Does anyone Still Keep Manual Pen & Paper Daily planners vs. Maintaining everything Online?

[Anonymous]

In 2011 Amex sent me a nice Daily Planner book with a plain black hardback cover with minimal gold lettering on the spine that seems to have toggled in different years between “The American Express Appointment Book” and just “Appointment Book” with the year on the bottom. I have no idea why it changed sometimes.

My guess is that the 1st one was free but when I didn’t return it I implicitly agreed to keep it and subscribe to receiving another one every year, which seems to be delivered in November. Although I’ve noticed the stamped initials are my eldest son’s initials and it’s totally possible I thought it would be a gift for him, it was just something he had no interest in, so I kept that one and used it and then continued to use and keep the ones ever after.

I just received the 2026 one but haven’t broken it out of the box just yet. Last time I checked it was like $80 or something

I definitely keep calendars on my phone because the book isn’t going to remind me of anything with an alarm, but when I’m doing things like being on my cell phone with customer service asking me “can you write this down” I definitely have that book open all the time.

I look back now at all the volumes on my shelf and inside I have taped photos and important receipts, and I definitely used one volume heavily for each year one of our kids was applying to colleges to keep track of things. Never used them like a “diary” per se but I have definitely used them to scribble quick ideas and thoughts and potential shopping lists of things I hear about online but need to research more before buying. (I probably don’t buy 90% of those things)

Now I find like after 15 years I’m possibly handing them down to my adult kids as sort of a record of stuff. Like lists of maintenance things that need to be done every year to own a house, a jury duty summons postcard with YES YOU HAVE TO RESPOND TO THIS etc.

Anyone else still have manual planner diaries, or what is your system if not all online?

[Anonymous]

I do. Every year.

[Anonymous]

Yes. And I have my yearly planners back to the early 90s.

[Anonymous]

I have a work planner, but for my personal stuff, I use an online planner.

[Anonymous]

I do keep paper planners for work as well as home, my brain works better with paper planners.

[Anonymous]

keep a paper calendar I can see on wall

[Anonymous]

I use a paper planner. It is much easier for me
to see what is coming up that way.

[Anonymous]

I do! I take great pleasure in picking out next year's calendar.

Personal entries are in red ink and work stuff in black or blue.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I use moleskine’s weekly planner. I prefer writing out reminders (and checking them off!). I keep work and general life stuff in it. I’ve done it for 20+ years.

[Anonymous]

I am 45 and terminally online, but I love paper, stationery and quality ink, pens and pencils. I take after my father, who also loved these things. I like the smell of old books, and it's a sensory pleasure to leaf through physical pages, rather than tap through a Kindle. I hate online planners.

So of course I have always had cute paper planners. The ones with "good" paper, for which I select "good" pens. I've abandoned the fountain pens of my youth for a more practical ink-ball Signo 0.38mm pen, in blue-black ink.

My current favorite planner is a Moleskine 3.5x5.5 pocket weekly that fits into my bag. I ordered a cute fabric cover for it on Etsy, and change out the planner every year.

My son seems to have inherited my love of paper planners. My daughter plans exclusively online, despite her love of drawing and appreciation for just the right paper texture. They scoff at my pen obsession, but I notice that my stash gets noticeably smaller every time they rifle through my pen drawer.

[Anonymous]

I have a work online calendar.

At home, I focus on routines so don't need an electronic calendar.

We have a dry erase fridge visual calendar with the weekly schedule and a short list of upcoming one-off events.

I clip appointment cards for 6 month follow-ups in date order on the fridge. As each comes up, I look at the next couple and put them in my work calendar if they conflict with work.

My spouse manages the appointments he covers with the kids and/or makes himself. We have a rule that the parent who makes the appointment has to be able to cover it. That avoids wasted time changing appointments.

[Anonymous]

Every year. I get mine from Plum Paper. Customizable.

[Anonymous]

Yes I love my physical planner. I use Ink +Volt and have for the last 6 years, before that it varies but when I was in college, my father started giving me one that his company provided to him every year. I used those for probably 10 years. Saved them and they really do tell a story!

[Anonymous]

Do not leave those for your kids. They don't want them.

[Anonymous]

I need to plan in a tactile way. I use two things: 1) My ReMarkable - note taking, brainstorming, project planning, and journaling. I also have things like my weekly routine and personal to-do lists in here.
2) I have a Nu Board, which is a notebook that's made of 5 whiteboard pages. I also use a bunch of those little 2 x 2 post-its. The first page I use to plan out my week, with each task on a sticky (so it's easy to move around, and very satisfy to pull off and throw out when I complete tasks). Then the other pages are where I keep tasks I'm not going to do this week, but that are upcoming or longer range, sorted by project (one project per page).

For actual calendar appointments and plans with specific dates and times, I do use Google Calendar on my phone/computer. So that is all digital.