Dear Diary, today I am going to write about the importance of a physical office diary. Technology is great, having an online schedule with notifications is fantastic. In the office we use several methods to track video meetings, daily tasks and invoicing. But a physical diary just hits different and in some ways is better than all that fancy tech. For example…

A physical Diary never runs out of power

Forgetting to charge your phone the night before or not able to find a laptop charger can be a nightmare but with a physical diary you have a means to track your daily tasks and meetings that won’t let you down even if your battery does.

While of course you should still make sure you have more than one copy of crucial appointments your physical diary will always be ‘on’.

Perfect Planning with Pocket/Desk/Wall Planners

Different information belongs in different places, in order to make sure it’s always to hand at the right time. We recommend having the following three items ready to go, that way you can optimise your planning perfectly:

+Pocket/Bag-sized Diary: Start your day by making sure you have all your appointments lined up, no conflicting meeting and always make sure to schedule time for a break.

+Desk Diary: A bigger format, perfect for including all the details of your meetings and appointments, such as what to prepare or bring.

+Wall Planner: We love this tool. We use wall planners and whiteboards for showing off what tasks are being done, what goals are near completion and what clients are coming into the office. Wall planners are a great way to communicate with teams and are definitely not the place to be putting your next dentist appointment. Keep visual planning professional and broad. Electronic planning can be used for more detailed team planning.  

Got a good idea? Write it down.

Sometimes writing something down just feels better. It is now a well-established fact that writing something down by hand is a much better way for your brain to process a piece of information, compared to typing it out or adding it to an app.

Therefore, the electronic reminder coming from your Outlook or Google calendar is all very well, but if you haven’t really engaged with the details of the appointment you put in it, that reminder is likely to come far too late to be of practical use. For example, setting up recurring electrical calendar reminders is fantastic and quick to setup but how many times have you got a weekly, monthly or annual reminder about something only to be left scratching your head thinking what is this reminder about? Writing it down means the information sinks in better.

If you get a physical diary annually then now is the time to buy as stock is always in short supply come January 2022.

Put it in your diary now “must buy 2022 diary.”