Why I don't use my iPhone as a personal organizer

My husband is a bit of a techie. He loves gadgets and seeing how games and technology develops. He listens to gadget/tech podcasts and loves his iPhone and iPad. When I tell him about an upcoming appointment or event, he tells me to email or text him with the details, and he puts it in his phone's calendar or on Google Calendar. We don't have a family calendar on the wall at home because there's no point.

Hubby has often urged me to use an electronic calendar on my phone or online to keep track of everything. He argues that I could figure out my schedule, add article and project deadlines, and update it quickly and easily as things change. I could even keep my daily task lists on my phone!

Yes, that's true. But I will always and forever use a paper day planner for my scheduling and bound notebooks for my task lists. I will always and forever scribble appointments and article deadlines in the squares of my paper day planners. I will always and forever cross off tasks as I complete them, a black line through the middle of the writing.

And here's why.

If I don't write things down, I have a hard time remembering them. Appointments, tasks that need to be done, anything. I have to write them down. So by having physical day planners and task list notebooks, I can physically write things down, and I can be sure they'll get done.

On top of that, what do I do if the network goes down? Or my phone battery dies? With paper and pen, I always have access to what I need to do, even if the technological gods are against me.

I can see how using Google Calendar or your phone's organizer is helpful, especially if you're on the go a lot. But I'll stick with my Luddite organization techniques, thank you. And when the Internet goes down, I'll still be waiting at the coffee shop for our lunch date.