Well, anyone who has been ready for a while knows that I recently got a new pocketpc. The main reason was to start keeping my life in better order, especially when it comes to the tasks that I need to do to maintain my two houses. I had tried keeping lists in notebooks, but I never seemed to have the notebook with me when I needed to make a note (random calls from the tenants or meeting them at the store), so I would make todo lists all over the place on many different pieces of paper. Needless to say, this wasn't very efficient, and I would always lose these lists. Bad news when I'm trying my best to be a good landlord.

So, the idea behind the pocketpc was that, being a computer geek, I'd be more prone to keeping up with stuff if I was doing it on a computer. So, after doing a bit of research, reading reviews, setting requirements and talking to friends, I decided upon the most excellent hp ipaq 5555. After hunting down a place to buy it, I ended up at compusa to purchase it. After getting used to it, I have started noticing that I am more productive, more organized and just plain happier with keeping track of things. Plus, it was great to have it always with me in case I needed to make a quick note about something or even a shopping list (I've already got three of them in the notes; I really should delete them after I go shopping). I've started putting my contacts on there, as well as using pocket excel to keep a running record of my car's gas mileage and gas prices.

Now, back to the main reason that I bought it, keeping organized. Needless to say, the built-in task manager is pretty deficient. I would like to be able to have a task-driven system which would allow me to attach contacts, notes, calendar entries, etc. Basically, I would like an application with all the grand promises of WinFS. I started looking around, mainly at the microsoft site, and I'm leaning towards Pocket Informant. It definitely looks to be task-driven, as well as allowing categorizations with priorities, categories and colors. I like the idea of it being a bit extensible, so I can add other functionality, as well. It is shareware, so I've downloaded the trial version to see how it works. I'll write up a review after a little bit of using.

I'm going to keep looking around a bit, but I think I'll end up with Pocket Informant.

[Update: 1/22 - Well, Lupin's Diary didn't work out for me, so I installed the 15-day trial of Pocket Informant. A quick running of it shows it be much more than just a pretty front-end to WinCE's calendar/task/contact database; it appears to have its own database, complete with some pretty free-form links between the items. I'll be printing out the manuals and going over them over the course of the next few days. Initial opinion (after seeing it for a total of about 30 seconds), I like it. I'll keep this updated, though.]