An old bug-bear of mine. Productivity. Time management, task management, management management.

Phil, who works in IT, told me about one of his first bosses, Catherine:

"I’m reminded of a time, way back in the black and white days, just after I started working in education - the IT dept had just unveiled the latest version of IBM Lotus Mail, which offered seamless integration between your email, calendar and documents. It was wild - and cost a fortune and didn’t work very well. In a meeting with the whole team, someone asked our director (a wonderful lady called Catherine, who is sadly no longer with us) if she wouldn't mind sharing her diary with everyone in the team.

She picked up her A4 Black & Red page-per-day, chucked on to the centre of the table and said “be my guest”. She was old school. Unusual that the director of IT and Communications didn’t even have a computer on her desk. Just a phone and that A4 diary was all she needed. Brilliant."

I long for that simplicity.

Sad, that it would be impossible now.

Why?

I mean, why should it be impossible?

I work in a team of one. OK - Mrs L pitches in from time to time, but she's across the table from me, not across an ocean. We could try talking to each other. Perhaps reinstate that ancient corporate ritual - "the diary meeting"?

I've tried snazzy collaboration applications with clients. They're not interested. They want support, not homework. No, they don't want access to my calendar. Yes, booking a meeting through Calendly is great, and automatic, but every single client ignores it and sends an email requesting a call.

What about personal productivity and task management?

What about it?

Getting Things Done was an analogue system, you know. I carried a planner long before I had a laptop.

That's it. I'm going back to a planner. Not a hipster bullet journal, but a good old-fashioned ring binder planner. Oh the joy I will have poring over sizes, designs and refills! Hours and hours picking the exact combinations to provide analogue planning utopia.

Out of Stock. Oh.

The world of stationery isn't what it used to be. Who needs a paper planner when there's Omnifocus, Things and Todoist? To shop effectively for analogue planner elements, one needs to search out niche suppliers, who hold small stocks and do so seasonally. Grab what you can, when you can. True to form - I have multiple orders from multiple systems coming through multiple channels. They'll get here eventually.

Hopefully, I will be able to forge a workable system (and probably a spare, too). One option is DayTimer, which I used through the 1990s, and the other is Filofax, which felt omnipresent at one time. I have refills coming for both, at the A5 size. I considered getting a smaller version - something that could be with me always - but settled instead on using my stock of pocket notebooks as out-and-about extensions.

Anyone who has dabbled in these systems will know that the paper can be a bit hit and miss from a fountain pen point of view. My propensity for broad, wet nibs is not ideal for the world of planners, which tend toward small neat script anyway. I will be using fineliners. I daresay I'll write about the details.

What will I gain?

Time. It sounds paradoxical, but in this case I believe the analogue is faster. Even though there's some transcription, and no chance to skip reviews (my planner won't send me any notifications), when I'm planning my week or day in a book, that's all I'm doing. There are no distractions. No procrastination traps. It's a mindful, efficient activity. There are no updates. No restructuring of project layouts, just lists and a calendar.

Sovereignty. I wont need to worry about what big tech is doing with my schedule, my notes and tasks. They won't have them.

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