Reader,
Tell me something.
Have you ever sent a WhatsApp message and…felt an instant regret? In our case, I felt this regret a few days after sharing last weekâs letter: Finally! A free, clean, online PDF editor + password-lock.
Nothing was wrong with it. But I realized it would have been fun to begin this year’s letter by sharing what I had learned from “operational folks”: paper calendars.
I realized it when I was setting up my wall calendar for the next two months â January and February 2024.
See here:
My 2024 has begun with this paper calendar |
As I said, I had learned this from operational people.
What I learned from the âoperational folksâ
There is a special category of people in many organizations: the operational people. Iâm sure you have come across a few. You canât work without their help. At the beginning of my career, I used to find them very inflexible. They would not budge from the processes. And sometimes, I felt they were red-taping trivial things.
Later I realized that these were the same people who made sure the electricity bill was paid on time, and similar thousand little things. They were no less than a lifeline. Silent support.
I noticed that a few of these staff members had simple, paper calendars pasted on their workbench softboards.
Just A4 size printed papers.
How they used them?
They referred to the calendar or scribbled on it while talking on the phone or discussing with someone.
If nothing, they used to glimpse at it once in a while.
So I mimicked them
I mean whatâs the harm in trying things that others are already practicing? So, I began using these calendars a few years back. And Iâm not going back! (You’d have already understood that.)
It doesnât mean I have ditched Google Calendar.
It also doesnât mean that Iâm duplicating my scheduling on both of the calendars: physical and digital.
The paper calendar has a very different purpose
Google Calendar is micro: it allows you to make notes and schedule based on time slots. But paper calendars? They help you make quick notes or just have a rough idea of your schedule without using a Smartphone or a computer.
I use the paper calendar to mark the most important things only. Things that I need to keep in mind and plan accordingly. For example, travel dates, important meeting dates, deadlines, etc.
Seeing important things on paper makes them more real. As if theyâre approaching me and Iâm made aware of them every single day. And it takes care of âout of sight, out of mindâ syndrome.
Google Calendar is fine, and the reminders are fine. But I HAVE TO set the reminders.
On the other hand, the paper calendar just shows me my upcoming trip dates as soon as I take a glimpse. And this happens at least 50 times a day. No chance I will forget any important thing.
Make your own print-ready 2024 calendar
So, do you want to give it a try? You donât have to create a calendar from scratch.
I use a free website called calendarlabs.com . They have 1000s of combinations of calendars available and in different sizes and designs. Everything for free.
Out of all the designs, this simple, distraction-free design works for me. If you don’t want to play with the website, you can download this 2024 calendar directly.
| Download Print-ready 2024 Calendar |
Try it, it is the best investment youâll make in 12 pieces of printed paper.
But what about technology?
I mean, we’re a quarter past the 21st century. Shouldn’t we be embracing “paperless” and “digital’ technologies”?
One of the things, that I love about technology is that it makes things easy, simple, and frictionless.
Anything that meets this criteria is a technology.
So, paper is a product of technology. So is a pen.
That reminds me, you can utilize digital calendars in a very different way by learning how to Help people remember your event by generating âAdd to Calendarâ links.
Digital calendars donât even come close to what paper calendars can do. But again, their functions are different.
Lastly, your sibling canât paste a clay monster to mark your upcoming birthday on a Google Calendar. It is just impossible. đ
The birthday monster on my calendar! You just can’t do that on Google Calendar |
So, do you use a printed calendar? OR something similar for your day-to-day business? If not, have you seen anyone follow any similar practice? What is the most challenging thing about scheduling things?
Hit Reply and share your experience!
Reads of the week:
Another lovely essay by Paul Graham. Instead of sharing my thoughts, quoting one of the paragraphs that would show you the core of the essay:
âThere are two ways work can compound. It can compound directly, in the sense that doing well in one cycle causes you to do better in the next. That happens for example when youâre building infrastructure, or growing an audience or brand. Or work can compound by teaching you, since learning compounds. This second case is an interesting one because you may feel youâre doing badly as itâs happening. You may be failing to achieve your immediate goal. But if youâre learning a lot, then youâre getting exponential growth nonetheless.â
You may not know, but in late 2020, I rented a small outhouse amid the lush greenery of Pune city. I named it “Walden”. Inspired by 19th-century American author Henry David Thoreauâs experiment of spending 2 years at a pond named âWaldenâ in Concord, Massachusetts.
Though I hadnât completely cut myself from the world and digital sphere, I practiced weekly unplugging from the internet. And I still crave to do it.
In this beautiful article, Venkatesh argues against going hard mode âWaldenpondingâ (Haha, what a word he has coined!)
After reading his article, I have changed my mind about going hard mode âWaldenpondingâ. He provides a better way to look at how we are connected to the world at large.