Posted by Reggie BoStar on December 22, 2007, at 4:48:13
In reply to Deplin, posted by your#1fan on December 21, 2007, at 21:15:12
Hey your#1fan,
What're you studying these days? Do you get a month or so off between semesters to rest your brain? When I was in school we called the seasonal break "inter-session".
As far as memory goes, I found that things got a lot easier when I put aside worrying about memory loss and got myself one of those smartphones. Mine is a Palm Treo but they all pretty much function the same way. It's amazing how well the calendar functions on these things keep all your appointments, meetings, etc in control.
They're super easy to use, which is another thing I need. I was even able to schedule meetings that I have to attend only on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month! You can set audible meeting alarms that sound different than the ring tone. There are also visible alarms that appear in the display when you're looking at the phone. With all that going on, I'd have to try hard to miss something now.
Mine also has a "memo" function I can use to enter freehand notes about things I need to remember. It's very easy to call up and view notes, as well as give them titles that make them easy to identify and pick for reading and updating.
The key is not so much taking the notes - it's having them all in the same place all the time.
Before the smartphone I had been playing the endlessly frustrating game of taking all kinds of notes to remind myself of things I needed to do, then forgetting where I put the notes! The fridge didn't work for posting notes because I couldn't haul it around with me.
As far as forgetting the phone goes, I pretty much beat that by buying a really good belt-clip/pocket case for it. Once I got used to carrying it that way all the time, it became as hard to forget as wearing the belt!
Also, it's a good idea to get a decent belt case with a snap-top for security reasons. The phones are a bit costly, so it's important to keep them safe. They make nice low-profile in-the-pocket cases that clip to the belt and hardly show when you're wearing them.
These phones really are expensive; there's no getting around that, unfortunately. But I took my time, shopped around, and got one that was worth the money.
If you do decide to go that route, get a good cell phone carrier service FIRST (if you don't already have one) - THEN shop for a smartphone. That's because different flavors of smartphones go with different carriers. Might as well have a good carrier to go with your little memory machine.
Now we never had these things when I was in college. Good grief, we were still using slide rules in those days! However, now that I've gotten used to using the little keyboard with my thumbs (it's laid out just like a full-sized keypad), I bet I could have used the phone to take notes in some of my courses. Math and science would have been tough, what with all the weird symbols and equations; but certainly I could have done it in a literature, history, or other course where regular text was the norm.
But I digress. I thought I'd brainstorm on this topic because I also have had really major problems dealing with memory. A good chunk of those have gone away with this phone.
Whatever happens, good luck and have a good day!
Reggie BoStar
poster:Reggie BoStar
thread:801977
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071213/msgs/802026.html