Making the Switch from Paper to Digital
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But all things should be done decently and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:40
I don’t know about you, but I have had a long affair with planners, calendars and lists. Several years ago, someone came into my office and counted 4 calendars.
· desk calendar
· wall calendar
· planner/agenda
· computer calendar
She then asked, in a laughing manner, if I ever missed an appointment.
I inwardly cringed because I had missed some. You see, I had a personal calendar and a work calendar. So if I were not in the office, I didn’t see appointments listed for work and if I were at work, I might miss the teacher meeting at school because it was in my personal calendar.
Needless to say, I got rid of all calendars but one and EVERYTHING went in it! And that worked! Some jobs required me to have daily type planners while others worked with a weekly type planner. But everything, and I mean everything, went into the same calendar.
In either case, I was always, ALWAYS a paper planner gal! I love writing things down and CHECKING THINGS OFF!! I just love it. Maybe you can relate?
Many times over the years I have tried to switch to a digital calendar and FAILED! Until this year! I have found what works for me.
I now work from home (for a company) and have a lot of other irons in the fire. And I have finally made the switch from a paper planning system to a digital one!
I use Google calendar. I can access it from all of my devices. And I have multiple “calendars” set up so I can easily display EVERYTHING or just certain items.
· 1- Appointments – this “calendar” shows all the calls I need to be on and appointments that I need to keep
· 2- To Do list – this “calendar” tracks things that I need to get done on a certain day
· 3- Informational – this “calendar” shows birthdays, holidays and general things I need to be aware of
· 4- History- this “calendar” allows me to change past appointments or events with attachments or notes that I want to keep just in case
To view all of these at once, I leave each “calendar” checked. If I don’t need to see one, like history, I just uncheck it and it comes off my displayed calendar.
The beauty of this is that I have my appointments with me at all times since I carry my phone everywhere. I can add appointments, things to do or information regardless of where I am and I can know if I have a conflict immediately.
For those of you who have been using digital systems – kudos! If you are still using a paper system and want to switch to digital, here’s some advice:
1. Use a calendar that is accessible across all your devices
2. Learn to maximize its use
3. Find an app that you can use for notes/diary type information, if needed.
The applications that I use for these are:
1. Google calendar - as my planning system
2. OneNote – to write notes and so much more