Back to the Future with Hard Copy Business Planners

hardcopy planners are back Calendars, meetings, notes, event tracking… if you are a successful business person you rely on one or more business planners to keep everything straight. We all have smart phones, laptops and tablets. It’s great to be able to synchronize our data across platforms. So why the phenomenal resurgence of paper business planners?

Paper Makes You Smarter

Digital is more efficient, no doubt about it, but do you feel like you remember things better if you have written them down by hand? That’s because you do learn better by hand-writing your notes and reminders, as supported by the study results published by Princeton University researchers Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer.

In repeated studies, Mueller and Oppenheimer found that “students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand.” While digital note takers are faster, it is precisely because longhand writing is slower that understanding and retention is improved. Rather than simply transcribing and typing, longhand writers have to think about the subject, process it, and summarize the content to make effective notes.

Writing by hand actually lights up a part of your brain called the reticular activating system or RAS. The RAS is sort of a gatekeeper for information your brain needs to process. Content that is written by hand is given a priority pass by the gatekeeper!

The Way We Were

In my mortgage banking days back in the 90’s, a hard copy business planner was essential. Corporate management at all levels flocked to Franklin Planner seminars. Everyone had read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, still relevant and popular today, and our leather-bound ring binder Day Timers never left our sight.

We were busy managing in minutes, looking for our cheese, and laughing at Dilbert, all the while entering everything in our daily, weekly and monthly planner pages.

Our planners were utilitarian and functional, protected in conservative colored faux or real leather binders, some (like mine) with the tasteful addition of a small monogrammed plate in the lower corner. In later years there were a few more colorful options for planner page “themes” but the emphasis was all business.

Time Marches On

The 90’s also saw the rapid development of the personal digital assistant or PDA and cellular phones. As connectivity and memory sizes improved, paper planners soon gave way to Palm Pilots and Blackberries and we were off to the digital races.

The race is still on with no end in sight. Technology continues to improve with newer, faster and more comprehensive devices on the market every year.

We all use digital calendaring, trackers and reminders, and we love them. So why the explosion in paper planner sales?

Psychological benefits and learning curve aside, the fact is that writing on paper is satisfying.

Writing on paper is satisfying.

Writing is a tangible creation and highly personal. No one writes like you do, thinks exactly like you do, or expresses ideas like you do.

All Things Old Are New Again

Planners aren’t just for office workers anymore. Online “communities” are active, growing and influencing commerce with members groups that range from students, to stay-at-home moms to highly successful entrepreneurs. There are planner types and systems for every taste and lifestyle.

Planners come in several sizes that are generally standardized according to size, from larger letter-sized, to the very popular A5 size, and the easy to carry small personal sized.

Planner Types

Paper planners today come in a variety of off-the-shelf and customized covers and inserts. There are many styles, a few of the most common mentioned below.

The good old ring-binder with pre-printed daily, weekly and monthly planner page options are still around, with covers and inserts that range from simple and economical to highly coveted designer planner binders.

Ring binders are still boardroom-business meeting appropriate, but today’s users are just as likely to decorate and embellish their planner pages with stickers, washi tape and illustrations!

Franklin Covey still sells ring-binder planners. Other very popular planner covers are produced by Webster, Filofax, Kikki-K and Kate Spade, to name a few. Limited editions and color styles of some of these are highly coveted and collectible – with a price tag to match!

Spiral bound planners are colorful and popular, with very active communities of users. The most popular spiral bound planner I have seen is the Erin Condren planner system, with a choice of vertical or horizontal layout. Economical and attractive spiral-bound planners like Sugar Paper Planners are sold at most retail stores like Target.

Disc bound systems, like the MAMBI (Me and My Big Ideas) Happy Planner can be purchased in kits that come with inspiration cards, stickers and other goodies. The pages can be removed and replaced, but a special paper punch will be needed to add your own pages.

Traveler’s Notebooks have beautiful covers, often leather, that wrap around paper booklets, like Moleskine Cahier notebooks. The paper books are slipped under elastic bands to hold them in the leather cover. The entire notebook is held closed by a leather strap or elastic band. While the Michael’s craft stores have recently come out with an inexpensive line of traveler’s notebooks, the non-retail covers are usually hand crafted and unique, and easily found on artisan sites like Etsy.

I have purchased heirloom-quality traveler’s notebooks from the Leather Quill Shoppe at shopmandyjeanchic.com. (This shop also has a special edition travelor’s notebook called Thin Blue Line with a percentage of proceeds going to support mental health services for first responders.)

Bullet Journals are extremely popular for calendaring, tracking, note taking and journaling. Any style notebook can be used from a simple composition book to the favored Moleskin hardcover and Leuchtturm 1917 hardcover notebooks, links below. I have these, too!

Bullet journaling systems can be very plain, simple and strictly functional like the method outlined at bulletjournal.com or highly decorative and elegant.

Bullet journaling has created a remarkable renaissance in calligraphy, handwriting, special inks, and fountain pens. The Bullet Journal Junkies group on Facebook is nearing 25,000 members! There are links below for fun and affordable fountain pens I have purchased and still enjoy using for writing in my journal.

Bullet journals are another no-frill business option, and some folks are applying the bullet journaling concept to their traveler’s notebooks.

Have you added a hardcopy planner system to your business tools? Are you interested in any of the planner options mentioned here? Leave your questions and comments!


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