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Do you ever feel helpless, you wanted to be more productive, but the world felt so against you? You have been wondering what happens to all the time you have and you feel so much left behind. I bet we all have been in that place, the feeling of being stuck in time, clueless on where to begin to improve ourselves. A few years back I’ve been thinking what are the things in me that I need to change in order to be the best version of my life? Then, it struck me that I need to reorder, reschedule, reprioritize my task, in short, I need to get myself a planner.
It's been a two years journey with a paper planner in hand, sometimes when I read my planner, it surprised me on how many things had changed, how many tasks had been tackled when I’m on the top of my spirit. It's like looking into a glimpse of your past, a lesson learned, a problem was solved.
Writing something down on paper has a personal (even magical) effect on us, we pour our thoughts, we focus on it mindfully. Not to add that paper planners are way more cheaper than to own a tablet, and easily replaced by other paper-based products if we are running out of it. As journaling had been a popular trend nowadays, I bet paper planners were still relevant to most people. To prove this theory, we decided to conduct a mini-research; Will paper planner has more advantages compared to a digital planner?
Background of planner
The first paper planner was introduced by Franklin International Institute, it was a time management planner, the core technique of this Franklin Planner system involves beginning each day with 15 minutes of "solitude and planning". Franklin Planner named after Benjamin Franklin who kept a private book to plan his day. Paper planner has been widely used as a daily organizer since the 1900s and usually consists of a daily appointment schedule, financial tracker, diary and other personal references.
Around the 20’s century, Personal Digital Assistants were the first digital planner to be introduced. Nowadays, paper planners have many systems developed such as Bullet Journal, PowerSheet and for digital there are a variety of applications that can be used in our tablets and smartphones.
Paper Planner versus Digital Planner
1. Away from Distraction
Digital life has been a part of us for a long time and it is not easy to get rid of them entirely. Sometimes we need to take a break from it.
Studies have found that too much screen time also negatively impacts your brain, so the idea of journaling via phone seems fine and convenient, but nevertheless adds to the problem. Plus, have you ever been carried away by a simple text push notification so much that you end up browsing Facebook or Instagram… for hours? That doesn’t sound too worthwhile. Most people turn into paper planners because it has the ability to make us more mindful and focused. Payung Planner believes that a good planner should be as simple as life should be. Our paper planner has a simple yet minimalistic design so there’s nothing that can distract you from being so absorbed to tackle your task!
2. Things That You Write Are More Memorable
Research had been conducted at Washington University. Students who are typing lecture notes using a laptop can acquire more words compared to students who use pen and paper. We cannot deny how useful our digital devices are, but there is another finding; students who jotted down using pen and paper will memorize the content better up to a week duration compared to those who were typing on their digital device.
Another research proves that people who wrote down their goals shared them with others and maintained accountability for their goals were 33% more likely to achieve them compared to those who formulated it only on their head. Noted that down, please!
3. Double Your Dopamine!
What do you feel when crossing off your completed task? Do you feel satisfied because of that achievement? You must be because a research found that when we crosscheck a task, our brain will release dopamine, a hormone that is also known as a global reward signal. The hormone can trigger our motivation and inner satisfaction hence motivate us to repeat the same kind of achievement over and over again.
There are a lot of to-do list applications out there, but it is not a time to play around. Let use a more convenient method such as take out a piece of paper (or of course, our Payung Planner #payungnizer) and start listing. Andrew from Task Angel said, when we are listing our task out, we should drain everything from it. Then, try to cut it into small chunks, and tackle it chunk by chunk. Small and easy tasks add to bigger goals right? Applying this method on a piece of paper can provide you with a wider perspective thus making your planning more effective and saving you a lot of time.
4. Improving Our Mood
Most of us know about this habit of checking social media just before getting to bed, well sadly to say, it was not a healthy habit.
A sleep specialist Dr. Whitney Roban says people should stop using electronic devices at least an hour before going to bed. “The blue light emitted from electronics tricks your brain into thinking it’s day time and your body decreases the amount of melatonin it secretes, which makes it more difficult to fall asleep,” she explains. That a bullseye!
Good sleep will drive a healthy lifestyle. In stress therapy, it is often advised to keep a journal exactly because of the activity’s healing properties. Writing helps you sort out whatever mess of thoughts you have in your mind into words like an active meditation. Sometimes a stress of having so much to tackle and the fear of forgetting something can keep you up for a restless night. Brittney Morgan in her article stands that making physical lists of tasks that needed to be tackled tomorrow on the night before will help her feel less stressed and a lot more productive the next day.
5. Challenge Your Mind to Be More Creative
We all know there are unlimited resources to pamper your digital planner with all those nice things online. Searching something online and paste it on your digital planner seems like an addiction to make your digital planner more attractive. This is different from paper planner, where you need to start it all from scratch. But know what? That makes it more valuable, the things on this page may not be able to be used again on another page. Every page becomes more exclusive for its own differences.
Don't just limit your planner with pen and highlighter, make it colourful by using coloured pencils, crayons, stickers, washi tapes, newspaper cuttings and many more. Feeling too much to handle? Well look at the blog post by All About Planner, using habit stickers and highlighter actually saves so much of her time and it was a time worth to spend.
To wrap it up, paper planners bring so many benefits compared to digital planners. But that does not mean that we are against digital planners, every person has a different need and preference, choose what suits you best!
Our paper planner not just consists of daily affirmation to kickstart your day, but also each of our monthly and weekly planner is not attached to any specific year. Means that, if you decide to take a break from your planner and have a month-of-without-planning vacation, its okay! Because our planner welcomes you no matter what year or what month you are in! We are just that flexible because we understand the struggle of getting things done, so we make it simple, a planner fit for a person like you rather than for any particular year.
Know more of our planner here :
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Payung Positif Ventures
(NS0240942-H)
- No. 9 Jalan Wangsa Ceria 1, Wangsa Melawati, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan.
- hellopayungpositive@gmail.com
- +60 18-226 7844
Services
Payung Positif Ventures
(NS0240942-H)
- No. 9 Jalan Wangsa Ceria 1, Wangsa Melawati, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan.
- hellopayungpositive@gmail.com
- +60 18-226 7844
Services
Join Our Newsletter
You are signing up to receive product updates and newsletters. By signing up, you are consenting to our privacy policy but you can opt out at any time.
Payung Positif Ventures
(NS0240942-H)
-
No. 9 Jalan Wangsa Ceria 1, Wangsa Melawati,
53300 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan. - hellopayungpositive@gmail.com
- +60 18-226 7844
Services
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