What sort of handheld device do I use for tracking my schedule?

It's a paper "diary" that shows the week at a glance, and is bound as a book   It's made by Letts of London, and I buy a new one each year at an old-fashioned stationery shop.

Many of my colleagues, clients, and loved ones tease me about this - because I'm supposed to be such a techno-geek.  Why don't I use an electronic tool for the job?

Well, it just so happens that I have tried and failed with three different electronic palmtop devices.  I love playing with them, I love using them, I love syncing them with other devices, I love showing them off to others - but not one of them has stood up to the hard use that is apparently the lot of  any electronic item that goes to live in my briefcase.  Within six months, each electronic palmtop device has broken or imploded - and in each case, I failed to find any local technician that was willing to repair it. 

(Incidentally, I wish that the folks who design and manufacture electronic palmtop devices would take a few lessons from the suppliers of mobile phones.  My previous phone, which lived a hard life in my briefcase, was still going strong after four years, and I would never have taken on my current one if Sprint PCS hadn't offered me a free Samsung with a lot of features that I secretly craved.  But I digress.)

For the past three or four years, it's been bound paper "diaries" by Letts of London. Any conventional paper calendar shreds itself in despair after about a month in my company, so now I'm careful to choose one that is bound either in leather or the kind of stiff cardboard that is used for books.

I don't really mind the teasing, and in a way, it's a good object lesson for techno-philes and techno-phobes alike.  The coolest geek tool in the world has to work in the field for the person who is using it; otherwise, it's not actually preferable to a low-tech solution.