Paper Planner vs Digital Planner vs Google Calendar: What's Best?
Your time is the most precious resource in the world, and how you spend it matters a whole lot — Whether you have a business, a boss, a kid, a partner, or not.
Every day is filled with different responsibilities and tasks whether you expect them or not. It’s also so important to make space to create, rest, and experience joy.
Hence the need for a good tool to help you organize your time and tasks!
The world agrees – the planning market size is estimated to be worth US $1.3 billion in 2023 and the productivity technology industry is estimated at US $58.88 billion in 2023. Both industries expect high growth over the next 10 years or so.
Finding the right tool to help you effectively accomplish everything you need so you can live the life you want is important.
Unfortunately finding which one works best for you – your unique life, mind, body, and soul is the challenge.
This article will give you everything you need to know about paper planning, digital planners, and digital calendars like Google Calendar so you can make the best decision for your own life.
What is a paper planner? A digital planner? A digital calendar like Google Calendar?
Paper planner
A traditional paper planner is a tangible place for you to put pen to paper and physically write down your plans, long-term goals, and to-do lists. There are a million different paper planners out there. They come in all different sizes, shapes, styles, and types of content.
Digital planner
A digital planner is a digital version of a paper planner. They’re usually interactive PDFs that can be written on using a tablet or device. Again, tons of different digital planners out there.
Digital calendar
A digital calendar is a sort of subset of digital planners. However, the difference is you’re directly planning and keeping track of your to-do’s in your digital calendar. There are a few main digital calendar tools out there, including the massively popular Google Calendar.
All three types of planners have different benefits and can come in daily planning, weekly planning, monthly planning, or annual planning - or a mix of these in one perfect planner!
The pros and cons of a paper planner
Pros of a paper planner
Tech and screen-free. You don’t need any tech know-how or additional time on your screen. Simply open up the planner, pick up your pen, and write.
Range of customization. Some planners, like bullet journaling, are essentially blank pages for you to completely make yours. Other paper planners don’t allow for much customization, so you’ll want to make so the content works for your life.
Creativity. If you love to be creative and artistic, using a customizable paper planner may be a creative outlet and a great way to use beautiful pens, tape, stickers, and more.
Better memory. Writing things by hand (versus typing) improves memory and learning.
Strong dopamine hit. When you physically cross off a completed task on paper, it feels really good! It may just be stronger than crossing things off in your digital planner because it’s tactile.
Keepsake. A tangible way to celebrate your progress, look back at how you spent your time and reflect on the kind of person you were at the time.
Cons of a paper planner
Inconvenience. A planner is an additional item to remember to bring and carry around with you, which you have to do if you want it to be effective. It means you also need to carry a pen and other stationary tools if you use them. It can also be bulky if you like to separate work and life into two planners, plus journals and other books.
Lack of reminders. You’ll be responsible for regularly checking your paper planner throughout each day to make sure you are doing what you planned to do. Reminders are really important for people with “time blindness”, often folks who are super busy or are neurodivergent.
Not collaborative. Paper planners can’t be integrated into company workflows and other apps or shared with others you need to communicate your plans to.
Range of customization. As much as it is a pro, it’s also a con. If you buy a planner designed by someone else, the content or vibe might not work for you.
Time-consuming. It takes a lot of time to make a paper planner look nice to you, find the information you need, and migrate information across months or years.
Un-editable. It’s difficult to correct mistakes that will inevitably happen. Especially if you’re using pen or markers.
Expensive. You need to buy a new planner each year (or quarter depending on the planner). And quality planners and stationery cost a decent bit of money.
Not eco-friendly. Paper is made from trees, and pens and markers are plastic. And you have to buy a new one each year (or quarter).
Damage-able. If you lose your planner or it gets damaged, there is no backup. Some pens and highlights can ghost or bleed ruining pages.
The pros and cons of a digital planner
Pros of a digital planner
Range of customization. You can create, design, and even sell your own digital planning tool so it meets all of your unique needs.
Save money & the earth. Digital planners are either free or come at a one-time cost, and there is no need to replace a digital planner.
Highly editable. It’s super easy to fix mistakes, edit details, and reschedule things as life comes up.
Efficiency. Once you have a page set up that works you can just copy and paste it within minutes to reuse each week/month. It’s also easy to find information using hyperlinks and search features, as well as migrating information.
Backed up. A digital planner is often backed up and saved on the interwebs.
