Paper by Simply Digital is a printable planner that uses the same principles as our planner App.

• Overwhelm: Tired of feeling bombarded by last-minute tasks?
• Goal Disconnect: Struggling to bridge the gap between dream goals and daily reality?
• Time Management: Losing track of essential to-dos and feeling constantly rushed?
• Motivation: Unable to be productive without the pressure of deadlines?

Are you struggling to get it all done and stay in control of your time?

There are different productivity problems. From not knowing what to do, to not being able to find the time/motivation to do it. From being unorganized, to being overcommitted. Many of these problems really can be solved with a good planner.

A good planner can:

• Tell you how busy you are. So you know you can relax or know you need to hustle.
• Be a tool to make big long-term dreams — and plan how to make them reality!
• Plan out your year, quarter, month, week, and day.
• Store tasks. So you don’t use your brainpower trying to remember them.
• Help you set meaningful deadlines that you actually feel motivated to meet.

Get your life together.
Be in control of your time.

A real planner is a tool to help you plan how to use your time and when to get things done. Scroll down for more on how we do planning right.

What does your life look like when using this planner?

Every 3 months, we’re going to do Quarterly Planning and set goals for what we’re going to achieve. The big stuff. Whether that means changing your life, or at least big projects like painting the living room.

Then we’re going to figure out the shape of that quarter. Turn the big goals into a list of tasks. Figure out which months the tasks best fit into.

The next step is to plan your month. During Monthly Planning, we’re still thinking “big picture”. But now we have a rough idea of what’s happening this month and what times we expect to be busier than others. Now we move the tasks into weeks, ready for more tactical planning.

As we gradually zoom-in from quarter, to month, to week — we are making those big goals actually happen. And we’re doing it along side all the mundane “everyday” type tasks that also need to get done (like laundry or renewing your passport).

Our Weekly Planning spread isn’t just 7 small daily spreads. This is a space for storing all the things that need to get done this week. I know most tasks that fall into my lap generally just have to be done this week. A planner shouldn’t force you to pick the exact day as soon as it enters your planner.

The Weekly Planning pages are a tool for deciding which days all our tasks will get done. For me, deciding which day all my “some time this week” tasks should be done is a quintessential aspect of planning. Otherwise, it all just goes into Monday, then I copy it to Tuesday, etc. I can’t see how busy I really am and the “deadlines” I’m setting are meaningless.

When you have a space to actually plan out your week, it will change your life. Suddenly, when something is scheduled for Monday, that means it actually has to get done Monday. Game changer for motivation!

Also, you now know how busy your days actually are. So you know if you need to hustle to get it done. Or if you have some time to relax and say “yes” to a spontaneous opportunity.

Some 1-minute videos on the Weekly Planning pages:

• Weekly Planning Layout
• Why it’s not 7 small daily spreads
• Features of the design (right side)
• Features of the design, part 2 (left side)

Daily Planning is where the execution happens. We’re now zoomed-in all the way, at the “doing” end of the spectrum.

I have a 1-minute video showing off the Daily Planning layout:

How Simply Digital does Planning

Flexible Scheduling

The cornerstone of how we do planning differently at Simply Digital is what we call “Flexible Scheduling”.

This is the difference between a planner and a calendar. On a calendar, everything you put in has an exact date and time as soon as it goes in your Calendar.

Tasks don’t work that way. A task might have a deadline. But the deadline isn’t when you’re actually going to do it. When we’re planning, we’re deciding when we’re doing the things.

For example, I like to book my holiday travel in September. A calendar would force me to say exactly what day, even if it’s still January. That doesn’t make sense. I will 100% have to reschedule that if I pick September 15th months in advance.

Flexible Scheduling is the ability to schedule tasks for “Tuesday at 3:00”. But also for “November”, for “this week”, “next week”, etc.

Arbitrary Deadlines

A bonus of Flexible Scheduling is you’re not forced to make arbitrary deadlines.

In my booking holiday travel example, when I put it in for September 15, that’s an arbitrary deadline. I am just picking a random day because I’m forced to. There’s no reason it should be done that day.

When you make arbitrary deadlines, it makes all your scheduling feel like it doesn’t really have to be done then. Because it doesn’t. You know it. You can’t fool yourself.

If half the things on your list for Monday could just as well be done Tuesday, would you work hard to get it done? I wouldn’t!

I need to know that when I schedule something for today, that there is a reason that it needs to be done today. Even if that reason is just that the rest of the week is already full (that’s actually normally the reason).

It’s also true for the bigger picture planning. My week or month might look full at a glance, but I need to know how full they really are so I know if I can be open to new opportunities or if I need to guard my time.

Keep track of tasks, without having to do them NOW

Sometimes we have tasks that are not urgent, and don’t bring us closer to our goals, but they still have to be done. Eventually.

For these, we can put them in the planner farther in the future. We can be as specific (ie next week) or general (ie next month) as we want. I find the farther out, the more general I like to be.

This way we still keep track of the tasks. They won’t be forgotten; they are written down. Buuut we can forget about them for now. Free up some brainpower 🙂

Connecting Goal Planning with Day-to-Day Living

Besides having the flexibility to schedule things more generally, there is another big reason to have a planner with Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily planning pages.

This way we can start at the zoomed-out big picture, then gradually zoom-in to the daily execution.

Who has ever made a big dream goal, drawn out plans, and then the plans sit in a drawer forgotten? I have!

By putting the big-picture Monthly and Quarterly planning in the same book as the more execution-aimed Weekly and Daily planning, we bridge that gap. There is no gap anymore. It’s all small steps.

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Pricing

The Paper by Simply Digital planner is a downloadable “Printable” file. It is undated, so you can print yourself a new one every quarter. Forever.

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