Getting ready to go on a trip. This always causes me anxiety of some degree and I'm finding the need to procrastinate - which I will surely regret in a couple of days. I need to sit down and make a list of what I need to do. But, it's the list that's got me sidetracked. I've had a moment of clarity and I must grasp at it before it's gone. I've rationalized to myself that if I allow myself to become sidetracked in this instance it will help me a better person. The question that pops in my mind is clear and to the point: Paper or Technology?
The past few months I have been making a conscious effort to organize and simplify my life. I've been there before and it's a place I want to be at again. It's a feeling similar to having a super clean house with no one home but you. Let's take a moment shall we. Anyway, we moved and had many significant unfortunate life changing events occur that got me way off track. It's been about four years now and I'm finding the need and more importantly the ability to carve out time to make myself more organized. Previously when things were in full organizational swing I was using my treasured paper planner - my Franklin Planner. This used to be my bible. I LOVED it. Can't say enough good things about it. But, there were a few negatives such as always having to carry it around (too large to fit in my purse) and having to re-write everything each year; birthdays, reoccurring activities. Additionally, I would occasionally have these thoughts about how I had grown so dependent on my planner that I wondered if I wasn't doing my brain actual harm from lack of use. In an effort to free up brain cells and become more organized I silently worried that I might actually be losing my ability to truly remember anything. But I know now that was not the case. Having gone several years without a planner, my mind always on complete overload coupled with the fact that I'm in menopause (early, surgical - a topic for another day) and I have lost a lot of brain cells that help me remember, I've resolved that I need some type of system back in place where I can write down my thoughts, TO DO's, appointments, etc. all in one place. That this type of system actually enhances my life and allows me to free up brain cells for fun stuff like hanging out with my family or scrapbooking. So I'm at the point of determining do I want a paper planner again or do I want to try the techno route? Hence the question Paper or Technology?
If you've read my profile you'd find I'm a big techno gadget type of gal. Love all of that! Love it, love it, love it. So, it would make sense that I would move to the techno side. As a matter of fact, that was part of my reasoning for abandoning my Franklin several years back. I just knew I would eventually go techno. I've semi-tried it, several times. LOVE the fact that you can enter someone's birthday once and it would be out there forever. Same with all reoccurring activities. It's so simple to set-up. LIKE the fact that it's small and simple to carry around - BUT I found in the past it was a bit too small for me. Afterall, after much deliberation and careful consideration I had chosen the mid size Franklin planner because it felt right when writing in it. Even though this was the sole reason it wouldn't fit in my purse. LOVE the fact that now a days you can have one gadget that is your phone and PDA. Super cool. BUT, I'm not sure all my tools would integrate easily together, plus it's very costly. But if I went paper, would I be abandoning my self-imposed techno gadget status? Would I be taking two steps backwards instead of one step forward? Would that just be plain wrong?
I work with my dh in a business we own and we use ACT as our contact database. I have researched it, set-it up and love it. It's great for business and I've created a separate calendar for my personal and family activities. I use it also for my business TO DO's and meetings. I'm always on the computer. But I find I don't put all my TO DO's out there. I keep a lot of separate running lists of things I need to get, groceries I need to buy, miscellaneous TO DO's to do. When a miscellaneous TO DO pops into my head I don't have the luxury of grabbing my planner and adding it where it needs to go. I find it' s not as easy to run into the office, boot up the program and enter in my TO DO to remember to get the boys school supplies next week as it needs to be. Entering a TO DO to remember to get the carpets clean just doesn't seem right to enter into ACT. Yet, I have no place to enter this except to stay in my head and I'm tired of my head hurting.
So, I've decided. I'm going a do bit of both. Not sure exactly how I'm going to integrate both but I'm going to give it a try. Afterall it's not my objective to cause more work or confusion for me. I'm even a little bit excited to start carrying around a planner again - a long lost friend. Interestingly enough as much as I loved my Franklin Planner I'm going a slightly different route. Over the past couple of months I've been being teased by Cathy Zielske about a planner she is using called Memory Dock. I love the look of the binder and it appears to have the same number of rings on the inside as the Franklin Planners do. This means I can use some of the Franklin accessories I already have. I'm going to give their pages a try because they have a really cool creative section. Worse case if I don't like the pages I can always fall back on the Franklin pages. Plus I will incorporate the skills I learned with using my planner previously - yes I was lucky enough to take the Franklin class on organizing and using their system. What's super cool about this new binder is it has a place for a picture on the front cover and it's PURPLE.
But, after all of this I went to order it all and everything except the binder is on backorder till the middle of August. I'm pretty sure Cathy Zielske's influence had a little bit to do with this. None the less, I went ahead and ordered the binder and am on email notification for the rest of the stuff. There was only one purple binder left and I would have been so upset if that was on backorder when the rest came in.
You know, my brain actually feels a little bit lighter knowing I made this decision and my life is on the right track again. Now if I can only find that list I began for this trip.