Aesthetic for the less creative. If you don’t like handwriting (or your handwriting), you can pick really pretty fonts. You can also add aesthetic details like colors, themes, and digital stickers.
Shareable. You can easily share your plans with other people.
Mobile. You can access your planner whenever you have your phone or another device on you. If you like to use separate planners for work and personal it is so easy to have both on your device.
Cons of a digital planner
Tech requirements. Need an electronic device. Often for digital planners, you’ll want to use a tablet with a digital writing tool.
Can be expensive if you don’t already have a device (most used is a tablet and stylus). Also, most people selling digital planners have a no-return or refund policy.
Learning curve. If you aren’t familiar with the tech, app, or program behind your digital planner, there will be some time spent learning it. Also, writing with a stylus can take some practice.
Distractible. Can be easy to get distracted when on a device with social media, emails, and other apps.
Battery. If your device isn’t charged, you can’t access your planner.
Wifi. Depending on the technology, you might need wifi to access, edit, or use your planner.
Screen time. It’s adding to your daily screen time which can affect your physical and mental health.
Technical issues. If you are not a fan of tech, digital planners can feel like a challenge. For example, you’ll want to make sure the devices you use (if you have more than one), you’ll want to synchronize them or things might fall through the cracks. You’ll also need to update apps/tech and back up your files.
Privacy. Personal details, plans, goals, and schedules may be vulnerable to data breaches.
The pros and cons of a digital calendar
Pros of a digital calendar
Time awareness. Writing out a plan or to-do list is good, but we often add too much to our plate because we aren’t estimating how long things will take us. A digital calendar will help you plan and create to-do lists more realistically because you’re attaching a time container to it.
Time-blocking. One super popular time management technique, time blocking, is the easiest to do with a digital calendar. That’s because you can quickly carve out chunks of time for certain tasks, making it easy to see them visually, easy to change if need be, and easy to stick to.
Accountability. You can use your digital calendar to hold you accountable and strengthen your follow-through muscles.
Some customization. You can customize your digital calendar in terms of colors, event names, and views. There are also many features and settings that make your digital calendar feel more custom.
Collaborative. Not only is it shareable across your devices and with others, but you can also collaborate with family members, team members, or clients on your schedule or appointments.
Increased focus. You can use your digital calendar to block off time (either for yourself or for your team) to focus on priority tasks without interruption.
Save money & the earth. Digital calendars can be free if you’re using the calendar that comes with your email address (there are some that cost money out there… an article on this coming soon). There’s also no need to replace a digital calendar, you just keep using it! While devices are using earth’s resources, you most likely already have a phone and computer.
Highly editable. It’s super easy to edit details, reschedule things as life comes up, and fix mistakes without leaving a mess behind.
Efficiency. Once you have a schedule that works or an event that regularly happens, you simply repeat it. You can also add useful attachments and links to elevate scheduled events.
Backed up. A digital calendar is backed up and saved on the interwebs without thinking about it.
Mobile. You can access your digital calendar whenever you have your phone or another device on you. If you like to use separate planners for work and life it is so easy to have both on your device.
Reminders. Setting up alerts and reminders for important events will help you stay on track and worry less if you’re late or you over-scheduled yourself.
Already using it. You’re most likely already using your digital calendar for some events whether your clients or appointments with others. If you’re already using Apple Calendar or Google Calendar and want to sync them, that’s easy!
Views. You can see your time from a day, week, month, and year allowing you to see a lot much further ahead into the future. Additionally, you can add everything into your calendar for your work and your life in one place but toggle on and off the calendars.
Planning to use a digital calendar like Google Calendar, but don’t know where to start?
Take it from an expert - you don’t want to go in blind!
Check out Soulful Scheduling - a self-paced course designed to help you curate a calendar that both feels and works amazingly.
Cons of a digital calendar
Tech requirements. You’ll need an electronic device and an email address to access a free digital calendar. You can use a computer or phone.
Can be expensive if you don’t already have a device (the most used device is a computer).
Distractible. Can be easy to get distracted when on a device with social media, emails, and other apps.
Battery. If your device isn’t charged, you can’t access your planner.
Wifi. Depending on the technology, you might need wifi to access, edit, or use your planner.
Screen time. It’s adding to your daily screen time which can affect your physical and mental health.
Technical issues. If you are not a fan of tech, digital calendars might feel like a challenge. For example, you’ll want to make sure the devices you use (if you have more than one), you’ll want to synchronize them or things might fall through the cracks.
