Why I decided to ditch all the apps and go back to a paper planner

Why I decided to ditch all the apps and go back to a paper plannerWhy I decided to ditch all the apps and go back to a paper plannerFrom 2002 to 2007, I used to walk around everywhere with a little spiral notebook in my back pocket and a pencil sticking out of my hair. This was how I managed my schedule, to-do list, and (as a college student) the doodles I made of my professors.Then the iPhone came out. Suddenly, the slew of apps in my pocket made it possible to do and keep track of much more than my little notebook used to allow me to do. But over the 10 years since, Ive realized that while I may be doingmorethingswith my time, Im not always doing thebestthings with it. Im often tackling the stuff that seems urgentat the expense of whats actually important.So this year, I decided to switch back to a paper planner. Heres what the transition was like, and what I learned after the first month reacquainting myself with it.RelatedThis Is What Its Like To Not Own A Smartphone In 2018Relea rning how to plan with paperA sales rep from FranklinCovey, one of the last big proponents of paper-based planning, convinced me that I needed to give the companys planner at least a three-week shot, claiming that it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit. Just to be safe, I committed totrying it for a month.When the planner I ordered came, I tore it open, ready to ditch my distracting apps and tap into a new zen of analog time-management. But it turned out Id accidentally ordered loose-leaf plannerrefillsinstead of an actual planner - and for the wrong year. These are the kinds of things that apps get you used to not thinking about. So, anxious to get started anyhow, I ordered a new planner and made do with the loose-leaf in the meantimePhoto Shane SnowThe FranklinCovey rep, excited that a reporter would take on such a journey of transformation, sent me instructions for how to use my new planner optimally, along with the following diagram from the late Dr. Steven Coveys bookTh e Seven Habits of Highly Effective PeopleChartFranklin PlannerBy using this Time Matrix to categorize the types of activities I spend my time on, he told me, you can put the power back in your hands to become proactive about the things you value most, rather than reactive to the things grabbing your attention.RelatedHow To Buy A Paper Notebook That Brings You JoyTime Matrix aside, I grasped some of the value in going analog right away Digital to-do list apps give you seemingly unlimited space to make unlimited lists, but paper constrains the number of tasks you can plan on in one go. So the blank box at the beginning of the day forced me to think through the most important things first.But more important than that, the process that FranklinCovey suggested helped me do this prioritizing a little more rigorously than Ive been used to. Im paraphrasing here, but these are the four steps the company proposesList out your things you want to do.Assign a letterA, B, or Cto each A for things that absolutelyhaveto get done in this time period B for things youshoulddo C for things youcoulddo if you get to them.Assign a number to each 1 for the thing you need to do first, 2 for second, and so on.Block out time in your schedule to accomplish all of the As, followed by whatever Bs youre able to get to, and then any remaining Cs you can still fit in.I quickly realized that the nature of my workjuggling multiple projects at once, with an assistant scheduling calls and meetings for memade usingjust apaper calendar pretty much impossible.So I decided on a hybrid approach, supplementing the FranklinCovey planner with a little bit of digital infrastructure on the side My Google Calendar could keep track of conference dial-in information and notes for meetingsall the little logistical details that wouldnt fit in my paper planner. This way I could still use the paper for, well,planning.One upside to this arrangement, I found,was that changing appointments is a lot easier via drag-a nd-drop than erase-and-pencil-back-in.RelatedHeresWhat Happened When I (Almost) Gave Up Facebook, Email, And Texting For A MonthFinding a balanceBy the end of the first week (still using those loose sheafs of planner paper), Id already started getting the hang of this hybrid system. I simply blocked off chunks of time when I would do work, and I filled those chunks in with the priorities Id planned. Every morning I would look at my planner and reassess which to-dos Id tackle during my work blocks. I started out making my ABC list every day. But when the new, correct planner finally arrived in the mail, I accidentally discovered an even better process.It turned out to be a weekly planner (again, by mistake), which means you see the whole week at once, rather than one day at a time. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to think about my priorities a whole week in advance (rather than just day by day), which made me schedule out those work blocks a little more intentionally.Photo Shane SnowBy looking a whole week ahead, I could now plan time for activities that fit squarely in that Important/Not Urgent category of the Time Matrix without them getting boxed out by Urgent tasks. And then I could schedule my calls and meetingsespecially the urgent but not important ones around those. Basically, Id plan the important stuff first, then leave the empty boxes for whatevers left. For the rest of the month, this is exactly what I did, and it worked great.The only variable that broke the scientific method of this experiment is the fact that I moved from New York City down to Mexico at the end of week two. But even so, my paper-planner arrangement survived the dislocation. Blame it on the sunshine or blame it on smarter planning either way, a month after going back to paper, I feel much better about the way Im spending my time.Thisarticleoriginally appeared onFast Companyand is reprinted with permission.