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Here goes... I am torn between my use of paper planning and that of the digital world. I use a custom paper planner that is essentially the Filofax week on two pages, along with blank pages but, I have the vast majority of my dealings on the computer. I can't for the life of me find a sane way to use both systems. Digital alone makes me stress, paper calms me. Seriously. I welcome advice.
ReplyDeleteDear Wesley, Used to be the same for me, was bouncing back and forth between the two worlds. It worked for me pretty well as long as it was in the nineties and I had my beloved Psions (3c, 3mx, 5mx, netbook), but anything that came after that was just not an even productive tool. So, after few years trying on Android calendars and co I am going back to filofax now again. I will still use my smartphone of course (how could I without....), but for calendars, notes, ideas, keeping data "safe", etc. I will return to the good old paper method :) So, go ahead, and use both, just have to decide what you use in which world! Wishing the very best: Balázs (from Hungary)
DeleteThere are very many of us out there who plan their lives using both paper and bits/bytes, some very much skewed to the bits/bytes, some very much skewed to the paper. There's no reason why they can't be used together. The concern in your case is that you can't seem to find a balance. What exactly is it that's keeping you from sanity? With some details we might be able to help you find the zen way :-)
DeleteGraham
@beckerbalazs ...balance is definitely they problem for me. I suppose that time will take care of that. @unknown, my sanity is most likely hindered by not knowing which system to use for what. An example, I have digitally maintained a large list of tasks, this would be a master task list. In the same software I schedule them and move them around. I am now stuck on how to integrate the two systems. Omnifocus and paper.
DeleteBy the sounds of it, Wesley, it's a case of trying different combinations until you're comfortable with the balance. You've already mentioned that paper calms you, which I think is important. There comes a time when something clicks and you realise one way works better for you than the other. I dropped my Filofax in the 1990s in favour of the Palm Pilot, which was a brilliant tool and much missed, but as technology marched forward, actually doing what I needed to do seemed to get muddier instead of easier. I had a sudden epiphany one day when I was making an appointment for a squash lesson. My trainer had his diary open and pen poised whilst I was unlocking my phone and prodding and scrolling and swiping and generally not having any idea of what time would suit me without more scrolling and prodding and swiping. That's when I went back to a diary on paper, and I haven't regretted it for a second. Tasks, on the other hand, apart from dated ones, I have in a computer program because it makes managing them much easier - for me at least, as I have very many repeating tasks. You also mention the issue that many people have, and that is integrating with work colleagues. I know of cases where people have to use computers to plan because their work demands it. I'm lucky enough to only have a few work appointments, which my colleagues add to Outlook and which I then write to my Filofax. This usually works for me but might be problematic if the number of appointments grew significantly.
DeleteSo, basically, I would say, play around with combinations but do so in as relaxed a way as possible and also with a critical eye - when you find that the technology has suddenly become the problem, investigate doing things differently. Be warned, though … it can take years! But then ... that's half the fun ;-)
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DeleteOh, one other point Wesley. Try not to get trapped into trying to implement any one methodology or, at least, implementing it in the exact way its inventor has, be that GTD or Bullet Journalling or whatever. Find what works for you, so adapt as required. I have looked at so many of these methodologies and found that my own systems mimic some of them some of the time, but never one of them all of the time, and I'm a shockingly organised person - way beyond what people using any one methodology are. (Case in point: my major client is a Silicon Valley software company. When I first went there and into meetings with only a notebook, whilst others were pecking at keyboards, I got a lot of pitying glances as paper was deemed somehow to be backward and not disruptive enough. As they learned how effectively I work (their words, not mine), the glances became interested instead of pitying and people started bringing their own notebooks into meetings). What works for one person rarely works for somebody else, so you need to find your own planning peace.
DeleteThere is no reason why you can’t use paper alongside digital or vice versa. Most of us have been using both for many years! Yes, it does take a lot of experimentation to find out which bits work best for you digitally or analogue. In my case I do nearly all of my former paper organiser work on my iPhone. However I still would not be without paper and my organiser(s) for planning especially monthly and annual pages. I also think that note taking in meetings, face to face or during a phone call is much easier and looks more professional with paper. Whether you type them up later for a digital record is up to you! Ilkley Moor Tim
ReplyDeleteThis probably requires more information from me. I began the paper planning on a DayRunner in the early 90s and within a year moved to Franklin Planner. I introduced the digital world to my arsenal in the late 90s and I'm also an early adopter of tech. I've been caught up in the paperless movement and have been on and off with my Franklin Planner for this whole journey. Digitally, I have an iPhone, Android phone, iPad, laptop, Apple Watch, et al. On the digital side, I've always come back to using Omnifocus with a GTD mindset. I've tried Nozbe and every other digital variant that seemed worth trying. That said, it might just be my propensity toward obsessing over the tools that I use that causes my angst. I only recently began using my planner again and this time, using printed pages that follow the Filofax and I just have less stress about it. The trouble comes when I have to collaborate with those at work and must deal with email derived tasks and appointments.
ReplyDeleteSo, I have been struggling with this very thing. Background- I went back to college in my late 30s, married with 3 kids. While in school, paper planning was the only thing that kept me sane. Since graduation, I have downsized my paper planner to a pocket filofax that is also my wallet. I have weekly pages and notes, but it's really just stuff that applies to me. My family calendar is in an app called Cozi, because each member of the family (including my mother) has access to the app, and it sends reminders. This has been a good balance for us. I would love to be completely digital, but it just doesn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteI've always used both paper & digital. Like some of the other comments, it's a case of finding out how to make it work for you. I'm more unusual in the Filofax community as I don't keep a diary in my binder, but instead use Google calendar as it syncs with my husband's iCal. However, at busier times I do keep a tiny diary that I can pop in my bag. My diary is digital, but I pretty much do all other planning on paper as somehow it's easier for me to think this way. Some years go, I did consider going completely digital (when I finally got my MacBook Pro), but I know that just isn't for me.
ReplyDeleteI just dislike the weeny phone screen size for planning and the clunkiness of swish and swipe. Swish and swipe again as have tapped the wrong bit of the screen with sausage fingers!! I would only use a phone now, well as a phone frankly!!!!!! Would like to use the alarm as an appointments pinger alarm so I am ready to leave wayyyyyyy ahead of time, and not dashing out the door eating toast!!! But not sure I put my trust in technology that much not to fail due to a low battery, me forgetting that, SIM cards and err well failing and losing my data. So my planners are for planning and my phone as a phone..... for now anyway. Expense of using an i-phone comes into it too. xxxx
ReplyDeletePS Many years ago now, I got my handbag stolen at work, and lost my diary. If I had had a backup, life at the time would have been far and way less fraught. But because of mis- copying or not being in synch with a bi-system I am a one life one planner gal now, end of story really, but annoying when work insists on staff using purely digital calendars I agree!!!!
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