“Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”~ Benjamin Franklin

Years ago, I carried a “Franklin Day Planner” around with me everywhere. I loved it and used it daily. When the original vinyl covered binder wore out, I splurged on a nice leather covered binder which will likely last me for decades.

However, about four years ago I was ridiculed by a friend for carrying around this paper based planner and he’d pull his little Palm Pilot out of his shirt pocket, make notes, check his to-do list, and have everything organized within it. He laughed at me being an “Internet” guy and figured someone such as me who knew his way around computers ought to have “gotten with the technology” by now.

I have to admit I was a bit envious of my friend - and thought perhaps it was time for me to get rid of my paper based planner and so I picked up my own Palm Pilot after researching and discovering that there was software available in Linux to sync with a variety of calendar programs that come with Linux desktops.


I’ve had enough of the electronic organizer/planner and am going back to my paper based Franklin Day Planner. At the end of June, I ordered a one year refill and it arrived in time to start the month of July (Franklin have several options for what month you’d like to start your refill pack with and July is one of them).

So what are my reasons for going back to a paper based system?

1. Paper Doesn’t Run Out Of Batteries

If I was going away for a few days, I’d often forget my power charger for my Palm Pilot. Not much is more frustrating than being away from the office and relying on an electronic gadget for your appointments and the gadget’s battery runs out.

As well, because I spend more time in front of my computer, I could use the calendar on the computer and would often forget about having to sync my Palm Pilot. So it would sit nearby - often not plugged into the charger or the USB port - and there were occasions when there would be such a loss of power that all the information on my Palm would be completely lost. This meant a full battery recharge and then a full sync or back up to the Palm - and of course, this would always occur at the least opportune times.

2. Using A Stylus Sucks

When I write, I like fairly heavy thick pens. I really enjoy writing with a Waterman Expert II or Carene Special Edition - so using a stylus even for tapping against letters was uncomfortable for me. Using it to write with on a small screen was virtually worthless as I could not even read my own writing at times with the stylus!

Trying to use the stylus was an effort in futility for me although I tried, and practiced with it - and even purchased pens that came with a stylus built in but never really could get the hang of using it.

3. Too Much Paper!

As strange as it seems, using an electronic form of calendar or organization ended up causing me to create too much on paper - in a way that caused me disorganization. No matter what I did, I’d still be using paper to jot down notes from a telephone call, conversation or ideas that would come into my mind. If I were having a phone conversation with a client and needed to make notes, I’d be reaching for the back of an envelope whereas when I used my Franklin Day Planner, my notes would be on the right hand side of the day’s calendar and task list. All my notes in one place and easily found.

I have heard of some folk that will use headphones and a speaker for the telephone so they can type with both hands to make their notes while discussing something on the phone, but for note taking, the sound of keys typing distracts me. Writing with my right hand while I hold the phone to my ear with my left hand is just so much simpler, easier and efficient.

4. Psychological Motivation Issues

This is probably the biggest issue for me. I know it saves time to have a “To-Do” list on a computer and not have to write it out every day. You’d think that would be a great advantage - but in the end, I’ve discovered for me personally it probably decreased my productivity. There are at least two reasons for this:

a) As mentioned above, I found myself using scraps of paper to make notes. This is the worse thing a person can do! You take a few different phone calls in a row, all of them requiring some note to be made and then find yourself needing to continue on with a task. You set aside the scrap(s) of paper, the day moves on - and then you find yourself looking for the scraps of paper that you made your notes on. Did one fall of the desk? Was it accidentally tossed into the garbage bin or blue box? So much time was wasted looking for scraps of paper that seemed to fall between the cracks.

All of this time wasting effort can cause even more disorganization which can cause or motivate feelings of frustration. I don’t like to be frustrated due to my own inefficiencies!

b) I have written about goals previously and the importance of writing them down! For me, this applies just as much to my goals as it does to my daily task list. I found that if I had a large task list on my computer calendar, it was easy to overlook higher priority items daily. I didn’t think about them each day as I did when I would transfer an uncompleted task from the day before to the present day’s task list in my Day Planner. Writing something out seems to force the mind to give extra thought to the task far more than simply looking at it does. It may take 15 minutes of time each day to write out your task list and then plan for what your priorities are - whereas simply having your task list “appear” on your computer monitor is instantaneous - but those 15 minutes of writing, thinking and prioritizing each and every day might be the most important 15 minutes you spend in the day.

Writing them out can be a reminder to what is really important to you - and the small effort made in identifying these priorities each and every day seemed to reap far more results for me than using a handy dandy electronic time saving task list.

Which brings me to my last point:

Paper, Pen and Ink Are A Great Tool For Helping To Recognize Priorities

Many people have a “to-do” list of some sort. They then attack their “to-do” list using a variety of methods in their mind. Sometimes, people will do the easiest things first. Or they will do what they just feel like doing at the time. This of course, is better than doing nothing or having no list at all - but in the end, what will happen is that critical emergencies will come up because the person made no or little effort in prioritizing their completion of tasks based on what they truly value and are in line with their goals.

I really like the Franklin Day Planner system as taught by Hyrum Smith with the use of the “A, B, C” system for prioritizing the list of all the things you’d like to do. For example, you write out your list of things to do and then you spend a few moments determining if a task is Vital, Important, or Optional.

Doing this really makes you think about what is valuable and important to you! Beside tasks you deem as Vital, you put write the letter ‘A’. Important tasks get the letter ‘B’. Optional tasks get the letter ‘C’ - tasks that you really only should be spending your time on if all your ‘A’ and ‘B’ tasks get completed.

If you have more than one ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ task (and most people will have several in each category, you now go through your ‘A’ list and prioritize them with 1, 2, 3, etc, with #1 being the most vital. Then do the same with your ‘B’ and ‘C’ items.

And this is where many people go wrong! To paraphrase slightly the instructional notes that came with my original Franklin Day Planner:

“Sometimes what seems important isn’t really as important as you think. For example, giving a loved one a hug might actually be the most important thing you could do, but the laundry is piling up and so that gets an ‘A’. Don’t be fooled! Hug or spend some effort with your loved one first!”

Learning to think in this way as to how you spend your time, and what you spend your time on first can and will greatly enhance your life. By recognizing what it is you truly value and then making those tasks your Vital Priorities will go a long way to assuring that you don’t have to be putting out fires in the future because you daily and regularly attend to the tasks that hold the most value to you - whatever it is you decide you value.

With electronic type of planning and organization, I found myself getting away from the idea of marking tasks with an ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ because that option wasn’t there. I suppose I could have found ways around that - but it was difficult enough to try to get used to an electronic system with scraps of paper for my notes.

Tomorrow, if I have time (my blogging here is on my ‘B’ list of items), I’ll provide a short tutorial on how to use a Franklin Covey Day Planner in such a way that you’ll never forget any important commitment or task that you need to do, even years into the future!

But in the meantime, you really might want to consider the FranklinCovey Day Planner
as well as audio tape/CD training for its use. Yes, I am a member of their affiliate program and I’ll make a few bucks if you use this link to purchase their system - but I know that if you use it, you’ll be amazed at the results you’ll see in your own productivity.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Rate this:
2.5

See also:

Hot Topics: