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John Norris: More HPDA templates and 'the Meta Line Organizer'
Merlin Mann | Jun 16 2005
John Norris [John Norris' Hipster PDA Templates]
On the heels of Douglas’s wonderful DIY templates for the Hipster PDA, I’m now directed to these amazing templates from John Norris. John’s got some very creative ideas at play here, including miniature versions of games like chess; a small world map with time zones; music staffs; semaphore code (semaphore code!); and a variety of other lightly-structured templates. The most fascinating addition to the standard card is what he calls the “Meta Line Organizer” (how-to image)—a series of icons, fields, and fill-bubbles that run the vertical length of the card. They afford a fast, lightweight method for organizing and prioritizing your cards and then quickly identifying their purpose on the run. Really terrific stuff. It’s funny—I was telling a reporter yesterday how the whole Hipster PDA phenomenon has been such an unlikely instance of “Stone Soup“—what started as this jokey reaction to excessive personal technology keeps evolving into something smarter and more creative that I ever imagined. People are making thoughtful, deliberate decisions about how they capture data on the go, and having a framework—even one as admittedly dopey as the HPDA— apparently has enabled some very creative, clever ideas. Nice work, everybody, and especially: nice work, John! [Link: Matt Peck] 17 Comments
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 When looking at Douglas Johnston's...Submitted by Jim (not verified) on June 17, 2005 - 8:44am.
When looking at Douglas Johnston's DIY hipster templates, I was having a really hard time with the concept of printing out and having on hand/in pocket all of these different card versions. What if I ran out of one particular card that I needed? Even if I am sitting at my desk I have to print out another of that specific even though I have plenty of the other types sitting right there already printed. Then yesterday, when I saw the new Meta-line organizer from John Norris, I realized that you could use his system in combination with Douglas Johnston's version to create just one card that you could print out many copies of and fill in the bubble when you decide what type of "blank" you need. I print these on the backs of graph paper index cards so that I don't waste valuable ink. This way there is always a blank sitting on top of your pile that has a header bar, a notes section, a checklist for next actions, shopping, projects, someday maybe etc... And on the other side there is always handy graph paper. Just fill in the "someday maybe" bubble and it becomes a "someday maybe" card. For the @home and @work labeling style, I added a top box and a very similar side labeling box. » POSTED IN:
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