Since losing my Treo 600 phone/pda a few weeks back, I’ve fallen increasingly in love with my low-cost, low-tech substitute: a stack of 12 or so 3×5 cards, held together with a small binder clip. I start out with a colored 3×5 card on the back, which I use to record production expenses, as well as to separate new cards from the used ones I move behind it once I scrawl something on them.

They’re the perfect size for writing down phone numbers, things I suddenly realize I have to do, or story notes. I write one thing on each card, so at the end of the day I can stack them up and work through them, transferring each piece of information onto the right place in my laptop – my to-do list, address book, film edit outline, etc.

Even once I pick up a replacement Treo, that stack of 3×5’s will doubtless be a permanent addition to my pocket. Give it a try for a few days, and I’m sure you’ll be joining the club.

[Also: for those who have asked, I spent Rosh Hashanah with the family of our cinematographer. Her father’s a rabbi, and they live in the Old Jewish Quarter, about five minutes walk from the Western Wall. At several points in the service, we read lines like: ‘baruch atah adonai, haporesh succat shalom b’yerushalayim” – ‘blessed are you God, who spreads the shelter of peace over Jerusalem.” And I thought to myself, yes, if there’s someone up there listening, it would be great if peace did shelter Jerusalem, at least long enough that I don’t get blown up. So far, so good.]