Psion's Friction

“Oh, oh, oh, look at me, sending important communications from the terrace of a café in Paris!”

That would have been the unfortunate thought bubble above my head, had some curse revealed my thinking on a business trip to the City of Light back in the late nineties.

There was no reason to send those ‘important’ communications from the café, other than that it felt so good to be able to. Nevermind that the connection was slow, or that roaming charges cost as much as my Eurostar ticket; I was high as a kite on my own ‘productivity’. 

Why so high? Well, it was 1999, and I had a new toy – a Psion 5. Not just any Psion 5. This was the 5mx

Its hard to describe how amazing the device was. Any erstwhile owner will sidestep an unfortunate listener’s courteous yawns to try,  but – owner enthusiasm aside – it was truly a cutting-edge device. Even 25 years later, it is still impressive:

• It fit in a suit pocket, but had a full touch-typing keyboard that popped out from under the screen when it opened

• That screen was a touch screen - in 1999(!)

• An infrared link connected to my phone, so I could do e-mail from that terrace table

• Two AA batteries enabled weeks of use

• It weighed just a touch more than my mobile phone at the time

Nothing not to like there. Blissfully unaware of the data charges while roaming, there was a sense of being ready – at a moment’s notice – to do important things, even if only mailing someone to arrange dog care. The device cost me the equivalent of a month’s rent, but that felt cheap given the mileage I got from bragging rights.

A gust of residual eighties chic had me buy a faux-croc leather ‘filofax’ cover for it. The old skool camouflage seemed to only enhance the whizzy-ness of the new device. In my mind, if nowhere else. With a bit of distance, I can see that it was a bit like harnessing up a donkey to tow your Ferrari around with. 

So I get it, the excitement about every new device that Apple, Google or Samsung brings to market. I do.

Bigger screen! Better battery life! More memory! Etc! Etc!

But I’m a bit more sceptical now. That device couldn’t help me with my real problem, and neither can the new ones. Not with what matters.

What matters is getting the right things done. To get things done you need clarity and motivation, not the distraction of learning to use a new toy, or playing at master of the universe when you should be enjoying your espresso. The device was mostly a distraction. It took weeks to get on top of the functionality, and months to master. By which time a very attractive Palm Treo was batting its eyelashes at me and I was off again.

To get on top of my life I didn’t need a new device. I needed better lists, and to look at those lists more regularly. Instead, pre-GTD®, I had the world’s best devices, and the world’s worst lists. The device – any device – can’t really help if you fill it with the same old junk you were putting in your filofax. What was missing was thinking clearly about what I had to do, and organizing the results of my thinking onto a dashboard that I consulted regularly.

I buy fewer devices these days, and sweat them for rather longer than before. Progress comes from knocking the right things off your lists, not fiddling with new devices as a means of masking your fear about actually doing the tough stuff that is on those lists.