PDA and Paper Planner Fundamentals
PDA and Paper Planner Fundamentals
Revised 1-17-2009
- Take it with you everywhere.
- Enter P&S (Planning and Solitude) daily and note as #1 priority on 1st line of task list.
- Do P&S Daily.
- Ruthlessly carry forward tasks from the previous day before beginning current day. This is automatic with a PDA.
- Paper Planner: enter all future tasks in task list on future left hand pages.
- Carefully note appointments.
- Paper Planner: Notes regarding conversations and other details go on right page.
- Important distinction: Prioritize means “trouble if it doesn’t get done today.” Not “I want it to be done today.”
- Paper planner: Keep your past month’s calendars for reference.
- In your paper planner, keep last month’s pages, the current month’s pages and next month’s future pages.
- Planning is “Prime Time.” Don’t be seduced with immediate urgencies that prevent you from using your planner properly. The first causality in sloppy planner use is P&S (planning and solitude). P&S is your ticket to control. Take time every day for P&S.
- Believe in your guts that personal discipline is an absolutely vital habit to cultivate. It’s not just about the planner. It has to do with what you eat, a healthy lifestyle and the company you keep. The planner is a great way to instill the discipline to take care of these other areas of your life. Blind faith in the concept of personal discipline is OK, if that is what it takes to get started…just do it!
- The planner is all about event control. If you are not in control of the events of your life, you are out of control.
- At any given moment, the degree of personal peace and happiness you experience is directly proportional to the degree of personal control that you feel in that moment…personal peace is not flashy or exciting. It’s a subtle thing.
- In the moment, it may feel frustrating to take P&S time to work on your planner or to do the updates through the day. But, have faith that it is always Prime Time and the absolute highest value time you can spend.
Read Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less for much more detail.
