5 Things to Plan Digitally (vs by hand)

 

Hello Friends~

I like list. A lot, they make writing easier. They also make for a fun easy title, so you know what this post will contain. If you are looking for a reason to start making the switch to digital, this is a great place to start.

If you don’t have an iPad, you can still keep things digitally with the free (and best) cloud services, Google Drive. Not only do you get a decent amount of free space to go along with your email, they update it regularly so you get new features as well.

 

Your Calendar

First, your calendar. If you are keeping a paper calendar that is fine too – I like to do both. I like doing both because I can add stuff on the fly to my planner then add it later to Google. I also like being able to see it at a glance when I have my planner with me. It allows me to keep in front of items and plan for the week.

Why then do I do both?

REMINDERS. We all need a little help. And I am able to yell at my phone or Google admin and it will add calendar items for me. It reminds me daily of what I need to do. I can also keep household calendars on there – such as hub’s work schedule. I can see it at a glance without having to ask. We also put shared events in the household calendar.

I also use it for reminders of what I should be doing that day, although for me that didn’t work well, I think it’s a great system. You can set up each day to have a theme. Like Monday’s are chore days, Tuesday we write, Wednesday we draw, etc.

Most people are forced to use a work digital calendar as well, so this makes it seamless when adding your personal reminders as well.

You can also see the weeks, moon phases, birthdays of your contacts (if you added them) and very easily setup repeating reminders. I think it has a ton of fantastic uses.

I still put things in my weekly planner. But I reference my digital one all the time when I am at work so I can plan out my day, week and month. I think using both is much more of a benefit then a hassle. (I use the repeating reminders for repeating task at work)

As much as I love my planner, it can’t beep at me to head to X because traffic. So yes, I highly suggest making use of both.

Journal/Writing

I love to journal. I can proudly say I have post/notes from 2006. I don’t do it on a consistent basis, which is okay with me. I actually considered making an app on this, but honestly, if I write 4 – 5 days a month how I am feeling, why, what is going on, goals and life updates; I feel like I am doing fine.

Now I don’t go back and read mine, I have searched through them to get a sense of where I was – such as when I was at my previous job I can pretty much pinpoint when I knew they were thinking of laying me off / vs happy with the job. It’s pretty obvious to me now, but yeah, it’s interesting to see the drop off in job satisfaction. #lovemycurrentjob

I think digital is perfect for this because it will be kept safe forever, in a cloud. Yes, if the world ends you won’t have it. Unless your OCD like and back it up, but yeah, 98% chance it will be there in 10 years. Fire or not.

It is also easier to write on a keyboard. Most of us type faster than we write. I don’t know about anyone else, but personally, I think about as fast I can type and it makes jotting things down difficult by hand. So getting a brain dump out is easier via typing for me.

It’s also searchable (as I mentioned). Which is handy if you are tracking something.

 

I also want to mention writing here, because I know lots of us write in NOV during the themed month. If you do it by hand you eventually have to either pay someone to type it up (what I would do) or type it up by hand. Which may not be that great the second time around.

Writing in the Drive means you have access to it anywhere, its already digital so if you want to edit it (did I mention you can go back if you mess something up? autosaves!) you can. You can also share it easily.

I setup mine by year, and then do a file a month, one Doc. I also like to change the colors and font often, it’s fun and easy to do.

Expense Tracking

This one seems like a no-brainer for me. It does the MATH FOR YOU. Plus you can easily copy and change amounts and it will continue to update. How convenient is this?

I personally don’t track all my spending, I really should as to shame myself, dammit Doordash. But I track the bills and make sure they get paid off first, then anything left over I can figure out from there.

This month I am actually trying to be good. 🙇‍♀️ The only thing I plan to buy is the HP Box, hopefully. I just spent another $50 on stickers for June, but I hadn’t bought much in June, so I am thinking $50 per month for my planner addiction is fine. It’s about what a new game cost Josh, so that is my fair spending. Plus at the end of the month, I can go to Michael’s or Ikea and be like MINE if I am good. We are trying to not eat out too, but yeah it’s super easy and convenient and so tempting. Damn you Doordash.

I think this one seems pretty cut and dry, it does the math for you, it’s adaptable and you can copy it repeatable. It makes sense to me to keep an Expense sheet going digitally. Sure you can write down them in your journal too, maybe your daily cost to keep track or your fun purchases, but something to consider digitally.

Note/List Taking

This one is subjective. I like taking notes by hand. I always have. There are even notebooks that will digitalize your handwritten notes, or you can write on a tablet. I think handwriting notes is better since some people learn better this way. I am one of these people.

However! I transcribe my notes at a later date. Not always. I have taken digital notes before, but for me, I literally forget what I typed seconds later. I am not sure why, but hand notes just stick better. I transcribe because I want to make sure I can share my notes as well as locate them quickly – once again it makes it searchable and you can index it easily.

Nothing beats writing by hand for me, so this is a compromise, I lose efficiency in order to learn it better and faster.

Everyone is different, hopefully by the time you get through HS, you will get how you learn. I learn by being present and listening to the lecture, taking real notes as needed. I never really reflect on the notes since once I write them down they seem to stick in my head (I was never a ‘studier’). I can’t learn on my own – online classes were hard as a young adult – and I prefer to watch before trying. So yeah, self-discovery. There is probably a quiz out there.

Stat Tracking

This is another subjective one. I like doing it digitally because it’s easy to find and update when I have time. I was doing habits digitally, and I will still use my digital version and print it, but I found for habits, I was not feeling in the dots daily, so I put it back in my planner.

This is more, Social media, website, follows, likes, money from Etsy type stats for me. I think habit tracking digitally is great if you get in there every day, but honestly, I wasn’t so I pulled it and printed it. (I originally did digital vs the handout I was doing because I hated my handwriting, and was remaking them like 4 times each month 😔)

I track My Etsy stats – views, sales, money in, cost & I track my website clicks and favorite post (hint its the digital planning stuff, crazy amount of traffic to that thing!). I track Redbubble too, but for the most part that is it.

I tried tracking on the Calendar but it didn’t work out, was too cluttered.

 

 

I think these make sense to do digitally. Some make sense for me and might not for you, tracking is one that is very subjective. The main reasons I like digital over hand for these things is – shareable, searchable, anywhere access, editable and forever in the cloud, so saved. 

I hope this was helpful and if you haven’t started putting things together digitally you will give it a try – you can view my collections here. I don’t jorunal in there, just and FYI – that’s private 😳