No More Zombie Jessica
A lot of you were so kind to wish me luck in getting more sleep. I’m happy to say we bought a new bed and it’s amazing! I lost 3 pounds so far just from getting better sleep because I have definitely not been exercising or anything crazy like that. I can now see that I was a zombie with my old, crappy bed. Tired. Food. Energy. Want. Eat. Eat. SUUUUGGGGGAAAAARRR. I’ve come out of the zombie fog and I no longer eat all stupid day. Thank you, New Bed. Zombie Apocalypse averted and my waist line has been saved (as well as humanity I guess).
No one likes a zombie
Paper vs. Digital – I HAVE THE ANSWER
I bought a paper planner. I bought it mostly because it went viral on kickstarter and it was back ordered like crazy. Seems counter intuitive but sometimes SO many people wanting something gets you intrigued. Why do so many people want the thing? I want the thing. Since it is so massively back ordered, the owner has kindly allowed it to be printed completely free. This is what I’ve been using since the beginning of January while I wait for mine to come in the mail. Using this planner has taught me something. I think I finally discovered the secret to the paper vs. digital argument when it comes to books/magazines/planners/everything.
The answer is both.
No seriously. Information was passed around on paper because it was the ONLY option. Now that there are better ways to send information paper is still around for the things that it is most suited for. I don’t think digital will ever replace paper all the way because there are some things paper will always do better. But thank heavens for email. My gosh what would my house look like if all my emails were physical!?
I was all about digital. I was an early adopter. I even had a PDA (it’s a really really old smart phone, but it had no phone. Or apps. Ok it was a really really old digital planner.) I was so excited to finally have a smart phone and I tried out all kinds of planner apps because I was going to super organize my life! But in reality I wrote down lots of stuff with arbitrary due dates so I wouldn’t forget them and before I knew it my to-do list had 30+ things on it daily. It had that stupid red notification circle with a number in it of all the things I hadn’t done. And it made me unhappy. I felt like I never got anything done. I felt like I was running all over the place last minute because my phone would beep at me and remind me that I had a doctor appointment in 30 minutes. Wait, 30 minutes! CRAP!
So when I saw the paper planner, I thought about how it would be an improvement on my digital one. Writing things down makes you remember them and I got to buy pretty new highlighters. I quickly realized that I couldn’t go 100% paper, either. I needed to be able to quickly type appointments in my phone and I need my husband to have access to them so he knows mine and the kid’s schedule. But the thing that the paper planner does so much better is that it makes me sit down and PLAN out my week. I realized that just typing things in my phone and hoping everything works out is the opposite of organized.
So my perfect world of being organized and stress free is a world that combines my digital and paper planner. (And I totally think this applies to books. I’ll get to that in a minute though). I type everything in my phone and each week I write down all the things in my phone on my planner so I can make plans, solve conflicts, and make sure I have time for everything. And the process of writing things down helps me remember my appointments! The other thing I love about my paper planner is that it focuses on the things I HAVE done instead of the things I still need to do. I highlight things I finish on my planner so all the colors make me feel happy and accomplished. And then I gladly turned off the stupid notification bubble on my digital planner.
The process of adding to-do list and calendar items to my phone and then transferring them to my paper planner has been awesome. It also gave me some deep thoughts on the paper vs. digital argument with books. The answer to that is BOTH. Paper is so much better for books with pictures and maps and indexes that you like to look through. My kids also love paper books because they like seeing their physical progress as they read something – especially if it’s long like a chapter book. But my kindle is so much better for reading while I’m in bed or while I’m traveling. But paper books rock at being signed. My kindle is so lame to take to book signings. I’m going to keep all this in mind from now on when I buy books. Books that I would have gotten before in mass market I just get on my kindle. Books that look beautiful and need to be held will have more room on my shelf since there won’t be so many mass market paperbacks on them.
It’s the little things you notice when your husband is gone. He probably turns of the light for me and puts away my book every night. I read until I can’t physically keep my eyes open. This whole week while he was on a business trip, I’ve been waking up to lights on, my phone wedged under my face instead of plugged in and my book sprawled somewhere on my bed with no bookmark! Waking up like that was quite the jarring experience. I missed him so much.
Who left the light on? Oh….I did.
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
I’m the same way with paper vs. digital. For my to-do list at work – it’s paper because it’s a mile long. for home – Any.do app works for me.
Sheesh! And I thought I was busy. I can still manage mostly without a planner of any type. I guess I’m not that busy after all.
I’m glad that you are feeling better and refreshed. It’s amazing how much sleep you get affects how you feel overall.
I have a paper planner and I love it so much. I use a ring-bound planner, and although it’s a little bit heavier, I just love it. I use digital things, too, but for the majority, it’s all about my planner (her name is Lilah!).
And I agree, both paper and digital things are important and have value. It doesn’t have to be all one or the other.
You named your planner? That’s awesome! Love the name :)
Yay, I’m glad you’re getting sleep, but you’re wrong. Paper is better. Digital bites. Haha for puns. ;-)
*GASP* you take that back!!