Friday's Unscientific Poll: Paper planners

[nanila]

I know I'm a slow-moving mammal when it comes to the Internet. I mean hey, I'm still actively using LiveJournal and am suspicious of these new-fangled innovations like Tumblr and Instagram. But it sometimes surprises people to see that I keep a paper diary. I do use an electronic calendar (for work; Microsoft Outlook) but it's not my primary source for my list of daily tasks and meeting reminders. If I don't physically write things down, I don't remember to do them nearly as well as if I've put pen to paper in the process of committing them to memory. So I'm curious if there's anyone else out there who is still stubbornly clinging to their paper calendar or planner, or if I'm finally approaching an age when I can start becoming properly Luddite.

Poll #17246 Paper planners

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 55

View Respondents

For scheduling, I primarily rely upon

View Answers

An electronic calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google)
28 (50.9%)

A paper calendar or planner
24 (43.6%)

Post-it notes stuck to mymonitor/my mirror/my forehead/various household appliances
1 (1.8%)

My brain
2 (3.6%)

Comments

[jb_slasher]

I would have selected both electronic and paper since I rely on Outlook at work and on paper outside of work.

[nanila]

I keep thinking I should make a work/life separation like that but the thought of maintaining more calendars makes me feel weepy. I put both work and life things in my paper planner which is probably why I'm so reliant on it. Only I see it and it's not electronic so no one else can unless I give it to them which is unlikely. My Outlook calendar is exclusively for work. At home we have a wall planner for joint family things.

[samskeyti]

I use both paper and electronica daily. The to do lists, ticky boxes and provisionally plotted stuff all goes on the paper. The big blocks of time and appointments go on the screen and the paper.

[nanila]

Sounds like a good system! I make to do lists on post itsome in really tiny print. I don't know why tiny print is necessary but it is.

[adeliej]

Similarly -- I use

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Similarly -- I use <my company's calendar/planning software> for meetings at work, and paper for todos and planning in the school year. (I'm in my first degree, which I started right out of high school, *and* I'm interning for a big tech company right now, so I switch back and forth between Luddite and very tech-y.) I've also been experimenting with Todoist recently, as my todo list is expanding beyond what I can keep track of with one piece of paper. Having the more sophisticated search/labelling/scheduling stuff is handy.

[nanila]

Todoist sounds worth investigating. I write to do lists on post its and make it a rule to tear them up at the end of the day whether I finished or not. This keeps me from feeling bad about carryover.

[gwendraith]

I use my smart phone calendar (google) but I also use a paper calendar for marking things like when the bin day has changed and when the gardeners came.

[nanila]

Bin day! Oh my goodness, thank you. I can't believe I haven't been tracking bin day / type on our wall calendar. It would be so much better than having to walk down the road in the dark to see what the neighbours have put out. :P

[caulkhead]

I tried using just an electronic planner last year, but gave up. Things just don't stick in the same way, and I can't get an overview by quickly flicking through it.

Consequently, there's a large diary on my desk, a little one that swaps between handbag/rucksack (though that's backup, once things are in the big diary, I can remember them), and a plain page A4 notebook for short term planning.

[nanila]

Yes, I haven't been able to define all the things that are missing from an electronic calendar, I just know there are a sufficient number to prevent me from switching away from paper completely. There is privacy (I keep no personal appointments in electronic form), formatting (I pack a lot of specialist ops information into small areas of my paper calendar) and there's the handwriting-brain connection which is seemingly essential to me too.

[antisoppist]

I'd have ticked all four, given the option.

Work deadlines are in my job management and invoicing software
Family stuff is on a five-column paper calendar in the kitchen
To-do lists, and all other planning and thinking and doodling are in a paper notebook always on my desk/in my bag (not a diary because there is either not enough space per day or too much)
I am trying to use a calendar app on my phone but don't seem to be very good at putting things in it.

[nanila]

I applaud your compartmentalization skills!

This really should have been a ticky box poll.

