It seems like everyone uses a planner. There is even a trend on social media for aesthetic ‘bullet journaling’ and general note-taking with enchanting calligraphy.
Realistic? Eh.
Even using a planner in a normal capacity – writing your schedule for the week/month, and your homework for the day – can be tedious, and, quite frankly, slow and constricting.
Planners are too rigid.
Think about it: Whenever you have to change your schedule in some way, you have to re-write a whole section of your planner. If a teacher cancels a test, or moves it to another day, you have to find the correct week and move the assignment accordingly. It is usually ideal to put this information into your planner in real time, lest you forget it later. However, because you can only write so fast (while paying attention to the lesson), doing this is less than ideal. You are constrained to the date system that your planner includes. You don’t have the room to include any notes for the test, or helpful sidenotes on omitted problems.
The value of input speed.
I’ve said this before, input speed is one of the most influential parts of your productivity. If you have the best methodology, but are inadequately slow with your input, you will be slow. That is simply how it is. Your input caps how effective you can be.
If you are writing in any capacity – a planner, paper, notebook, etc. – you are probably writing at around 10-20 WPM.
If you type on a computer or laptop, the average typing speed is 30-40 wpm.
Learn to improve your typing speed
Re-writing is a mess.
Furthermore, rewriting is a pain, and doesn’t look nice either. Seeing repeated erase marks in your planner could be detrimental to its readability, and can cause confusion in the future.
What I recommend.
I personally like using project management software like ClickUp, or a to-do list application.
With this solution, you can easily change dates for assignments and test-dates almost immediately. (especially if the software uses ‘/ commands’ or something of the like) In addition to this, you can experience a delightful (flexible!!) visual view of your due dates, and tasks.
Final Reflection.
I understand the convenience of a planner (at times), but it simply is not for me. Some say that writing things down helps you memorize what you write (like dates), but I think that speed over memory is a meaningful tradeoff.
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