I do!
I won’t lie, I usually put my appointments on my phone calendar because it has a reminder and all that. But, when I’m looking at what I have scheduled, it’s my planner that I turn to.
Why?
Because I have a system that works for me.
Seeing everything laid out for the week, is a good way to spot where you have to be.
I use a weekly spread in my planner and when I look at the week I know exactly where I have to be and what I need to do for the entire week.
I just can’t get on board with trying to see the week on my phone. It’s not efficient. Worse still, is trying to pull up your calendar when you’re already on the phone with someone. Scheduling meeting is just so much easier with paper calendar.
Every now and again, I’ll try a daily planner. Unfortunately, they just don’t work for me. I don’t even know why I bother trying.
I know daily planners create focus and help you narrow things down to a single day so you’re not distracted by what’s coming up.
Good planning is usually done in advance.
It’s almost never the case that you plan for something on the day that you have to get it done. So, if you’re only focused on one day, you’re really not planning for it. You’re just going through your list of stuff to get done.
This doesn’t always work, particularly when you have meetings to attend. There’s always pre-planning and stuff you need to get done well in advance and weekly layouts are perfect for this.
It’s also so much easier to flip through your paper calendar to find a record of your meetings. If you need to follow up, or need to write a call report, having a record makes a lot of sense.
And there you have it… paper calendars are not extinct and shouldn’t be anytime soon. Electronic calendars are definitely superb but, supplementing them with paper can make a huge difference in managing your time.
Looking through a frosty window... 