[rmc28]

Scheduling is an electronic calendar service run by Fastmail, who also provide our family email accounts. It's a shared calendar with Tony on which all child appointments and family-affecting appointments for me and Tony go. I have a separate private calendar (which I can see alongside the family calendar on web or phone) which I primarily use for scheduling my OU study and phone calls to family.

To-do list is mostly my personal email inbox. I am experimenting with the app Regularly for recurring tasks, since kaberett recommended it, and it is going well so far. At work (when I get back there) I tend to use a mixture of writing-in-notebook and asking people to email me with the details of what they want.

Shopping lists I tend to do on paper, but I'm looking into shared list apps because Tony and I both spot things-needed at different times and in different ways.

[soliano]

I have tried to go back to paper but since work is Outlook based I have found it hard to do so.

[perennialanna]

Five column calendar in the front hall by the coats (one column for each family member, then a column for when the various benefits pay me, and a column for when direct debits and rent and so forth will go out). Small diary in my bag, cross-referenced with big calendar at least weekly. Notebook in bag, A4 pad for weekly to-do list on the dining table by my place. Ornamental calendar in the kitchen.

About the only thing I do electronically is flagging emails as they come in if they need an action but not yet, to make sure they don't vanish. When I had a job outside the house I did use the Outlook Calendar for a lot of things, but it never replaced my desk diary.

[sfred]

I've been using electronic calendars instead of paper diaries since about 2002, when I had my first pocket computer (second-hand Palm followed very quickly by second-hand Psion). I've been too peripatetic for too long for a wall-calendar to work; I don't experience very much difference between an electronic device in my pocket and a paper diary, and I really like being able to add things on my phone and have them show up on my computer and vice-versa.

On the other hand, I struggle to keep electronic to-do lists updated and always revert to a paper notepad for that.

[chickenfeet]

The advantage of electronic is that K and I can share calendars. Since mine consists almost entirely of concerts she can then pick which ones she wants to go to. Entirely coincidentally we spent some considerable time yesterday discussing the diet and metabolism of sloths.

[quoththeravyn]

All of the above. I still have paper calendars/diaries that I carry around, but they're no longer complete, since a lot of work stuff is on google calendar. There's a yellow sticky to-do list on my monitor at work, and I've even taken to removing the finished one and pasting it inside my notebook (it might be handy when it comes time to write up my annual review).

Brain? Meh. Overrated. If only it would forget the right things and remember the ones I like.

[weaverbird]

I use a desktop application exclusively because paper just never worked for me - either I didn't write things down, or I forgot to check if there was anything written down for today, or the damn book wasn't at hand when I needed it.

The desktop app, however, is always there for me - it boots up with the laptop (I don't need to remember to fire it up) and it sits there, all unobtrusive, keeping track of everything I jot down. And I love SO MUCH that I can schedule pop-up reminders (one-offs and/or recurring), so that nothing gets missed. Also, I can link or embed supporting documents, and add/edits notes without ever running out of space. AND it's backed up with all my other files, so I can't lose it all by misplacing a book.

[kaberett]

I used a paper diary only right up until I had to use Google Calendar for lab bookings for work, whereupon I decided that if I had to look at the wretched thing anyway I might as well Be A Poly Cliche about it. So.

[recessional]

I bought more paper agendas in my life than is reasonable. They would all be forgotten within two weeks and take up space in my bag.

Using Calendar and Omnifocus actually works? So.

eta: The big thing that paper never gave me that the e-calendars spread across my i-devices does? Alerts.

Paper agendas are useless to me because I have to remember to write in them (when there's no guarantee they're always with me down to things like "I ran into someone in the grocery store" (because ones small enough to live in my purse are useless because they can't contain enough information), which makes for Steps on Steps which just . . . doesn't happen.

And then, assuming I remember to write in them, I have to remember to look at them later. Which I probably won't.

You have no idea how hard I tried, over and over, to use a paper agenda. And always, always failed.

