Paper Appointment Diaries, Do You Still Use Them And Keep The Old Ones?

[Citygirl]

Just wondering on this topic. I used to always keep a paper appointment diary (and a Filofax up until a few years ago), I still have the old Filofax inserts and full appointment diaries, they don't take up much room but I use my mobile phone calendar now for appointments and reminders (though still prefer paper for journalling). Do you still use a paper appointment diary or planner and if so do you keep all the old ones? I am wondering whether or not to throw mine out but they are interesting to look back on sometimes.

[bogiesan]

Throw 'em out and all that was once "interesting" is gone forever. You might find that relaxing.

 

IN a decade, you'll wonder how you could have ever been bothered to slog through today's iPhone apps.

[dgturner]

I use my paper based planner and my Outlook calendar (synced to my Google calendar of course) for all appointments/meetings. I keep the old inserts just in case...

[PaperDarts]

I'll never give up my paper planners. Paper never crashes, and the battery lasts forever.

[12345Michael54321]

I still use a paper appointment book. (I don't keep the old ones. If anything worth mentioning came of an appointment, the details will be recorded elsewhere. Typically in electronic form.)

 

I'm no Luddite. I embrace all manner of modern technology, and have a calendar app right on my Samsung S3 cell phone. But some things I just prefer in paper form, to electronic form. I find them faster and/or easier and/or "better" in some difficult to describe way, in paper form.

 

For example, I'd rather read The Atlantic in print form, than on an electronic device. I'd rather receive a thank you note on paper, than as a text message. And I prefer keeping track of my appointments on paper, rather than by computer.

 

Since I've never been taken to task for habitually forgetting appointments, I see no reason to abandon my preference in this matter.

 

I also keep a paper address book. Although all the information is duplicated elsewhere in electronic form. And I do keep old address books, not that I replace old ones with new ones very often.

Edited February 23, 2013 by 12345Michael54321

[Epistler]

For several years I have been using a Planner Pad (www.plannerpads.com) for organizing my days, weeks, year, and to-do lists. The design of their pages is the best thing that I have found for my relationship with time. They have a "funneling" system that lets you organize tasks/reminders/possible-activities by topic/theme/department-of-your-life OR to commit them to a particular day OR to commit them to particular time span (as an appointment). This allows me to be as flexible and uncommitted or as precise and committed as I want to be about a particular item. And that can change for any given item as it funnels through the system.

 

For a lot of years before discovering Planner Pads I used a 2-page-per-day Daytimer. I do miss about that the full (a5-ish) page for just taking notes about a day; it could serve as both an appointment book and a journal. But I prefer the weekly layout of the Planner Pad's main pages. (Yes, I know that Daytimer has a weekly offering, too, but what won me over to Planner Pads was their funneling of to as narrow a range of specificity as I want for any particular item.

 

And, yes, old volumes are from time to time handy as a reference or memory jogger.

[bcbg]

Absolutely.

My phone is ancient and I like my Rhodia Webplanner ( even with its silly name ) .

[stacybean]

I probably won't give up my Circa daily planner with hourly appointment slots. I have all kinds of "I" electronica but don't wish to use the calendar function. By the time my client has turned on their phone my book is opened and pencil poised. It never has trouble synching , etc,

[TonyP1980]

Does anyone know of anything similar to the PlannerPad in te UK or Europe? I quite like the look of it but imagine import costs would be a pain.

[byronss]

I use Mac Calendar for everything - info is automatically replicated on all my Macs, iPhone and iPad. Couldn't ask for better, but it's a little unwieldy with everything I have in there, so it's easy to miss something (despite reminders). So, I also have a paper diary in which I make notes and enter only really important important appointments.

 

Until recently I had paper diaries going back to the 1970s. Having recently downsized, I spent a very sentimental afternoon glancing through them, and then throwing most of them out for lack of space to keep. Sadly, I will never remember most of what was written in them. Now no reason for my heir, who is a minimalist and paperless to the max, to say: "What'd she keep all that for?"

