Once you get in the habit of keeping your planner with you, the next step is to learn to control yourself. Resist the temptation to enter things you obviously don't need to be reminded of, like waking up or eating. Paying too much attention to the obvious will only end up slowing you down, and you'll just end up frustrated again.

Take it to the next level
After you start to get the hang of the planner concept, it's time to take things to the next level. A truly effective planning tool will force you to address issues you might ordinarily neglect. Try to make a habit of sitting down once a week and making a list of things you would like to accomplish during the next seven days. Then divide the list in order of importance. How you do this is up to you, but most people do okay with ''Must do," "Should do," and "Could do, but wouldn't hurt to wait."

Now start scheduling your week, beginning with Must do, and work your way down the list. If possible, set aside a specific time to accomplish each item in Calendar, rather than using the more tempting Task list. If you treat each item as an appointment with yourself, your odds of accomplishing it are much greater. Also, don't try to schedule too many items for one week (five or six Must do's is usually plenty), and don't get frustrated if you don't seem to have enough time available for your entire list.

The point is to make sure you get done the things you've decided are truly important. The less important items can simply be moved to a later week. Also, if you have a spouse or significant other, try to get them involved in the weekly scheduling process, as well. Two people, working in tandem to accomplish the same ends, tend to have much more enjoyable relationships than those who don't really know each other's goals.

Time to relax
Once you've invested the half-hour or so it takes to complete this process, you can relax. Your Pocket PC will tell you when it's time to actually do something (provided you didn't forget to turn on the automatic reminder function in Calendar), so go find that copy of Doom you've been dying to play.

If you would like to learn more about this subject, I highly recommend the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey. Also, FranklinCovey offers add-on software for Microsoft Outlook that simplifies the weekly planning process.

Charles Carter is a husband, father, and businessman who became a Pocket PC hobbyist when his Day-Timer got way too big. He lives in Vermont with his wife and three children.