDA, note taking, organisor, PoIC, Catch of notes, productivity, to organize itself, tasks, todo list

If you liked this article, give him more visibility as a voter for him on Scoopeo:


Similar articles (in theory):
There is one year on It flash! - August 2007
A carry-key practises to take notes on any occasion
File hipster PDA (1st part): Electronic Organisor or paper?
There is one year on It flash! - September 2007
File hipster PDA (3rd part): How to organize your cards?