The more things change, the more they stay the same
It’s been way too long since my last confession.
No matter how many personal productivity websites you read (and there are lots), the common theme across the board is that it’s really easy to let good habits lapse, and to find yourself — once again — writing a post about how you’re getting back on the wagon, this time for good.
Well, I’m too cautious to make quite so bold a statement, and my fabulously intelligent readers wouldn’t believe me if I did. But I am here to say that I’ve once again rejoined the Filofax fold, and I’m very happy about it.
For about twelve months, my personal system has consisted of grafting a Blackberry to the palm of my hand and never letting it out of my sight. It was OK — certainly it was nice to know that data was synced very quickly between the handheld and my work Outlook account. But there were drawbacks, too.
For one thing, manipulating the diary was cumbersome. The new Blackberry has a scroll wheel that can move horizontally as well as vertically, which is a significant improvement on the old model, but there is still an inordinate amount of typing involved in making even a simple calendar entry. And instead of being able to quickly flip back and forwards between pages, moving around the calendar took a long time.
And it began to occur to me that, really, the online benefits of the Blackberry were outweighed by all the drawbacks. How often, for example, did I really need to be able to send a meeting invitation at 6pm on a Sunday in a country town?* How often did I need to be able to amend minutes of a meeting at 3am?**
*once.
**never, but there’s a crazy part of the Blackberry Brain that makes you think this might happen some day.
Breaking the connection
One of the things that was starting to worry me about the Blackberry was the Pavlovian physical response I was having to the blinking red light.
For those of you who haven’t spent quality time with a Blackberry device, it has a small LED that blinks red whenever it needs your attention (for an email, or a calendar reminder, and so on). For extra distraction, it also blinks green every six seconds when there’s nothing happening.
Anyway, I found that over time, I had developed a physical response to seeing the light go red. Every time it happened, I would get an (admittedly small) jolt of adrenaline. It was starting to make me feel anxious, and it meant that my mind was always — at least in part — focussed on work. So I’m cutting back on having it around, and it’s a physical, palpable relief.
I should add at this point that I haven’t done away with my Blackberry altogether. But I am starting to restrict it to a messaging device, for email, SMS and phone calls, rather than a ‘do-everything’ device that carries appointments, tasks and projects as well.
The solution seems obvious in hindsight
Because of the business I’m in (communications strategy) and the expectations of the people I work with and for (always be available), handing back the Blackberry altogether wasn’t an option.
But there were a few things I could do to start to wean myself off the little red light. Firstly, I got a colleague to show me how to turn off the green light, on the basis that having fewer meaningless blinking lights in my life is a good thing.
Secondly, I changed the ringtone so that it no longer sounded like every other Blackberry in the country. Seriously, this used to be a real problem — I’d be sitting in the Qantas club and a Blackberry would ring, sending dozens of people diving into their bags. A new ringtone means I can ignore those false alarms and spend less time looking at the device.
Lastly, I resurrected my A5 Filofax binder, grabbed the 2008 and 2009 day-to-a-page calendars, and got to work downloading my life back onto paper.
The change has been immediately palpable. Where I used to avoid storing tasks in Outlook or on the Blackberry (largely because of the number of clicks and keystrokes needed to do it), I am straight back into the habit of writing tasks into my context lists in the Filofax. Keeping things synchronised between Outlook and the paper calendar is proving pretty straightforward, and for the first time in ages I feel really on top of my workload and my schedule.
I’ve also taken the opportunity to make some customised templates for the A5 Filofax which I am using for my task lists and travel plans. I’ll post these here shortly and talk some more about the way I’m using the system in an organisation full of crackberry addicts.
For now, though, it’s good to be back and it’s great to be back on a paper system.
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I enjoy your blog, David. We have similar systems, Outlook, BB and paper. My paper is moleskine: cahier for capture and ruled notebook for projects/actions. Paper keeps me grounded.
Funny about your BB story, I added The Office ringtone for my work email alerts. Oh brother, I used to like that theme… lol -mimi
— mimi · Aug 17, 01:09 · #
Look forward to seeing your templates. I was tempted to go electronic and put up my Filo recently but have decided to stay with paper—just because I don’t wish to have my life dictated to me by beeps and bytes.
— jeff · Aug 17, 06:33 · #
A great thing about filofax (or other paper systems) is the feeling of freedom they give you. No connections, no crashes, and lots of flexibility.
— DanGTD · Aug 19, 02:06 · #