Organization: Digital or tangible?
With all of the options available, both digital and tangible, what is the best way to organize my life? There is a plethora of options – I just have to find what’s available and what works best for me. Easy enough, right? If so, then why am Ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif feeling hints of frustration swelling inside me? I know I’m not the only person in the world that struggles to organize his/her many facets of life: professional, family, personal, social, etc. In fact, there’s a whole blog (and loyal following) that is dedicated to the pursuit of planner nirvana, called Plannerisms.
I have an iPhone, so I should be synced, reminded, and organized with my pocket-sized computer, right? Well… maybe. I could have it remind me to pick up milk as I’m leaving work and alert me to take the dog for a walk when I pull into my driveway. But, that’s not quite enough. When I’m in a meeting, I still want a notebook to write down my to-do list for each project. And, there’s something about having a special reference point for goals and action items completed towards reaching that goal. There are apps for that. There are also journals for that. I suppose this comes down to personal preference, but for me, I feel like there’s got to be a happy medium. Synching my phone to the Cloud provides reassurance that shattering or losing my iPhone won’t erase every picture, app, and note that was on it. Having all information in a notebook or planner feels a little bit safer. Other than it catching on fire or being misplaced/stolen, it’s not as likely that http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeverything would be destroyed in a millisecond. And, there’s something sentimental about going back through the past year of my life when flipping through a notebook vs scrolling through notes in my phone.
So, I have options and considerations. And, here they are:
1. Go all digital: Use my iPhone to its fullest extent and use it exclusively for all notes, planning, and scheduling.
2. Walk the line: Use my iPhone for some planning and scheduling but also rely on notebooks &/or planners to keep track of to-do items, finances, notes for projects at work
3. Get an awesome notebook “catch-all” for personal and professional items, such as a Reflexions notebook, or a structure planner/diary such as The Woman’s Success Planner or the Collins Home & Work Diary.
Similar blog: Consolidating Calendars on the Plannerisms blog
Hi
ReplyDeleteGoing for option 1 is very high risk.... imagine it failing... and your lovely sister will make lots of mileage out of that.... 'Told you so' !!!!
Safe route would be to only use the iPhone for telephone calls, I believe that is what the 'phone' part of the name says it's for... But also and we will allow you this.. use it for reminders about people's birthdays several days/weeks in advance so you get warning that you need to buy a gift and post it to the other side of the world in plenty of time to avoid disappointment.
Then keep your paper planner for everything else, because you know and L knows that they work....
Simple really... oh and enjoy your iPhone...
Best regards
Steve.... aka the bloke on Philofaxy!!!
Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, disappointing my sister is a risk. But, I've loved her unconditionally through her planner experiences. I know she will do the same. :)
DeleteOh yes!!! You've somehow managed to put up with my planner insanity for years now, I'm sure I'll cope if you go to the Dark Side (I mean digital!!)!!
DeleteI have a Samsung Galaxy S2, I have a Scanda Personal Filofax and I have a computer. What works for me is not very efficient but I like it. I write everything down in my Filofax and at the end of each week I transfer it all to my computer in Outlook Express. Then I print it and bind it after it is synced to the Galaxy. Thus far I have twelve years of bound meetings, appointments and notes. I love my Samsung but I also love my Filofax. Future events go into the Filofax, the computer and are then synced to my Samsung. I carry two things around with me, my phone and my Filofax. Perhaps cumbersome, inefficient even, but it works for me I don't have a picture, but I'm nearly sure I am not a Robot, but my son is a Systems Engineer, so I might just confirm that with him.
ReplyDeleteJohn... "Thus far I have twelve years of bound meetings, appointments and notes." Now, THAT, is dedication!
DeleteYour struggle it an interesting one. It's kinda like a right brain/left brain dilemma. I get your ambivalence, and yet I'm maybe more like your sister. I'm always trying to choose between two different planning NOTEBOOKS -- currently, my Staples Arc and my Midori Traveler's Notebook. I love the structured feel of the Arc...but I love the completely unstructured and customizable format of the Midori. I would suggest that those of us with this right/left brain struggle are simply using MORE of our brains! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you're right; however, the rest of my brain is utilized for paying attention to my son. :) In order to remember and organize everything in my personal life, professional life, and my son's life, I need to write it down, have bells and whistles go off to remind me of what I'm doing next, and double check my list before I fall into bed.
DeleteThat has been my conundrum also, for the past 15+ years. I was a Franklin planner user, then I converted to Palm (remember that!) but after 2 lost Palms, @ $400 each back when that was almost a full paycheck, I went back to Franklin. I keep to do lists and meeting notes there and can go back to them easily. I have an iphone, and it's my master calendar in terms of appointments, but so far, nothing beats the ability putting pen to paper to clarify my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteVery well said, Carmen!
DeleteI'm having essentially the same struggle, with a twist — I've never been very organized, PERIOD, in either format. I've been to Franklin Planner seminars, I've read "Getting Things Done" (GTD) several times, ordered additional GTD materials (CDs, charts, etc.); toyed round with at least a dozen online task managers, tried a to customize a Circa-bound paper project planner, and am now trying to keep everything organized in Microsoft OneNote on my %@&*$(@* PC at work. (I'm a Mac guy, so I curse at all PCs.).
ReplyDeleteEvery time I try to get organized again, I develop a bad case of OCD that leaves me tinkering with that latest time management scheme, in the inherently futile quest toward perfecting it, to the exclusion of actually getting any work done.
Nothing seems to keep up with the rate at which I get ideas. (I'm not saying they're all GOOD ideas, just that I get an awful lot of them . . . like this guy.)
I don't know which way I'll come down, but I imagine I won't come up with the "perfect" system until about five minutes before I die.
I have been running the same struggle between digital and analogue. I think that, no matter what, paper will always be a part of a system, as electronics are still quite clunky and inefficient. They are getting better, but data entry into an iPhone or iPad at a meeting is slow and sometimes painful.
ReplyDeleteIn GTD, the idea is that you throw projects, ideas etc into an inbox, does not matter how it gets there, and then you process it. The advantage of having both paper and electronics, in this situation, is that you can wait to process a bit of info until you are ready, and then, when it is processed, the electronics gives you the ability to search, organize etc, the whole thing.
I do not think that I would want to go back to simple paper planner for addresses, contacts, and calendar. Use paper for notes etc, and then organize them in a good system, like Omnifocus for Mac, iOS.
I agree about keeping contacts digital. I love sharing a contact quickly from my iPhone to another iPhone. So much easier just to send it than write it down and try to remember where I put it later.
DeleteI use an A5 Malden from Filofax for my calendar and notes, Nozbe for my abundant (and growing) GTD-style lists, and Evernote for my reference materials. While I "should" let go on using a FF, I never do as there's something settling about the Filo that really keep me hooked. So I happily journey through life with a Filofax on one hand and a smartphone in the other. I've decided that it's okay to use both!
ReplyDeleteI agree - It's absolutely okay to use both!
ReplyDelete