Using a Digital Calendar with a Paper Planner

Using a Digital Calendar with a Paper Planner

Hi, I’m Dr. Tiffany Shelton Mariolle, The Manifesting Psychologist and Founder of modAmbition!

Do you love planning in a paper planner but you don’t want to miss meetings or appointments? Or maybe you need to use a digital calendar for work but feel more organized with a paper planner? Stay tuned to learn how to seamlessly fuse using a digital calendar with a paper planner.

By the end of this episode, you will know how to integrate digital and paper planning with being overly redundant or missing anything so you can plan with confidence and ease. 

I have been using this system for awhile, and when I stick to using it, it works flawlessly.

 *insert picture here*

Quickly, I want to let you know that this episode is brought to you by my company modAmbition and the modAmbition planner is LIVE on Kickstarter!

This goal planner is infused with a goal-getting workbook to help grown women manifest big goals, along with thorough planning pages that will guide you to productively achieve them all.

Please visit the Kickstarter link below if you don’t want to miss out. I put my heart into designing a luxury planner to help ambitious women have it all, without the overwhelm!

And I’m certain you’re going to love it. So again please check it out at the links below!

Cheers to having it all!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modambition/modambition-planner-the-1st-luxury-planner-system

https://mailchi.mp/modambition.com/waitlist

 

Have you ever missed an appointment or important meeting and felt that gut wrenching feeling that you forgot something very important?

Recently I reached out to a client I had worked with in the past and I was excited to catch up with and we had scheduled a time to catch up and chat. I missed this meeting more than once and the guilt still lingers with me.

This happened in a time of chaos with my kiddos being sick and things were slipping between the cracks. The times that I have found myself in these situations are the days I don’t start the day looking at my planner.

For this situation with my client, I had gotten calendar reminders but my mind starts to go blank to phone reminders after awhile. So for me I have had many unfortunate situations that remind me that for me, using both a digital calendar and a paper planner is best.

And if I had to choose, I think my paper planner would win out. 

In fact there are many reasons that paper planning has a leg up on digital planning. Luxafor.com wrote an article sharing 5 science backed reasons that paper planners are better than digital planners;

1. You’re less distracted - taking a moment away from screens to plan in a paper planner offers you an opportunity to clear your head and plan with more focus.
2. You remember things better. Luxafor says, “You’ve probably heard this one, and it’s true – writing stuff down actually helps you to memorize it better. But there’s more to that. Not only writing by hand makes us formulate our plans and to-do’s better, it stimulates certain brain cells at the base of the brain to increase focus. 
3. You’re more motivated by goals you write down by hand.
4. Reduces stress by helping us be more mindful. “There are many studies that show the link between writing things down by hand and mindfulness.”
5. It’s a healthy habit. Committing to regularly planning with your paper planner forms supportive habit in your life. You are more likely to be consistent with your planning habit with the physical reminder of a planner on your desk. 

Those are some great points but I know in this digital world that many of you likely use both digital and analog assets to organize your life. So let’s talk a little about using both a digital calendar and a paper planner.

First, let’s use the modAmbition Planning Pillar (which is the first pillar in this system I’ve developed to having it all without the overwhelm).

Tenets that make up the planning pillar:

1. Intention and Values
2. Prioritize + Organize
3. Boundaries + Flexibility

All of these tenets shape how I incorporate digital and paper planning into a system that works for me.

Start with your intentions and what’s most important to you about planning? How would you like planning to serve you?

Do you want to just be reminded of appointments and meetings? Is your intention to use your planner to stay on track with your goals? Do you want to use your planner to document your life and track habits? You can see how clarifying your intention first will help you come up with a better hybrid system.

Next, prioritizing and organizing is very helpful when teasing out what tasks will be digital and what will be paper.

For instance, your priority is planning to achieve your goals, you may focus many of your planning efforts on strategizing in a physical goal planner. 

And then lastly, I want you to consider boundaries and flexibility when thinking about your hybrid system.

Know that the system won’t always be perfect and you have the permission to ebb and flow into what works best for you. 

With that explained, let’s jump into how I’m using a digital calendar with a paper planner.

 

ONE: Digital Calendars for many areas of my life, all congregated in my iCAL

• Personal Calendar
• Corporate Calendar
• Business Calendar 
• Personal Brand Calendar
• Keep it up to date as much as possible

TWO: Consult Digital Calendars 

• Each Week during my weekly planning session
• Add in meetings first
• Make any needed changes or updates throughout the week
• Time Block around appointments and meetings
• Can be more detailed during daily planning and analog track and note take in the day to day
• Weekly To-Do List in my Planner
• Consult digital calendar before meal planning
• Yearly strategic planning
• Launches
• Vacations
• Major Life Events (birthdays, maternity leave, etc)
• Monthly and Quarterly Planning
• Important to note that my paper planner stays in my home office. This helps me be consistent with using it and having a home for it keeps everything organized. I also love planning on large pages so it’s more convenient to leave a full size planner in one place. And I will just say that I love that the moAmbition planner has large planning pages because I am a grown woman with big goals and a full life so I want to give myself permission to take up space and not have to cram everything onto a tiny page. What do you guys prefer? Let me know.
• Weekend planning is all done in my paper planner or on our meal planning whiteboard.

THREE: Enhance Follow Through With Digital Features

• Reminders
• Calendly
• Emailed appointments
• Running To-Do List in Trello 
• Business Planning all within google drive
• Planning with team members and family members is all digital as well. 

So those are my tips on hybrid planning.

 

If you guys are interested in the modAmbition planner, you can go to signup.modmabition.com to secure yours.