The Friday Special: Paper or Electronic Calendars?

A recent news story (click here) touched on something I've been talking about with people for about the past ten years... What type of calendar do you use these days -- paper or electronic?

For me the answer is easy, though not really decisive-sounding... both.

For a long time (1970's - 1990's), I used an 8" x 10" book that showed each month spread out conveniently across two pages. It easily held the events/activities I had to keep in mind, and, more importantly, it was a great "canvas" that gave me a picture of a whole month in one quick glance.

During the 90's my world changed bit and I moved to a book that showed one week spread across two pages. I needed more space everyday, but it was still a good canvas that gave me a good picture of multiple days in one glance.

In the mid-90's electronic calendars starting coming into my world. First, on pocket-sized devices and then they appeared on the PC.

As the novelty phase of using electronic calendars wore off, It was becoming clear to me that the electronic format (despite some clear virtues) was a lousy canvas for getting a quick and deep picture of my week or month. It was kind of a situation of too many clicks and still not getting the same level of info provided by flipping open a nearby book to a spread of two pages.

My calendar book was almost always at hand (or really close by), whereas the electronic version might not be there, or could not be accessed as quickly.

It was -- and continues to be -- an interesting situation for someone who is known as an advocate and evangelist for most things electronic. The result has been something -- essentially keeping two sets of books -- that would land me in jail if we were talking about bookkeeping rather than calendars. My paper calendar has been the place for all of my business and personal items.  The electronic calendar has been for business, with just a smattering of the personal stuff.

Messy and complicated, huh?  The workplace doesn't allow you to just ignore the electronic calendar, but, for me, it continues to be a lousy canvas for getting a good sense of what's coming up.

Right now, I'm on a bit of a work hiatus, so I'm not making calendar entries in Outlook on a employer/work system, but I am using the calendar function on my smartphone -- to a small degree -- while I also use my traditional calendar book.

So, what's the bottom line to all of this?... I guess it comes down to the same thing I preach to both techie and non-techies types on other topics: Know and explore the available options and then make an honest choice/decision about what will work best for you.