Restart

Note: Sorry about the comment moderation problem with last post. I've fixed it now!

I decided to restart my new year on Thursday of last week. Since that was technically January 17, not January 1, I can see how some people might find that unusual. But it is the day that I officially began recovering from the January Blehs. (Yes, I made that up, but I bet you know what I mean.) This year, it felt so much like having the flu - in my case and in the cases of others that I've talked to since then - that there really should have been some flu season style announcements on the radio. "This year's strain of the January Blehs is particularly virulent. Those most at risk for The Blehs, including anyone with too much to do and those folks with not enough time, should be sure to stockpile Blehs treatments of their choice." Of course, that would cause the inevitable run on chocolate and alcohol....

I've moved out of the worst of The Blehs by working through a convoluted, introspective process. And that process has left me thinking about everything differently now. Even if it turns out to be just a short term effect, this change has started me down a few interesting paths. So the next few posts will be about the things I'm doing to support the ways that I would like my life to be.

That "being" direction is towards simplification - but not necessarily in traditional ways. I'm thinking about it in terms of the word "light" - to tread lightly, bring a lighter touch to my work style, be lighter, get rid of things/ideas/events that weigh me down.

So, over the rest of the week I'll try to get back here several times to post on a few ways that I've started to lighten up in 2008. And I'll post the initial results from some of my en-light-ening experiments. And I will try to avoid any more "light" puns than are absolutely necessary. Really. I promise. But this post, although it is in keeping with the theme, is to shed some light (ha!) on Ommi's dilemma.

So, I would like for you to meet my very smart phone. (Trust me. I'll show you how the phone is related by the end of this.) In mid-November, HTH and I got matching Samsung I-760s. HTH needs access to his e-mail when out and about on service calls or job sites, so we needed a solid data plan and a full sized Qwerty keyboard. (HTH will not type on a standard phone keypad. Until we found full sized keyboards, he would have D2 text me and I would have to call to relay the messages. In other words, he hates using phone keypads for texting even more than he hates inefficiency - and most of ya'll know how he is about that!) But, other than that, we were just looking for standard smartphone options - sync with our desktop calendars, solid contact management, and some kind of task storage. In other words, a PDA and phone in one.

What we got was a little better than that. The phone syncs with Outlook calendar, contacts and tasks. I have it set up so that the phone is the primary - with changes going from my phone to the desktop. That means that I can write down anything I need to remember - from Dr. appointments to additions to the grocery list - whenever I think of them and they will be added both to my phone and my stationary system. So I do have a combo phone/Palm, which is fantastic. But the additional piece, that I really love, is the 2GB micro SD card. Why is this important, you ask? Because I also have 2 GB of music on my phone now! Which means that I grocery shop with my tunes. And I can just plug my phone into my car MP3 player if I want to hear something in particular. And, with the headphones that HTH found for me, I can just hit the button and answer a call while my music stays paused in the background. So I now have a combo phone/PDA/MP3 player which is even better than I expected!

As for the data/e-mail side and the Windows Mobile 6, I can only tell you what I've heard from HTH. Since I'm usually in front of a computer, I don't use either of these on a regular basis.

E-mail first: the phone can theoretically sync e-mail, but HTH has it set up to just view (not download) his e-mail from the ISP web server instead. He only has it check the business e-mail, but it has the capability to check several different accounts. There is what looks like a great e-mail attachment viewer program in the phone, but, again, I'm not sure how well it works. And he is comfortable enough with the keyboard to manage e-mail style (as opposed to what I think of as Blackberry Style) responses to any urgent e-mail.

As for Windows Mobile 6, HTH keeps the parts pricing list on his phone in an Excel spreadsheet. Any time he updates it, he can just drag and drop the new file when the phone is plugged in to sync. This means that invoices can be tallied before the customer signs the paperwork - which is very cool. The other advantage of Windows Mobile is, of course, e-mail attachments that come in Microsoft formats. And I use the Windows Media Player for my tunes.

So, all in all, we have addressed a number of wants and needs with the one tool. HTH has reduced a number of the business pressures that come from being out with customers and needing to be in front of a computer to respond to other customers - which means that the work rests a little more lightly on him. And I don't carry a PDA or MP3 player anymore - which means that my purse is actually lighter! See? I told you it was related!