Whether you’re a business owner, nonprofit leader, employee or employer, essential worker, remote worker, student, stay-at-home parent, or a retiree, it is essential to plan for busy lives. Even within our time-depleted lives, we must take time to make goals and plan out our schedules.
I live by my calendar. Over the last several years I organized my life with apps such as Google Calendar, Outlook, or OneNote. I also use the Microsoft To-Do app. And of course, almost nothing replaces a notebook or a handy sheet of paper.
However, in the last six months, I have started going back to paper planning and planners. I will share why in a moment. Some of us may remember the pocket planners we used to juggle our class schedules that we sold at high school fundraisers. Well, maybe I’m dating myself a bit. Anyway, guess what … Paper planning is a thing! There are whole communities of folk for which paper planning is not only an organizing tool, but a decorative hobby. There are tons of YouTube channels and communities devoted to planners and planning from how to: pick a planner, rate the best planners, plan creatively, use your planner, and using planners to organize your personal and professional life. There are planners for business, work, school, home, fitness, health, hobbies, faith, finances, and everything else. You can literally, as I have, get lost in the world of planning.
Keep in mind, the goal of planning is to organize and be productive, right? So, don’t let the process of planning and picking out a planner overwhelm you or have you stuck in always planning mode. Choose a planner that aligns with your particular goals. And, if you need help with strategic planning and goal setting, check out Gabalot® Consulting’s services and courses to help you become productive.
So, why do you need a paper planner?
Because paper planning spurs us to ACT.
(A) Accountability – First of all, writing things down keeps us accountable. The act of writing and then visually seeing goals written on paper activates motivation centers in our brains. There is an actual transfer of energy and emotional release when we clear our minds of random thoughts and ideas and put them to pen and paper. This is called a brain dump. When our minds are cluttered with long lists of things we need to get done that causes worry, stress, and anxiety. Thus, the process of writing goals in a planner helps us to meet our obligations.
(C) Commitment – Secondly, seeing your goals in print helps reinforce memory. Visuals help us to remember the activities we’re supposed to do and why we do them. Paper planners hold the visual reminders of our commitments.
(T) Timeliness – Time is a resource we can never recycle or reuse. Our productivity is contingent upon being able to maximize the finite amount time we’re granted each day. Can you typically account for how you spend 24 hours of your day? It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re unfocused and unorganized. Paper planning helps us to track our time, stay on time, and get things done in a timely manner. Timeliness is necessary for productivity and creativity.
Whether you are an experienced planner or a beginner looking to get organized, it’s time to ACT. We created a printable planner to help you meet your needs and goals.
Happy planning!
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." ~ Benjamin Franklin
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