[pencils+pens]

I use a Month-At-A-Glance planner that has a lot of ruled pages in the back.

 

I use the ruled pages to track client progress.

 

The appointment pages are just notes of client meetings, other meetings, birthdays etc. It has no lasting value. The real meaty stuff gets written in the "Work Journal".

 

All the entries are made with a mechanical pencil. I use a Pentel Clic-Eraser for "updating".

 

At the end of the year, I rip out and shred the appointment pages and client progress pages (there is almost no carryover year-to-year). I then keep the rest of the book and use it for practice handwriting. When it is full, out in the trash it goes.

 

I find the book a lot easier to use and update than any electonic gadget, of which I own several. I also like the full size of the book, which makes it a lot easier to read than some small font on a smart/cell phone.

[mhm802]

I use paper AND electronic. I tried to transition to all-electronic a couple of years ago, but really missed writing things down in my A-5 Filofax. But I hated lugging that brick around all the time, and having to buy handbags to accomodate it. The siren call of having everything at my fingertips on my smartphone/Google calendar was irresistable. But it wasn't enough, I just wasn't satisfied or comfortable. After some experimenting, I've discovered that using both is really the best of both worlds, for me. I usually synch them every couple of days, and find they serve as "backups" to each other. I can get away with having a very small notebook, or even a few index cards, in a small handbag on the weekends, and my shoulder is grateful. (Now... finding the right pen/nib/ink combination to write on poor Filofax paper is another story altogether...but it CAN be done!)

[bogiesan]

I've used Franklin Day Planner products for more than 20 years. Tried other formats and keep going back.

I retain an entire year's pages for two years and then discard all but the monthly indices. I have all of them in lovely Franklin and Day Timer storage binders.

My Macintosh-centric digital life syncs all stuff between iPad, several Macs and iPhone seamlessly and easily. But the volume of information can be overwhelming and difficult to sort on the phone.

I use the Franklin because it's cool, fun, tangible, retro and satisfyingly crinkly.

Edited February 25, 2013 by bogiesan

[Nibble]

I use a small Smythson's Panama Diary. The cheapest one available. (Their cheapness is a debatable point.) The simplest ones come in red or dark blue. I alternate so that I can easily pick up the right one from desk, which is especially useful at the turn of the year.

 

I find a small diary suits me. If I cannot fit events on the page, then probably I haven't got time to do them. I think it is important to keep strictly to one diary: having two diaries is very dangerous unless you are so disciplined that you never confirm an appointment until you have checked the other diary. At the beginning of the year I write birthdays and obit memorials in red ink on the appropriate date. And I keep old ones. "Did it snow on Easter Day 1975?" "Do you know, it is six years since we came and stayed with you." These are probably not important facts, but they add to the richness of the tapestry of life.

 

It needs to be said that each year I tell myself that I will not buy another Smythson diary as they are too expensive, but I will always keep a paper one. Perhaps Leuchtturm is the way to go.

[paperballs]

Just wondering on this topic. I used to always keep a paper appointment diary (and a Filofax up until a few years ago), I still have the old Filofax inserts and full appointment diaries, they don't take up much room but I use my mobile phone calendar now for appointments and reminders (though still prefer paper for journalling). Do you still use a paper appointment diary or planner and if so do you keep all the old ones? I am wondering whether or not to throw mine out but they are interesting to look back on sometimes.

 

I've been a cellphone/smartphone user for over a decade, but I've always used a paper appointment book, ever since I began using the dayplanners they gave us in high school. After high school it was Filofax inserts, then I switched to the thinnest, cheapest Moleskine planners, but since I started using FPs, I have a Quo Vadis desk planner bought for cheap after the New Year. It mostly keeps record of specific email correspondence and important dates that I like to keep record of. Away from home, I carry with me a small Letts pocketbook in which I keep things like short grocery lists, casual appointments, doodles, or info that I'll later transfer to my QV or a notebook. Next year I'll just buy one pocket-sized planner.