Privacy. Personal details, plans, goals, and schedules may be vulnerable to data breaches.
Which one will work best for me?
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to deciding if a paper planner, digital planner, or digital calendar is best. Instead, it’s all about which option will work best for YOU – your unique life, mind, body, and soul.
My recommendation is to pick the 3 most important things for you, read over the pros and cons, then pick ONE place that you believe will help you keep your good habits going, easily stay organized, and accomplish your tasks and goals.
For example, the most important things for me are reminders, edit-ability, and being realistic with my plans. Going back through the pros and cons, the digital calendar checks off all of these.
You can, however, find a way to collaborate with both paper and digital planning as long as you’ve chosen one central place to store things. If you use both, it will be entirely too time-consuming and won’t make you feel more organized.
Personally, I regularly journal so I’ll use paper to mind map projects and write lists when I’m particularly overwhelmed. Aside from that, I use my digital calendar for everything and recommend it to everyone no matter who they are or what they.
I no longer operate from a to-do list, which 5 years ago me would’ve laughed at. 🤣
Use your Digital Calendar like the complex, beautiful human you are. Start living the life you want.
Get Soulful Scheduling today!
What are the most common myths about time blocking?
The average person uses 13 tools, apps, tips, or tricks to help them manage their time.
What if you just needed one, main tool to help you spend your time the way you want?
There is. Time blocking.
Except, only 17% of people time block.
That’s because we’ve been taught lots of things about time blocking that feel terrible to our minds, bodies, and spirits.
When I start working with new clients, they often feel like they’ve tried everything and nothing works. This leaves them feeling overwhelmed and stressed out regularly.
If you’re feeling frustrated because you can’t figure out how to time block, you might be making these 5 common mistakes.
I want you to know, they’re not your fault. And there are many things you can do differently.
If you’re ready to check off to-do’s with less stress, feel less overwhelmed, take better care of yourself, and enjoy your time more thoroughly, keep reading.
What is time blocking, and how can it help me?
Time blocking, also known as calendar blocking, is a planning strategy where you proactively dedicate certain tasks to a certain time frame. It’s also an execution and accountability strategy. Calendar blocking can help you feel in control of your time, have space for distraction-free deep work, and experience greater levels of follow-through, flow, focus, self-accountability, and time awareness.
What are the 5 common time-blocking mistakes?
We aren’t taught time blocking in a compassionate, intuitive, and holistic way. We’re taught to add appointments and events that concern other people, add work tasks around events, and then cross our fingers for some crumbs of free time for ourselves. If that’s you, know it’s not your fault!
By fixing these time-blocking mistakes (taught to us!), you can start making the most of your time, more sustainably and effectively accomplish your goals, all while maintaining your well-being.
Overcommitting
Scheduling too many tasks in one day is a common time-blocking mistake that I see. I often hear from clients that they’ve been taught to time block their entire day, from the moment they want to wake up to when they want to go to sleep. It’s also really challenging for many to know their capacity in a tangible way and say no when they’ve hit their max.
Overcommitment leads to stress from constantly feeling behind and being unable to keep up with their jam-packed schedule. When we live in an overcommitted state, we tend to neglect self-care, rush through the day, and have trouble prioritizing because everything feels urgent and important.
Tend to be in the overcommitted boat? Here’s a quick time-blocking hack: Create a max for the number of meetings or tasks you can add to your day. You can also do this with goals, projects, or priorities.
Neglecting rest and joy
Second most common mistake? Not scheduling any, or enough breaks throughout the day and week. If you’re feeling physically exhausted, regularly stressed or anxious, or have low focus and motivation neglecting rest and joy might be your time blocking snafu.
Neglecting time off of work or experiencing true joy also impacts our relationship with ourselves and others. It leads to burnout and a lack of fulfillment. But who taught us growing up and throughout our lives to prioritize rest and joy? Not many people. It’s only now becoming more and more common to talk about, thank the universe!
Scheduling rest and joy might feel a little counterproductive, but if you find your calendar packed… this is one of the most important things to schedule! Start small by adding an amount of rest that feels safe and accesible in your calendar. It can be just a lunch break at first, a day, or a weekend. As your capacity for rest grows, you can use your human design, menstrual cycle, life responsibilities, and energy levels to get a stronger idea of just how much rest you need.
Time Block like a human.
Get things done easier, and quicker.
Failing to prioritize (authentically!)
