By now you’ve probably seen the trend that’s all over Youtube – digital planning.
If not, then let’s fill you in.
According to Plan A Healthy Life, “digital planning is using a special PDF document (your planner) that has clickable tabs. Instead of turning a tab in a paper planner, you click a link to open a section. Unlike paper planners, you can erase your text in a digital planner, move it around, make it bigger or smaller.” And you can even add digital stickers and photos to accessorize it.
You only need three things to start on your digital planning journey, and according to the experts, that includes an iPad or tablet, a digital note-taking app of your choice (such as GoodNotes), and an apple pencil or stylus. And from here, you can hop onto YouTube and follow the plethora of digital planning tutorials that have been shared.
If you still need some convincing, however, here’s some ways that digital planning has transformed and boosted my productivity.
It allows you to plan out your entire day.
The main factor that keeps a lot of us from completing all of our goals for the day is that we fail to anticipate just how much of our time we’re going to need to devote to each one. We often give ourselves not enough time to complete tasks, and then end up falling behind when we have to attend to them longer. And making this mistake with just one task in your day can ultimately push your entire day behind schedule, and even bleed over into your week.
Digital planning allows you to visually see your entire day, and over-plan the time that you dedicated to each task. And better yet, you can get as specific as you want with it – if you’re someone who has a very strenuous schedule day to day, you can plan out how much time you spend on your most simple tasks (which can be grabbing lunch, fixing dinner, etc.) and ensure that you have adequate windows of time left for your more strenuous goals.
It keeps you updated about what events to expect for the week, and allows you to prepare for the following.
How many times have you forgotten about an important event, task, or deadline in your week? Well, it happens to the best of us. But being able to plan your entire week ahead of time is a gamechanger. Not only does it allow you a visual of your upcoming tasks, but it motivates you to also knock them off your to-do list early.
And as for upcoming events – that’s a big one too. Scheduling your events ahead of time on a calendar will ensure that you remember when and where it is happening, and if you need to grab anything ahead of time that will assist you in being there – whether that’s something as big as an outfit, or something as small as a notepad.
And let’s say you are able to knock out all of your engagements for that week – take an early peak at the next one and keep your momentum going!
You can get an overview of your priorities and engagements for the entire month, which keeps you from overextending yourself and hitting burn-out.
From a larger scope, being able to plan out my entire month has been a needed breath of relief. How many times have you looked back on a month and thought, ‘Boy, that was a whirlwind!’? And yes, you probably accomplished all of your most important tasks but didn’t you feel exhausted afterwards?
Being able to plan my entire month before it happens, or as I’m slowly stepping into it, allows me to be able to see exactly how many commitments I’ve made and whether I’m stretching a little too thin.
On the flip side, it also allows you the room to see where you possibly fit moret tasks in. And ultimately recognize which days of the week allow you to best accomplish each task.
Like I said – gamechanger!