Filofax personal organisers appeal to the productivity maniac part of my brain somehow. Considering that I lived for 2 years with an iPhone in my pocket, now have a Blackberry, and sit in front of a computer pretty much all the time, it’s a little crazy.
You might think the presence of Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and various email and SMS alerts would kill the utility of a paper diary stone dead.
You would be wrong.
There’s something about the act of writing something down that sticks in our head. I’m not sure if it’s a conditioning thing from when we are young, or the extra effort that must be invested to record on paper. Perhaps it’s because we know that ink on paper is pretty permanent - hence the term “committing to (paper)”.
I fished my old Filofax out of a drawer last night and dusted it down. I’ve just bought a replacement for W’s old one for her birthday, and wondered how interesting it might be to go a few weeks without the digital world beeping reminders away at me - to rely on my own memory, and the routine of checking the diary each morning.
There is definitely value to be had from being left alone. While it’s fine to think we can ignore email and SMS messages in order to get something done, it would be a whole lot easier if they weren’t happening in the first place. Concentration often demands a lack of distractions.
Technology is wonderful, but I suspect it is helping to encourage a lack of responsibility. We regularly hand off all manner of things to computers to look after for us - I wonder if there is some value to be had from knowing what is coming up rather than being reminded at the last moment.