Friday 28 March 2014

In Praise of Paper Planners

I'm not sure if many of you follow 'The College Prepster' blog but I saw this post she put up last week about Paper vs Digital. What surprised me the most is that she says that she used paper planners throughout school and college but when she entered the business world, switched to digital. This struck a chord with me, in little over a year I will be finishing my degree and whilst I am hoping to do a postgraduate course, nothing is certain yet- it sort of scared me that maybe I only have a year of my precious Filofaxing left! That being said I can't ever imagine myself without a paper planner of some sort- whilst I do like Apple products and their calendar system is great, I don't really trust it to function. I guess what I am trying to say is that I trust myself more than an App, 

So here is my little spiel about why everyone should have some sort of paper based planning system- even if it is only a tiny little A6 Diary you keep in your back pocket.

1. Paper planners can be personalised
Especially with the amount of Filofaxes and other brands available nowadays it is really easy to find a planner that suits your personality. You can also have several binders so that when you become bored of one- you can easily switch to another.

2. They won't run out of charge
If any of you do have an iPhone, or any smart phone in general then you will know how awful their battery life is. My first phone was a Nokia 3410 and I used to have to charge that once a WEEK, now my phone will barely last a day. Its nice knowing that as long as I have my Filofax with me, I will have most of the information I could ever possibly need right there underneath my fingertips.

3. You can dictate exactly what they contain
Even if you get a bound planner, there are so many different options that you are bound to come across one that suits you. I recently managed to make my own inserts for my Filofax and this is about as far as my technological skills will stretch- sure some people are gifted and can easily manipulate technology and create their own app- but realistically I am never going to be that advanced.


4. You can customise them
This is possibly my favourite feature about paper planners- whilst admittedly technology will allow you to colour code and there is no danger of you losing that pen or running out of ink halfway through your system you cannot add the little stickers, washi tape, random quotes to keep you going and everything else all of the creative Filofax users get up to. 


5. They look professional 
I am never sure when people get out their phones in tutorials whether they are making a note of an important date our tutor has just mentioned or whether they are simply using it as an excuse to check Facebook. When you have a calendar open infront of you not only does it show that you are organised and are managing your time, there is no doubt that you are actually taking in the information you should be and responding appropriately- rather than updating your status!

I could go on and on about paper planners but I am sure that I would bore you all immensely and 5 seemed like a nice number to stop at! Have I missed out one of your favourite reasons?  Do you prefer digital?








1 comment:

  1. And they won't delete/dump your info. I have had all my information just disappear twice on my Iphone.

    ReplyDelete