Last year I stopped working at an organization where I used an Outlook calendar to manage my work and personal schedules. I also had a big wall calendar that showed three months at a time to help with project planning. I was lost without my Outlook calendar thus a mountain of sticky notes took over my kitchen counter and the dining room table scrawled with appointments and tasks.
An Apple Calendar Plus…
I started using the Apple calendar on my phone for personal appointments, but quickly realized I needed a paper calendar for planning. But what to get? A quick online search was overwhelming. There were so many options, from basic calendars to elaborate planners with stickers, pockets and other features I knew I would never use. I landed on a hybrid of the two: a small datebook with daily and monthly calendars. This worked well for a few months and helped me keep track of appointments, travel, birthdays, and such.
Then, I realized I should merge personal and work, so I now have Google and Outlook calendars, in addition to my Apple calendar, and multiple email addresses to monitor. I am constantly juggling between the three calendars, worried I am going to miss something. I knew I needed a bigger paper calendar/planner to help me stay organized because there wasn’t enough space in the small datebook.
Upgrade to Spiral-Bound Planner
I upgraded to a spiral-bound planner I love to use every day, and I like updating it at the end of every day. I can see the full week or month at a time and have space to write things down in one place. I know I can see expanded calendar views on my phone, but for me it is not the same. My weekly calendar lets me plan my week in advance, allocate specific time slots for different activities, and prioritize and better organize tasks.
For people like me who love to put pen to paper, it is enjoyable to update my planner as new meetings are scheduled, and new projects are assigned. I know it seems like a waste of time to duplicate the appointments in my online calendars to my planner, but it does not take long and helps me in the long run. Seeing it all down on paper helps me see the big picture and make connections between meetings, tasks and projects better than the calendars on my phone could. I know I could find an app to sync all of this, but I remember more if I write it down.
Using Paper Calendars Helps Recall and Retention
A 2022 study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology backs that up. Researchers found that people using paper calendars develop high-quality plans and are more successful in fulfilling these plans. Numerous studies have found that writing things down by hand helps with recall and retention.
For home projects, I use my paper calendar as a to-do list to stay on track. At Blue Wagon Group we use a project management system called Basecamp, which has a card table function that breaks large goals into smaller, more manageable tasks or lists and it is extremely helpful.
In our digital world, a paper calendar may seem outdated. An internet search reveals the opposite. There are Reddit threads devoted to the topic, authors with best-selling books on time and calendar management, influencers with planners that promise to change one’s life, and countless online sites with pages and pages of paper calendars and planners.
Everyone is different, and the key is to find a system that works for you and how you operate. Not surprisingly, I’m already looking forward to buying my 2026 calendar.