eServant

It’s been a while since I have updated here. Been very busy this last two months or so. But I’m going to try to do things a bit more often in the new year and it starts with this.

A fact has become recently insistent and apparent. Paper has a purpose. Paper is heavy, unsearchable, bulky and takes up a massive amount of space. However, there is one quality of paper that almost makes up for all of this. It’s convenient. For a long time I used a paper day planner from Franklin Covey. Actually, for those of you who are familiar with this product, I started using a “Franklin” back when the company was called “The Franklin International Institute.” Back then there was only one planner size and the catalog was hole punched to fit in the planner.

Well, I had not be using one religiously over the last few years being convinced that I didn’t need one any longer and technology could fill the gap. Oh, my, was I wrong. I love my laptop, I love my iPhone. However, my laptop is a bit difficult to carry around and pull out to take a quick note. And the one thing that the iPhone doesn’t do well is notes. The Calendar is great, OmniFocus on the iPhone is awesome. The address book is awesome. But taking a note and then doing anything with it later, is a nightmare.

So the Day Planner is back. Mainly because there are a few things that are easier to do, like take notes about something quickly. Running around seeing clients all day and taking phone calls it’s easy to forget or loose something. A particular shortcoming of mine is being overloaded with information and by the time comes to perform the first task there have been fifteen other things added to the list and the first one is lost in the black hole of my brain.

Last week I placed the order for the 2009 planner which arrived yesterday. I have it setup and am currently attempting to figure out how to incorporate Getting Things Done with my paper planner. Getting Things done is a great capture methodology but I have trouble with the other pieces. But I’m planning on rereading the book again and seeing if I can pick up some things I might have missed.

I have been using the Franklin Day Planner for almost 20 years now and so I’m very comfortable with the format and layout. There are many other options as well, but I chose the one I was most comfortable with. I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas on how to stay organized and track what you need to do on a daily basis. I’m trying to decide currently on if I should transcribe my daily notes into the computer for future reference or if I should just skip it. I’m pretty obsessive, so I’ll probably end up typing them. Then the question becomes, where do I put them.