Not prioritizing tasks in your calendar is a biggie for our health and success. When we prioritize everyone and everything else, besides our most important and meaningful activities… we’re headed for trouble. When people think about prioritization, we’re taught to prioritize based on its importance and urgency. I don’t think those reference points are all that helpful. I don’t want to live in an urgent state all the time, I don’t think you do either!
Using your core values or what’s most important to you is how I teach my clients to authentically prioritize. If you seem to be missing deadlines, spending the majority of your time doing busy-work, or feeling behind or burned out, this time hack is for you:
Look at your current goals and tasks on your calendar. Ask yourself, “Do these tasks I’m regularly working on for sure help me achieve my goals?” This question takes radical honesty. If you don’t have tasks in your calendar, think about how you regularly spend your time. If yes, way to go. If no, there are some things you may need to change.
Rigid mindset
Every mistake I share, I’m like this is the biggest one. But for real, a rigid mindset is actually the biggest time-blocking mistake people make. Connected to being overcommitted, when people time block their whole day from start to finish, they think they have to perfectly follow it. And if they can’t/don’t, then it’s their fault. No, no, no, no. Don’t internalize this trash!
While we’re taught all-or-nothing thinking when it comes to planning, but the point of time blocking isn’t to perfectly follow it. When we think that, our creativity is stifled, we miss opportunities to be spontaneous and free, and decreases our adaptability and joy. If you want to time block successfully, having a flexible mindset is key.
My best tip? Since this is a mindset, it’s important to use a mindset solution. First, you create your schedule and you are in control of it throughout the day, not the other way around. You CAN get things done when you move them around, in fact, you’re more likely to get things done when you’re flexible and compassionate with yourself. To strike a balance between structure and flexibility, the best way is to use your intuition in time blocking.
Underestimating time needed
Last but not least, underestimating the real time needed to complete a task is a time-blocking no-no. If you find yourself stressing out around deadline time, rushing through tasks, and neglecting yourself underestimating is may just be your kryptonite.
Many people underestimate due to time over-optimism, being unfamiliar with the work involved in a task, underestimating the complexity, getting distracted, or feeling pressured and stressed out while working on a task. Fear not, time blocking can help!
A hack to help you not constantly feel behind? Overestimate the time you give a task. My rule of thumb is to overestimate my tasks by at least 1.5 or 2x times. Then if it takes less time, I go in and shorten that event and use that extra time to either rest or start on the next thing (most of the time, I rest now!)
Time tips and hacks only go so far
While the tips I shared with you will definitely help, identifying the root cause of these mistakes and healing them will be much more impactful than any hack can ever be. Often, there are many deeper underlying reasons you might be having trouble saying no, not prioritizing yourself and your goals, experiencing a rigid mindset, or underestimating the time something takes.
The way I approach time blocking in a uniquely strategic way and address the underlying root causes has made a huge difference in my life and my client’s lives. One of them, Sam, said that she was able to now fit in ALL of the important stuff in her life and accomplished more in her business over the course of two months than she had in the previous year and a half while nursing a newborn!
Effectively addressing the deeper things is key to finding long-lasting balance, manageability, and peace at work and in your life. This healing paired with a schedule aligned with your unique rhythms, goals, and capacity can make a big difference for you, your business, your relationships, and your health.
An easy-to-follow weekly schedule? Yes please!
Enroll in Digital Calendars For Humans to achieve your goals without sacrificing your health or joy.
How a weekly schedule template saved me 37 hours every quarter
Back in 2019, I was building my yoga coaching business, teaching yoga, hosting retreats and workshops, all while being an engineer in my 9-5 job.
I rarely sat still.
Resting felt pointless, and I never felt like I got enough done. I was constantly overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed out.
I never had enough time.
I know whenever I see someone say that everything changed from this one thing, I cringe. But I’m serious… using a weekly schedule template did that for me.
My calendar helped me heal toxic productivity, my tendency to over-commit, and my shiny object syndrome. Doing so allowed me to rest more, enjoy more, and focus more.
Four years later, I’m running a successful online coaching business and I currently work remotely 3-4 days a week while traveling around the world. (I’m in Cyprus as I write this)
I wouldn’t be where I am today without creating a weekly schedule template that felt good to ME.
In this blog, you’ll learn what a weekly schedule template is and how it saved me 37 hours, and $2500, a quarter. That’s 148 hours, or $10k a year!
What is a weekly schedule template?
