Personal Information Manager

The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to personal information management as a field of study. As an information management tool, a PIM tool's purpose is to facilitate the recording, tracking, and management of certain types of "personal information".

Personal information can include any of the following:

• Address books
• Alerts
• A digital calendar with calendar dates, such as:
  • Anniversaries
  • Appointments
  • Birthdays
  • Events
  • Meetings
• Education records
• Email addresses
• Fax communications
• Itineraries
• Instant message archives
• Legal documents
• Lists (such as reading lists, task lists)
• Medical information, such as healthcare provider contact information, medical history, prescriptions
• Passwords and login credentials
• Personal file collections (digital and physical): documents, music, photos, videos and similar
• Personal diary/journal/memos/notes
• Project management features
• Recipes
• Reference materials (including scientific references, websites of interest)
• RSS/Atom feeds
• Reminders
• Voicemail communications

Some PIM/PDM software products are capable of synchronizing data over a computer network, including mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This feature typically stores the personal data on cloud drives allowing for continuous concurrent data updates/access, on the user's computers, including desktop computers, laptop computers, and mobile devices, such a personal digital assistants or smartphones.)

Prior to the introduction of the term "Personal digital assistant" ("PDA") by Apple in 1992, handheld personal organizers such as the Psion Organiser and the Sharp Wizard were also referred to as "PIMs".

The time management and communications functions of PIMs largely migrated from PDAs to smartphones, with Apple, RIM (Research In Motion, now BlackBerry), and others all manufacturing smartphones that offer most of the functions of earlier PDAs.

• Calendar
• Calendaring software
• Comparison of note-taking software
• Information management
• Information system
• List of personal information managers
• List of wiki software
• Password manager
• Personal information management
• Personal knowledge base
• Personal organizer
• Personal wiki
• Semantic desktop

• Freeware PIMs at Curlie
• "PIM Tools". famnit.upr.si. A list of research Personal information managers.
• ISO 27701:2019 Personal information management system and GDPR documentation requirements
• Steps to be followed while implementing ISO/IEC 27701 based Personal information management system