Now, I LOVE paper. I process by writing pen to paper, and paper planners got me through college and law school.
But when it comes to managing your time as a modern working woman trying to juggle all your roles, well… here’s the thing:
To get all of the magical results of time-blocking, you need to account for where all of your time is going.
To do that, you have to block time for alllll of your activities, including those that don’t show up on your to-do list (working out and showers, getting kids ready, making meals) – see a couple of posts ago about your Invisible To-Do List.
That’d be a lot of info to write out every week. Especially if you’re someone who writes and re-writes until it looks pretty (cough*me*cough).
Plus, time-blocked paper calendars get overwhelmingly cluttered real fast because you can’t filter what you see (i.e., you’re stuck looking at whatever you put in there all the time – you can’t click parts of your schedule on and off like you can in a digital calendar).
AND you can’t calendar out weekly, monthly or every-two-week things with the same speed and accuracy as you can in a digital calendar, where you just repeat events and – ta-dah! – you’re done.
At the end of the day, time-blocking in a paper calendar is just, candidly, too much work and takes too much time.
Long story short: effective, powerful time-blocking (and it really is powerful) requires a digital calendar if it’s going to stick for the long haul.
That might mean it’s not for you. Or it may mean you may want to switch it up.
And if my paper-loving mom who used a paper planner for 40+ years can become a Google Calendar convert and whiz, so can you.
If you’re ready, I teach professional working women my entire time management method in an effective and weirdly-fun six-week program.
My next program is now open for enrollment and will run from Jan. 27- Mar. 3. If you’re interested, learn more here!
