PERSONAL ORGANIZER

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) An organizer for keeping track of one's personal affairs (appointments, commitments, finances, etc.), in paper or electronic form: either a loose-leaf notebook with sections for different types of information, pockets for credit cards, pens, etc. (a generic term for Filofax) or an electronic diary and notebook in the form of a pocket-sized microcomputer or software for a personal computer. Etymology: Formed by compounding: an organizer for one's personal life. History and Usage: The transformation of the appointments diary into the personal organizer took place in the early eighties as the fashion for the Filofax among yuppies encouraged other firms to manufacture similar systems and a name was sought which was not protected as a trade mark. A growing preoccupation with organizing information (especially in the form of electronic data) coincided in the second half of the eighties with the development of ever smaller computers at affordable prices; the term personal organizer was not yet so firmly associated in the public mind with loose-leaf notebooks as to preclude its application to these electronic organizers as well, a process which began to take place in the late eighties and early nineties. These busy people all rely on personal organizers--compact, three-ring binders designed to keep track of various aspects of one's life. Los Angeles Times 20 Aug. 1985, section 4, p. 1 We have given you the chance to get your life back into some sort of shape with the amazing Agenda word processor/personal organizer. CU Amiga Apr. 1990, p. 71