Dated pages are pretty synonymous with planners, so what happens when you take them out? Does it result in utter chaos? No, not at all. I’m here to say that the future of planning is dateless! Here’s how to make the switch to a dateless planner once and for all…

Creates Less Waste

Before starting my business I worked in the publishing world. So I saw firsthand all the waste created by the planner and calendar industry. Dated products begin to expire as soon as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve (and even well before that, if I’m being honest) and then depreciate in value as the year progresses. By March they are heavily discounted. By May they’ll essentially be garbage.

Creating planners that are dateless doesn’t make them less functional (I’d argue that it actually improves their functionality!) but it does mean they never expire. Which ultimately, results in less waste — both for you, and the environment. With a dateless planner, you can take days off, go on vacation, encounter a global pandemic, and never waste a single page.

Eliminates Redundancy

I can pretty much guarantee that all of your important meetings, events, and appointments are in a digital calendar service like Google Calendar or iCal. Digital calendars are way better at organizing our day-to-day schedule and providing us with notifications and reminders. Sorry, but your paper planner will never be able to send you a text alert 15 minutes before that quarterly sales meeting.

We’d be silly not to take advantage of all the benefits of digital scheduling, or even digital tasks or project management! But, it can mean that a paper calendar in our planner becomes redundant and eventually, useless. Our brains don’t like when things feel useless, and this can often lead us to abandon our paper planner altogether.

But we shouldn’t — because that paper planner also has it’s own unique benefits, like providing your brain with valuable motor feedback! This feedback helps you process and internalize the information.

The goal should be this: digital planning shouldn’t replace paper planning. You just need to know how to make them work together.

Combine Paper + Digital Planning

Here’s my method:

1. Think of your digital planning tools as a place for big picture planning and ongoing task management, as well as the place to manage your schedule. This is what digital tools are made for!
2. Think of your paper planner as the place to parse that information “out of the cloud” each day so that your attention is focused in one place. Review your calendar or master task list and put the necessary information for the day onto paper. Not only does this reduce distractions and help you focus, but writing that information down on paper gives you that beneficial motor feedback.
3. At the end of the day, simply open your digital apps again, and reconcile them with the progress and information from your paper planner.

This method utilizes the unique benefits of each form of planning and combines them in a way that will help make you more efficient, organized, and motivated.

Make the Switch to a Dateless Planner!

Change can be hard, and making the switch to a dateless planner might feel strange at first, but reducing waste and redundancy was reason enough for me to do it! I now have a great routine where I open my favorite digital apps in the morning (Google Calendar for events and Microsoft To-Do for projects) and parse the necessary information into The Daily Page Planner. This is the perfect planner for me because it not only helps me organize my to-do list and schedule, but also prioritizes hydration, meal planning, self-care, gratitude, and other vital aspects of wellness that help me naturally increase my focus and energy.

Having all the information I need written down on paper so that I’m not distracted during the day has made a huge difference in how much I get done and how confident I feel in my work. At the end of the day, I simply reconcile my digital apps with what I was able to accomplish during the day. 

Want to try a dateless planner? You can take 10% off your entire purchase at The Daily Page with the code GETITDONE at checkout. Happy planning!