Should You Use Paper or Digital For Planning?

I have a lot of coaches ask my Why would you release a paper planner when most coaches do everything on their phone? Isn’t that a step backwards?

Not at all.

Ultimately, you should use what works best for you.  I know some coaches that thrive with their post-it notes.  Some use their google calendar.  Some have paper planners.  The only thing I wouldn’t suggest it to try to keep it all in your head.  Whatever method is easiest for you where you can easily capture your to-do’s, plan, and prioritize you list, that is the best method. 

But, there are two basic reasons I was convinced that the planner I created, The Busy Coach Game Plan had to be paper-based.

1. Taking Care of the out-of-sight-out-of-mind-problem

In the whirlwind of our daily coaching lives, we can sometimes lose visibility on our major goals and initiatives. Once that happens, it becomes harder to filter the important from the merely urgent.

When I had all of my goals and daily tasks on my phone, I would forget about them a lot. I find that digital solutions fall easy prey to the out-of-sight-out-of-mind problem. Writing everything down on paper is one of the best tricks for maintaining goal visibility. A physical tool like The Busy Coach Game Plan keeps your goals front-and-center and makes them a cinch to review.

It also allows you to easily connect your goals to your daily task list, so you’re taking definitive action to achieve what matters most each and every day. One of the biggest reasons coaches don’t reach their annual goals or feel swamped by their daily tasks is that there’s no practical link between them.

Despite coach’s best intentions, they soon find themselves overwhelmed and no longer making progress. They can’t see the forest through the trees, and they feel lost in a maze of mundane tasks.

If that sounds like you, the last thing you need is another mobile or desktop app.

2. Your Brain Likes Paper More than Screens

There are many benefits to digital planners, but they’re not always best. In fact, research shows people who take notes on paper actually learn and retain more than those who use laptops. Why?

The reason is that handwriting:

• Engages different parts of your brain
• Forces you to more fully process your thinking
• Creates more and better memory cues for later recall
• Gives you an edge in understanding and remembering concepts

Manually writing notes and tasks, and processing your day and week on paper, engages your mind on a higher level.

In addition—and you probably know this from painful experience—digital devices can be incredibly distracting. When it comes to focused work, they can get in the way by tempting you to jump between applications, chopping your focus into smaller and smaller fragments.

Two of the upsides of working digitally are that you usually have everything you need right there on your device, and thanks to ubiquitous wifi and personal hotspots, you’re always connected.

And those are both downsides too. We are very susceptible to distraction when working on digital device. I know that I just can’t help but to check my email or social media if I see that I have a new message.

Students waste about 40 percent of their class time on email, social media, and pointless browsing, according to Lifehack. Students or not, are we any better and staying focused? I don’t think so.

Who’s got time for that? Not me. Not you. Paper is brain-friendly tech.

I’ve used and examined dozens of planners over the years. Honestly, none met my expectations or my standards. That’s why I decided to create The Busy Coach Game Plan which is a daily planner for College Coaches I was committed to designing a solution I wanted to use myself.

Right now, get August 2021-July 2022 PDF version for $10 off right now in my store.  Use code GETREADYFORFALL10.  I am going to be adding some extra pages to help you better organize your recruiting.  I will send you those pages once they are finished. 

Get the Busy Coach Game Plan Daily Planner

Success loves speed, 

Mandy Green