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Wsj: Covid Spoiled Your Plans? Get A Planner, Say Devotees


markh

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From today's (7/30/20) Wall Street Journal:

Link: hopefully not behind a wall:

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-spoiled-your-plans-get-a-planner-say-devotees-11596034169?st=u8fdrbjm5vdfmv1&reflink=article_gmail_share

 

 

A few quotes:

 

 

Users of the paper appointment books find that filling the pages with to-do lists—things to read, friends to call, resolutions to keep—helps them feel in control in a scary time.

....

 

In a period when there’s seemingly nothing to plan, enthusiasts of paper planners are buying more of them than ever. Online sales of appointment books and planners in June grew 23% from the year before to $2.9 million, says market researcher NPD Group.

 

People are filling their planners with anything they can think of, including movie ideas, health statistics, daily affirmations and life goals. Fans say a planner is about more than schedules and to-do lists—for many, it is a form of self-care and control at a time when the world feels out of hand.

 

Beyond the pandemic, planners have enjoyed a surprising resurgence in recent years among people who want a break from screens, preferring to organize life’s messy disorder with pen on paper.

 

 

Hopefully not too off topic....

 

 

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"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

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Speaking stricktly for myself, I don't think this is too off-topic at all. I'm one of those people filling up my planner and contributing to that 2.9 million dollars in growth!

 

Using my fountain pens and my ink pens for drawing, writing, and such in my planner/bullet journal/sketch notbook is a relaxing and fun way to spend my COVID-19 stay-at-home hours.

 

Although I have noticed that because I'm home, I'm browsing the pen and stationery and office supply stores more often online and buying more fountain pens, inks, and papers/notebooks than I normally would be. So ... that's a drawback/not a drawback sort of dilemma ....

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For many years, I used a paper planner - one of those 'systems' where you bought a year's worth of refill pages that would only fit into an oddly-configured ring binder sold only by the original maker. It worked, but my discipline was that all entries had to be in pencil. Life is full of surprises, and plans have to change - pencil erases!

 

Then I resigned from the Luddite Society and started using an electronic planner - we had a young intern in our office who used one and who convinced me to try that approach. I used the alarm function in the electronic planner to let me know when I had something planned (when I retired, I could finally turn off that alarm!). Today, that has morphed into a smart phone. Wife and I each have a Google calendar on our computers, and can also access those calendars from our phones, and they are linked so that I can see her activities, and she can see mine. Each Sunday, I print out the week's agenda and keep a copy on my desktop, both as a reminder and as a 'doodle pad'.

 

I also keep lists in a separate app in my phone. The app I use has a feature that allows me to check off items when they are completed (or purchased - it's especially useful to maintain shopping lists).

 

But I do still carry a small Rhodia pad (No 11) in my pocket for notes.

 

Ultimately, the choice is individual, and whatever works for you is fine.

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Thanks for sharing!

 

I've tried using a Bullet Journal, but after a year I got tired of all the hand re-writing and not being able to go to a specific day in the future for to-do.

 

Went to the Hobonichi Cousin, but found I didn't use 2/3rds of the all the planning sections.

 

This year I found a nice middle ground with a Moleskine Daily Diary, yearly, monthly and page a day.

 

I do use the calendar on my smartphone but mostly for appointments.

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I almost never used the calendar on my phone, although I do use the one on my laptop. That being said, I do also buy inexpensive planners (the kind that have a week's worth of entry space across two pages, so there's room to write stuff -- at least for the M-F sections) that you can buy at dollar stores, and are small enough to toss in my purse.

Pages that don't have entries get recycled as to-do or shopping lists, and where I made notes about what the ER staff told my husband Sunday evening, as well as a potential packing list if he needed to be admitted for longer than overnight (it happens to be on the same page as notes about pens I saw at different booths at some antiques shop from a few weeks go).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I am a long time paper planner user - Franklin Covey specifically. I started using it in January 1986 and still have all those pages from all those years. That makes 2020 year 36.

 

 

They way I use it has evolved over the years and weekends it doesn't get used much if at all. My cost annually is about $35 for refill pages and another $8-10 for storage binder. (I use the "Classic" size which is roughly A5) I used to be able to walk into one of their locations and pick it up. Now they ship it across town. No more stores. The one there is isn't convenient in place or hours of operation for me.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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From today's (7/30/20) Wall Street Journal:

Link: hopefully not behind a wall:

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-spoiled-your-plans-get-a-planner-say-devotees-11596034169?st=u8fdrbjm5vdfmv1&reflink=article_gmail_share

 

 

A few quotes:

 

 

Hopefully not too off topic....

 

 

.

Thank you (original poster) for the link. It is an interesting article and I was able to get through and read the whole thing.

 

One point about the above $2.9M... that number seems VERY low to me even as a monthly increase. That not even enough to keep DayTimers alone in business. I suspect that the number may be $2.9B or at least some thing much beyond the $3M figure.

 

Also, for some of people, perhaps like people who use fountain pens, sitting and writing things down, rewriting things, crossing items off has a certain feeling of completions and tactile satisfaction. I would imagine that it would be an experience similar to walking up to a shelf with 36 years worth of daily planning/activity documentation and just running one's fingers over the storage containers.

 

Although electronic/digital documentation is totally acceptable may not offer the "sensory satisfaction or experience that some of use want/need.

 

Just my two sense worth!

“Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, because if you do it today and like it, you can do again tomorrow!”

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As a radio engineer I kept a notebook with a Dayrunner in front to keep track of hours, project notes, reminders... the back half was full of notes taken during conversations with vendors, tech support, translator volunteers, procedures, anything that I might need to remember. That started back in the early 90s. I may not have the calendar items, but I still have the notes. I still use one for other work out of the shop, and I have a binder with notes, measurements and drawings from repairs I've done over the last decade and more. All of this written with a fountain pen. I use that quite a bit, and one project I need to do is to photocopy the pages and put the notes in alphabetical order by manufacturer. It keeps growing, and additions can be pages after the initial entries.

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