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Hello Mr. Philofaxy! I was listening to my podcasts today, and I heard something curious in one of them. It was a podcast on planners, and two or three ladies were talking and one mentioned something about getting a planner for a nephew, but all planners available were more girl-oriented. So they were wondering if men used planners, how many men were out there using planners, where could men find planners closer to their style, and at one point one lady said something to the effect of "well, men don't use planners because wives usually take care of all the remembering, so they don't have the need to do so". I guess that could indeed be the perception of someone who concentrate more on homemaker planning, but to be honest, I was wondering if this could be a bias fed also by social media algorithms where, if you more often than not search for happy planners and planners+stickers you will see a large amount of ladies planning with stickers in bound book planners.
ReplyDeleteI know there are plenty of men who use planners, but I was thinking on what might be their niche. Where do the planning-men tend to gather? What's their trend in planning?
Based on what my algorithm shows me, men tend to plan in ring planners, moleskine notebooks and traveler's notebooks. They don't use that many stickers - and if so, it's to illustrate a particular journaling moment - but use more text in less colors (monochomatic or a maximum of three colors blue-black-red) - and might use art for journaling, but not for planning.
How off is my algorithm from the general trend?
So much to unpick in the Victorian comment about wives that I won't go there! But otherwise it seems to me that your algorithm is pretty accurate. I wish I knew where the planning-men gathered. In my experience most men use their planners to .... wait for it .... plan. In my planner there's only black and red. No art, no stickers, no stamps, which are good if you want to make the thing look nice but don't add much if you're planning. But, as in all things, we are all different - there will be plenty of men with pink flowery planners full of stickers - and all power to them!
DeleteSomewhat tangential to your thoughts (but I think you'd enjoy it) is this article: https://tinyurl.com/22wsu5df I like it enough that I keep a full-color hard copy in my DC. :)
DeleteI would be interested to know which podcast this was you were listening to?
DeleteI've said it before.. I have nothing against people that decorate their planners or use stickers or different coloured pens.
I've also mentioned in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Plannerverse that the use of stickers can aid planning. A sticker potentially takes up less space on the page compared to the written word. I use graphical symbols in my blog planner to bring attention at a glance to the different posts on different days of the week etc.
A few years ago, Filofax mentioned in a talk that the 'balance' in terms of sales was about 80% female, 20% male, however it's the opposite of that in Japan and other Far East markets. Japan has a long tradition of using pen and paper in regular day to day business. This different balance lead to them marketing very different products on the Filofax JP website compared to the others.
Sadly as Graham will support, men don't like 'meeting' others to share their love of planners as much as women do. The attendance numbers at PlannerCon Europe will support that. Aside of the traders Graham and I were the few men there! We were very much accepted and we joined in all of the activities.
There's no dark place where we meet up in secret!!
Found it! The podcast is Best Laid Plans, and the episode would be "Feb Q&A: Planning Gender Divide, Password Management, Planning Pregnancy and Overwhelm with Annual Goals". Now that I listen to it more carefully, the podcaster does mention that she has the feeling that this is a more "American thing", that American (as in US) men are less prone to use planners or plan at all. Now, I don't have the statistics for this, and though many of the planner-men I follow are in Europe and Canada, there are also plenty in the States and often concentrate on productivity or minimalism.
DeleteInteresting, I will take a look/listen. I'm not sure about the USA or North America vs Europe in terms of 'Planning Men' I do have contacts in the planning community in most parts of the world, Not high in numbers but there's quite a few dotted around. Kent in Australia, Alan in Canada, I have another follower in South America, Richard Western USA who I met in Denver. To name a few!
DeleteListening, jump to 20:30 in the episode!
DeleteYes I think it's a US thing! In my household it's me that uses a paper planner... my wife exists on Apple Calendar and bits of scrap paper!
It’s hard to generalise but the characterisation you have seems quite plausible. For me, the “planning” side is only one area of use, with “record keeping” being another larger one.
ReplyDeleteI guess the perception of the podcaster might be based on what she sees, related to what the algorithm sends her way. Normally I check out videos on filofaxes and journaling, and I prefer content that's much more simple, that looks much more liek what I do, which is a bit simpler and definitively not decorating. Aside from content creators like Job, from Job's Journal, most of the men I follow have a more practical, resource-maximizing styles that prefer clean lines, and minimal visual noise. I presume the podcaster in question prefer content creators that do regular plan-with-mes and use more decoration.
DeleteAs a woman who plans in a practical way, without paying any attention to the visual aspect of the inserts and the writing... I'm very interested in knowing where men who like to plan gather, apart from here :)
ReplyDeleteI have seen them in YouTube! And they do a lot of journaling, as well. I have not seen videos of men doing plan-with-me, but often tend to offer reviews of products or give tips on how to journal, plan, organize life, be more productive and be happier. At least the ones I follow.
DeleteI have just bought my dad a William Hannah planner/notebook as a gift. He loves it! The practical no fuss inserts, notepaper, etc etc. He likes the quality of the paper, the engineering of the spine and the colours available. This is a great gift for a chap or even for us girls as there is a full colour range available to suit all tastes!!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! I'm glad your dad likes the planner. And I think this would be a great subject for a post/conversation on the blog or on Facebook: Filofaxes as gifts for relatives :) Philofaxy editors: what do you think? I'm sure plenty of us have tried it and have stories to tell!
ReplyDeleteHere's one: I tried offering a Filo to one of my ex boyfriends and did my very best... Choosing his favorite color, a masculine design, a good quality leather and all types of inserts. He said he liked it but never used it as a planner. After a year or so, I even started to notice that the shopping lists he carried in his pockets when we went to the supermarket were outdated Filofax inserts...
I wonder if I'll ever give a Filofax to a relative again, but I hope some people have success stories to tell!