Michael's daughter has soccer practice after work every Thursday and he routinely has her there on time. Madhu is writing a book and has organized a mass of notes and resources for her project. Meanwhile, Jorge logs into his investment accounts several times a day without effort.
What keeps these active adults on track? Each one uses an app for personal information management, or PIM. Early PIMs in the 1990s were hand-held devices, also called Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), but now we think of personal information management as the software that has evolved independently of devices or even as a field of study.
Let’s use the acronym itself to see how PIM software keeps Michael, Madhu and Jorge in charge.
Personal
Each of them has schedules, contacts and material that are important only to them. They want this information handy, and they want it to be secure, protected from prying eyes or identity theft. Some PIMs handle only certain functions, such as calendars or email, but many, like EssentialPIM, pull all this diverse information into one convenient place and keep it personal through password protection and data encryption.
Information
Almost anything you need to know or remember is information you can store in a PIM. Michael uses the calendar for his schedule, Madhu uses the notes organizer for her book and Jorge uses the password manager for logging into his accounts. But they also have to do lists, medical records, contacts, recipes, favorite websites and so much more. Their PIMs bring all this literally to their fingertips.
Management
Information has little value if you can’t get to it. This is where PIMs shine.
Before there was PIM software, Michael may have taped a calendar on the refrigerator, Madhu would have file drawers of paper and index cards, and Jorge might keep passwords on sticky notes around his computer. Information was in physical locations and if you weren’t there—out of sight, out of mind. Modern PIM software makes entering and retrieving all of this easy. Besides storing the information, you can set reminders, connect related items with links and tags, and keep your data in the cloud where you can get it virtually anywhere you are on your phone or tablet or PC.
The EssentialPIM Difference
Search the internet for PIMs and you will get thousands of hits, but one has “essential” in its name. EssentialPIM is not a boast, but a statement that this PIM is the essence of personal information management software because it is an easy-to-use, all-in-one package with calendar, a tasks module, notes, email client, password manager, and personal contact manager. We’ll talk about these in more detail in future posts.