Phone Calendar?

Calendars on phones are really useful.  You can load personal and business appointments, conference calls, reminders.  You can separate appointments by email, automatically share with family, etc.

All good stuff EXCEPT digital calendars have some major drawbacks as follows:

• When was the last time you went back and looked at your phone to see what you did last week or last month?
• If I asked what your priority is next Friday, could you tell me?  (Calls don’t count!)
• Looking at your phone, how do you know if you accomplished a goal that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year to be done by the end of February?
• How do you see patterns for current or prior months in terms of when you have been able or not able to accomplish your goals?

So many of our goals, whether personal, professional or financial are tied to time.

How do we see or set the bigger picture of our goals with an electronic calendar?  I don’t think you can!

You can put in a reminder for a workout or to send someone a thank you note but unless you print them, there’s no way you can plan off of a phone calendar.

Your phone calendar may provide clues but they can’t provide a CLEAR VIEW on your priorities, goals and progress.  Phone calendars are limited beyond tracking your commitments such as meetings and calls.

Goals are the result of visualization.  How you can visualize with a phone calendar.  Commitments are not goals…they can be a subset at best!

I’ve recently started using paper again.  I still use my phone calendar however the paper calendar printed one month at a time allows me to see, instantaneously, where and how my goals fit into each month.

I can now also look back at prior months to see the picture of what I completed, what is remaining, what goals were addressed, who I saw, etc.  I can rewrite or erase a goal from a previous month and move it to this month.  As the year progresses I can lay out all the months like a map and see how my goals are progressing or what I need to focus on.

Take control of your time and priorities with a PAPER printed calendar or an agenda book.  You will know if you accomplished your priorities and understand how your daily actions align with your goals.  You will be able to think back on your wins and plan ahead!   Finally, use a pencil so you know that when you erase a goal you have to re-write it on another month or day.

Karl

+Quote:  “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now” —Alan Lakein