Today, in the era of smartphones and iCals and Google calendars, being organized requires minimal effort. We need only enter the time and dates of our meetings and dinners into apps before taking quick comfort in knowing that push notifications will remind us that it’s time to go to wherever we’re supposed to be. In 2019, it’s never been easier to avoid seeming outdated or unorganized. Similarly, we can very easily delete engagements so that no one will ever know where we’ve been.
Admittedly, this is a lot of meaning to assign to a glorified notebook. It may even be way too much meaning, but who cares. We now move so fast and can rearrange our schedules so instantly that I find something covetable in a physical planner that forces me to slow down and think about what I’m committing myself to.
I refuse to throw my current planner away until I’ve reached its final week at the end of August because I’ve realized that, in the same way no one’s year is perfect, no one’s planner is, either. While I’d love to rip out the pages of certain weeks because they were garbage , I’d rather be forced to confront the past by physically flipping past it.