Should I use a paper or digital calendar?

A few weeks ago I was with a client who runs her own business. She's a busy mum too. She was telling me about how much she LOVES her paper diary/ planner and how she could never give it up for an online/ digital calendar. However, she was experiencing a few issues. She wanted potential clients to be able to book appointments with her through an online appointment booking system (Calendly for those who know it), but of course if there was no digital calendar there was no way for Calendly to know when she was free.

This client was originally ADAMANT that nothing could tear her away from her gorgeous paper planner but after some discussion, she bravely took the leap and said she would try it. She set up a google calendar and after a couple of weeks declared " oh my god it's changed my life! I don't know why I resisted for so long!".

So today I'm bringing you 5 reasons why I think a digital calendar is always a a winner. Here's a big BUT though before you cry into your cuppa because you love writing things down - you can still use your paper planner too! I don't advocate keeping both a digital calendar and a paper diary as your primary source of keeping track (terrible idea to duplicate information in 2 places in any situation), however.. there are a lot of reasons that writing things down is also good for us.

• -The dopamine hit from crossing things off

• -Physically writing something down improves memory

• -And.. there is so much gorgeous stationery out there!

A really great way to get that great feeling of writing stuff down" but all the benefits of using a digital calendar is the take 5 minutes every morning to look at your calendar and list out the appointments you have and/ or the tasks you want to get done that day (using your main source, your digital calendar, as the refence point). That way you can get that energising dopamine hit by crossing out or ticking off as you go through the day, but without the downsides of having your paper planner as your main diary/ calendar/ task tracker.

So here we go - 6 reasons why I think a digital calendar is always best:

1. You can change it easily if priorities or appointments change without laving a big messy page.

How soul destroying is it when you end up with messy pages after changing appointments or prioirities in your paper planner? Wih a digital calendar you can change your appointments or reminders easily and at the click of a button!

2. Other people (family or colleagues) can have access to it.

If we're talking about home life calendars here for a moment - you can set up a joint calendar with other members of your household so you can both see it. Particularly useful if organising meeting friends and you need to make sure someone else is able to watch the kids! In our household, first in the calendar = priority for going out! Super useful for keeping track of family activities too.

3. You can set reminders ahead of time.

Need to take something to work on a certain day? add a reminder to your digital calendar and it will help you not to forget

4. You can access it at all times.

Most people have their phone with them as a habit and of course a digital calendar is accessible on your phone. I've often been with friends having a coffee and we want to try and organise a future get together but they are devotees of the paper diary - which is on their desk at home!

5. Recurring appointments.

One of my favourites! Weekly PE day for the kids? add as a recurring reminder! (see number 3 - also set reminder!)

6. You can search it!

A lesser known benefit. Want to know when you last went to the dentist so you can figure out if you need to go again? Use your calendar's search function to search "dentist" and you can find out straight away.

So tell me - have I convinced you? If not, thats ok! As I often say, we are not robots and we make the most suitable and best choices for our situation. If you really cant part with your paper planner - there are tactics for using it it's best too - but I still think digital lead calender with a supportive paper planner or desk pad is the winning combination! ;)

If you are a small business owner and found this useful - you can sign up to my mailing list here for more straight to your inbox

Or if you work for an organisation connect with me over on LinkedIn (I'm Litsa Smith) and checkout my highlights for how I work with organisations to improve the wellbeing and operational effectiveness of teams)