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My Trusty Paper Planners

Posted in GTD/Getting Things Done, Old Skool, Old Skool/Paper Tools, Paper Planners, Tools | August 24th, 2011

Left: Yeah Notebooks' Undated Planner | Right: PCBS' Calendar Planner for 2011

My Two Trusty Planners

In this day and age of the ubiquitous GTD/Todo List/Task Managers, you’d wonder why you’d still choose to have a paper planner. Having used a Blackberry’s awesome native Calendar, among its other task managers, then using Android’s amazing To-Do Apps, it’s probably strange why I still have a penchant for paper planners and schedulers.

With Weekly Tasks for the Notebook Planner, and with my own system for the Calendar Planner

This is how I use my planners. The white-outed portions are those tasks that I've finished but blotted out so I can reuse the blocks. Haha. Too much of a maximizer. :p

Here are the reasons why I still keep these:

When I need to color code targets and then write them on the fly.
When I don’t think that a computer-based app is intuitive enough.
When I’m so confused and overwhelmed that I need to sort out my tasks on whiteboard or paper.
When I need something more reliable than a phone that could go lowbatt or otherwise conk out.
When I shouldn’t be checking my phone in the area, especially when it’s rude, like in a meeting or in church.

A paper planner is definitely more respectable than a phone when you check it in meetings. Unlike tapping or clicking away on your phone, you won’t offend people that you’re not paying attention. Well, not much. If you can do it surreptitiously, then plus points for you. Also, there will be no annoying/offending ring tones to deal with in case a text message or a call comes in while you check your day’s to-do’s. Just remember to keep the phone in your bag silent, as well.

I bought my adorable pink planner in SM City Iloilo, for around Php 150 to Php 280. I’m just not sure now, since it was months ago, but it was at that price range. I saw it, saw its date-less weekly blocks and lines, and I knew it was the planner for me.

The undated entries were perfect because I didn’t want to render the pages useless in case I don’t use them up. There also was an address book with the planner, which I gave away. Instead, I used the planner’s back pocket to hold receipts and other documents. It also comes with to bookmarking ribbons: one of which I bookmark “Sticky” entries (like task or weekly paradigms I use in the hope of achieving some consistency), and the other I use for marking the current week. Pretty convenient, these simple features.

There’s also a regular notebook-style area for which you can jot down longer notes, possibly specifications of tasks for the week ahead.

June 2011 System -- When I still had time to create neat little boxes for my color-coded article tags.

July 2011 System -- When I no longer had the luxury of time to make my system more detailed or organized.

As for my calendar-type planner, I got it from Philippine Christian Bookstore/PCBS SM City Iloilo, for only Php 25. It’s nice and compact. I found this most useful in planning posts that I used to cram and dump at the end of the month. Today, since I need to shape up, I may still use this personal system, but now to plan posts ahead. Neat, huh?

All in all, there are days when I prefer the software GTD tools. But on some days, nothing beats the oldskool.