In The News


LET ME CHECK MY CALENDAR

Right choice can be key to organization
By Vicki Pounders
Senior Staff Writer.

One year.

12 months.

52 weeks.

365 days.

8,765.812776 hours.

525,948.76656 minutes.

As 2005 heads into its final days, Shoals shoppers will be heading to their favorite office supply stores, book shops and calendar kiosks to find the perfect way to keep track of all that time -- and the tasks they have to accomplish within set timeframes.

Traditional calendars -- those decorated with fuzzy puppies and kittens, sunsets and inspirational sayings -- remain popular. But don't expect most busy families to stop there.

"How we choose a calendar is really dependent on what you're using it for," said Debra Lund, a spokeswoman for Franklin- Covey, maker of a number of productivity tools

"If you're talking about an aunt in a care center who wants to remember what day it is, a calendar is perfect for that. If you're using a calendar to help you stay organized and complete specific tasks, there's no way you can write all of that in a block on a calendar."

For those reasons, many folks choose planners -- a datebook format with larger spaces for writing appointments and such. But even when it comes to planners though, there are choices to be made. Electronic or paper? View by month, week, day, hour or half-hour?

That choice can come down to how busy your days are and exactly what information you need to remember.

"Regardless of profession, the most important criteria for selecting a calendar are a person's individual planning needs," said Maria C. Woytek, marketing communications manager for Day-Timers Inc. "For instance, if you have lots of scheduled events (children, co-workers), take detailed notes and use your planner for future reminders, then a planner format with pages dedicated to each day is ideal. On the other hand, if you like to see the big picture, have few scheduled appointments and prefer to view a week or more at a time, a planner with two pages allotted for each week or month is a good fit."

Despite the popularity of handheld devices, computer calendars or cell-phone reminder capabilities, sales of paper planners are still strong, Woytek said.

"Currently, sales of paper planners are estimated at over $1 billion annually," she said. "We've found that paper planners are still alive and well in the hearts and minds of today's consumer. A recent study conducted by Day-Timers shows that the majority of Americans surveyed actually prefer paper over technology for nearly all their planning functions, including the management of: appointments, long-term goals, accomplishments, to-do lists, shopping lists, meeting notes and mileage."

The survey showed 73 percent of respondents still use paper products, whether it be a traditional calendar or planner.

"There are really three generations of time-management tools," Lund said. "The first generation was really lined paper -- people just writing down lists and appointments

and things they had to do on a notepad, if you will. The second generation is really calendaring. They either have a calendar on their desk or on their fridge at home. The third generation are detailed time-management tools like Franklin Covey, Day Runner, Day-Timer, that sort of thing."

Lund says that any effective planner has tools to help you keep track of the "core four" -- tasks, appointments, notes and a record of events.

"The ability to keep track of tasks and prioritize them in order of importance is really important," she said. "It's great if you can check off 15 things. If those are 15 things that aren't that important, though, it's difference.

"We say to prioritize A 1-10, B 1-10, C and so on. That's just when it comes to tasks. But when it comes to goals, we suggest that people set long-term goals and short-term goals. With that, you then break those goals down into bite-size chunks, you assign deadlines in order to complete those specific parts and then the associated tasks, everything you have to do to make that completed. Then you prioritize, and you work in order of prioritizing those things."

Lund suggests planning for 20 minutes a week and deciding on your "wildly important goals" for the week.

"What's the one thing you can do this week that will make a huge difference in your professional life or personal life?" Lund said. "You should have no more than two or three in a week. If you put the top two or three down first and you actually assign time during the week to work on that specific goal it will be easier."

She calls that weekly planning time "a meeting with yourself." Knowing the urgent and important things that have to be done helps you plan for the things that pop up unexpectedly, she said.

"If you are focused and you work on those things, you will have more of a feeling of accomplisment," Lund said.

"You will be more productive because you're accomplished those things."

Vicki Pounders can be reached at vicki.pounders@timesdaily.com or 740-5743.



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