 

I do use the alarm/reminder function on my smartphone. I want to stop using a smartphone, though. I've kept it because I like the camera, but I miss my real cameras and want to start carrying those around.

 

I do keep my appointment books, but only because I'm too lazy to destroy and dispose of them every year. Sometimes I'll flip through them, but at some point I'll rip all their covers off, shred the paper, and bin them.

 

Do people journal electronically? Is that blogging?

[cedargirl]

I use both. But I've only recently gone back to keeping a paper diary (Dayrunner, week to a page). I like to see the whole week in one glance and I never found a phone app that did this adequately. But I still synch it with to my electronic calendar. That means that I can use the alarms and also, my partner can look at it.

 

I don't carry my paper diary all the time, just when at work, or going to meetings. I do generally carry my phone.

I don't use my paper-based diary like a journal and I don't keep the ages more than a few months.

 

For me - best of both worlds.

[maryannemoll]

I have been using the Moleskine Daily Pocket Planner since around 2006. I write my entries with a pencil. Since January this year I have had a Quiver two-pen case piggybacking on it, carrying a mechanical pencil and a mechanical eraser.

 

Before 2006, I used a generic month-a-page planner. I was still a full-time graduate student then, and I practically lived on-campus so I didn't need any reminders for anything, except for the deadlines.

[Inkysloth]

Hi All,

 

I have just started using a paper diary again, in conjunction with Google calendar synched to my phone.

 

I'm Dyspraxic, and a big problem for me is conceptualising the passage of time - although I usually know what day it is *today* I can't link that to how far away things in the future are, or what I need to do on which day. It's incredibly frustrating, and borders on disabling at times.

 

So, I'm using a 2-week to view paper diary so I am visually presented with the number of days between events laid out clearly in front of me. On a computer, I find calendars don't help me with this - the information is "behind" the date, and (another aspect of my Dyspraxia) is, when things are hidden away they effectively don't exist in my perception. With tangible objects this is easily overcome, but with abstract concepts like future events the only way round it is to bring the events to the fore!

 

Robin

[Moondust]

OP's question made me realize I have used my phone for appointments a while but I can't even remember when I stopped. At times I worry if I'm not missing out too much on present-day technology - I 'do' social media on FPN - but in practice my simple phone suits me well and I still find I can have sensible conversations about the world we're living in

 

I've always used paper planners, different sorts according to different needs. I have a small filofax in a lovely leather bind (?) that I now only use for addresses; as planner I have a big Redstone Diary that has envelope pockets in it to keep notes & such. The pictures in it make me happy though I'm never sure I'll get next year's one - I do want to like the way it looks.

For several years I used a wall calendar - again, with lovely pics (Klee, Chagall, Matisse) - that showed me the month in a glance. My work as a free-lancer requires large chunks of thinking/musing/wiriting-time so I don't have many appointments to make and the small square boxes for the dates we're big enough. The overview helped me to concentrate on the work at hand, I could see what was coming up and at the same time it was quietly waiting in its box so it didn't bother me in the present. Funny how things work :hmm1:

While I had a job in an office I had another system as I had to register the purposes of my worked hours very precisely - including the registering. Paper too, It had a system similar to the Stephen Covey one, vertical week at a glance. And yet again nice pictures - I choose it because of a big map of the world in the back :-)

 

I've only thrown out the filofaxplanners - the others I keep.

 

editied to add: @inkysloth: might a big wall calendar work for you? You get the month at a glance effect.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Moondust

[countrydirt]

I use a Franklin planner and have been using it for over 20 years. Before that it was daytimer from 1983 on. I recently discovered that the Monticello paper in the Franklin does well with fountain pen ink.

 

I keep pages for about a year. I don't have a high powered executive job where my daily notes are as important as they used to be. I used to keep my pages for 7 years, but that became a storage issue for me. I mainly use the calendar function anymore.