Whereas my phone is always, always with me, and when I put something into Calendar I can put an alert on it, depending on how I need to remember it. And then when we hit that alert, my phone - which, as noted, is always in me - makes noises and buzzes at me!

I will then ALSO use postits/my chalkboard wall-stickie/etc around my house or whatever, but everything revolves around what's in my phone. (And, by virtue of being in my phone, also on my computer and my iPad, without me having to do anything, which is an important part of the magic.)

[ayebydan]

I don't trust online things to remember. What if my phone needed rebooted and my calender forgot everything? Risky business. Paper for me.

[yvi]

I do used Google Calendar, but since I just don't have a lot of appointments, I remember most things without it anyway.

[omnipotent]

Pretty good at remembering things mentally. As there appears to be a pattern of Alzheimer's/dementia in my family, I try to remember as much as possible without the assistance of technology. Occasionally I use Calendar/Notes in my iPhone.

[castiron]

I use both Google calendar and a paper calendar in our kitchen. This leads to my having to double-enter things, but it works better for me than just electronic or just paper. The kids (who aren't old enough to have electronic accounts and devices of their own) and the rarely-checks-email spouse can see what's on the paper calendar, and I have the electronic benefit of being able to see my calendar whereever I am (handy when scheduling doctor's appointments and needing to check whether I'm double-booking).

[firecat]

I use a text file on a shell account as a calendar. There is a program that I set up to email me the next four days of my calendar whenever I log in.

[ironed_orchid]

Outlook at work, and my phone's built in planner app at home.

[fred_mouse]

Cannot answer poll; I don't have a primarily. I have:

• an outlook calendar (work; because I have no choice) which syncs to my mobile;
• a communal google calendar that is shared amongst the adults that need to know where the kids are, and who is collecting them;
• a page per day paper diary that goes on the kitchen counter, where appropriate pieces of paper get stuck between the day and either day before or after (this is the most useful change I've made in several years - this will be the third year I've done this, and having something large enough that I don't lose it is great, and bills don't languish on the fridge); and
• two A3 week at a glance planners, one on the wall at home, and one on my desk at work

Also, paper notes, when one of these is not readily available. However, while technically I rely on my brain, in reality, it is susceptible to data corruption, such that I end up at the wrong place and/or at the wrong time.

[fragilespark]

I couldn't quite fit my answer into the poll results, so here it is:

Work: Outlook calendar and recurring Tasks. However, I don't use it on my iPhone, only my laptop.

Home: my main day to day tool is a Monday to Sunday wipeboard that is stuck on my fridge. I note down any thing and everything I need to remember, from when I want to take the bins out to meeting a friend as the week rolls around. As soon as I have done something, or the day has passed, I wipe it off and write the next day number. I draw a line to separate the week. So today* it looks like this:

11 Monday
12 Tuesday
13 Wednesday
14 Thursday
15 Friday
*9 Saturday
10 Sunday

It's amazing how this one thing makes me feel like I know where I am and what's coming in the next 7 days, and if I don't get some of the stuff done, I can just move it to another day or wipe it off.

I then have a small monthly calendar (which is also a list of days going down, as opposed to a grid) hanging in my living room to help with more long term/fixed plans - this I use to get an idea of upcoming events.

[boundbooks]

I would be an utter disaster without my paper planner. I've recently started supplementing it's current layout with the bullet journal markings.

Super flexible system that can work in pretty much any paper journal, for any journaling/planner fans out there. :D

How to Bullet Journal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm15cmYU0IM

[omnipotent]

That icon is lovely.

[liseuse]

I answered for me personally. I use a paper calendar - on the kitchen notice board - for birthdays and appointments. I also have a paper diary, which has birthdays and appointments in, and also bits of my financial accounting system. I also supplement that with a bullet journal, which is useful for to-do lists (short-term and long-term) and in which I draw out a monthly calendar - which I find really helpful for cementing birthdays in my brain. I ... am not good at remembering birthdays.

At work, however, I use Outlook's calendar because everyone does so I have to. I also write out important meetings on post-it notes and put them on my computer monitor because I see that more.