Confession: I am a paper junkie. More specifically, a paper planner junkie. All through high school, college, and law school, I used a paper planner. That Target paper planner aisle sings to me with its sweet siren song.
And yet, as you know by now, I’m convinced most of us should run our lives on electronic calendars (I have a whole blog post on this so I won’t go into why here). But … I still can’t totally kick my paper planner tendency. So this is my middle ground approach…
Before I continue, let me be clear: my electronic calendar governs my life. EVERYTHING is in it. You absolutely need one calendar where you see everything you have on your plate (and, at the very least, a phone app that lets you see you work and personal calendars together).
That said, for some of us, something magical happens when we put pen to paper to write out our schedule. My solution? [UPDATE: In 2022, I no longer do this as life evolves to quickly to keep up, but I’m still sharing this as it might be useful to you!] My life is governed by my Google Calendar, but I have two month-view @botanicalpaperworks’s free printable calendars on our fridge (this month’s and next) that list out the main events — travel, my husband’s ever-changing work schedule, doctor’s appointments, and childcare. All of these appointments are in my electronic calendar (and my electronic calendar governs), but writing out the month view big-event schedule and being able to scan it quickly while grabbing the milk is so helpful and lets it sink into my brain a bit more.
I tell you this to give you freedom to make your systems work for you. There’s no “right way” to do this. My only strong recommendation: have one place where everything lives (for me, my Google Calendar) — and if you want to supplement with something that makes you happy and that won’t confuse you, great!
Anyone else a paper lover and sometimes struggle in this digital age??
Find out other ways we can work together here to manage the balance between paper and digital.