A weekly schedule template is your average week pre-built into your digital calendar. It provides a “blank”, realistic, yet flexible structure and a clear framework for planning and organizing your week ahead.
I think of my weekly schedule template as a foundation for all the things I regularly need to do to maintain my life and well-being.
The biggest difference between a "‘weekly schedule’ and a ‘weekly schedule template’ is that you don’t intend to follow your weekly template perfectly, which is huge for a lot of people who struggle with perfectionism or all-or-nothing thinking.
You'd take your template and edit it at the beginning of each week to edit it to fit your real-life tasks, events, and responsibilities.
Once you have a weekly schedule template built, you will…
Feel more in control of your time, weeks, and schedule, and reduce any time-related stress.
Realistically see how much time, energy, and space you have available making it much easier to plan and say yes or no to things.
More easily keep track of everything because you have it all in one place preventing mental overwhelm.
See and celebrate what you’ve done and feel more fulfilled at the end of each day and week.
Increase your awareness of how long tasks really take and more realistically estimate how long things take.
How a weekly schedule template saved me 37 hours a quarter
I used to spend a lot of time planning, then re-planning, because my plans were rigid and unrealistic. I kept saying yes and overcommitting myself. I’d feel stressed out and behind on either everyday life stuff, or on my priorities and goals.
With a weekly schedule template, I saved 37 hours, and $2500, a quarter. That’s 148 hours, or $10k a year!
However, if you like math here it is:
Every quarter I used to spend about 5.5 hours each quarter planning it out. Then at the beginning of the week, I’d sit down and spend about 2.5 hours planning out my week. But since things changed so much, I’d spend another 45 mins each day writing out my to-do list. That’s 44.5 hours each quarter JUST planning.
At my hourly rate, that’s $3,115 spent planning.
With a weekly schedule template, I spend around 1.5 hours on quarterly planning, thinking through what I want to do. Then, I will spend ~30 mins a week editing and updating my weekly template to fit that week. That’s it. And I only spend 7.5 hours planning a quarter now.
At my hourly rate, that’s $525 spent planning.
Looking for your own weekly schedule template?
There’s a lot that goes into building a weekly schedule template that’ll feel good to you, be sustainable, and give you the results you want. You have to take into account your everyday life and responsibilities. Think self-care, kids (if you’re a parent), cleaning the house, commuting (if you do), work hours, date nights, etc.
Your vision, dreams, goals, intentions, or whatever word you use (I use intention!). For example, scaling your business, working 30 hours a week, or writing a book.
Then you need to match all of those with your unique rhythms, at best you can. And doing all of this without your tendency to overcommit or optimistic planner parts to take over!
Digital Calendars For Humans will help you do this in 30 minutes, or less.
Calendar Management: Why your intuition is more important than you think
What happens when we spend hours creating a plan and schedule that would work in an ideal world but doesn’t hold up with life’s unexpected twists and turns?
Many of my clients end up getting overwhelmed, sitting in indecision, and sometimes even giving up on planning altogether. This leads to lots of frustration, disappointment, and time wasted.
If this is you, I see you.
Many factors can throw off our carefully planned schedules, and it’s difficult to navigate these obstacles with confidence.
When it comes to creating adaptable and flexible plans (that don’t feel like a prison), your intuition is so important.
Your digital calendar is one of the best places to plan with and practice trusting your intuition.
In this post, I’ll guide you through how to identify your intuition, why it’s so hard to listen to, the benefits of using your intuition in your calendar management, and give you helpful tangible examples.
What is your intuition?
To me, my experience of intuition is simply a gut response to a decision, big or small, without necessarily having logical reasoning for it. Intuition can show up as a physical sensation, imagery, synchronicities, patterns, and more.
Curious about all the ways your intuition might be showing up? Check out Bustle’s 14 signs your intuition is speaking to you.
Also, personally, human design has also really helped me tap into my intuition. As a manifesting generator, I have a sacral (or gut) yes or no response to external stimuli and decisions.
However, at the end of the day, your experience of your intuition is what matters most.
What is YOUR experience of your intuition? How does it show up for you? Comment below and let me know!
Why is it so difficult to listen to your intuition?
For many reasons. The 3 biggest that I see are:
It’s almost impossible to tap into your intuition when you’re tired, overwhelmed, anxious, stressed out, in your head, or busy. If you’re often in these states… that’s your answer.
We confuse fear, critical, or “should” voice as intuition. (My intuition shows up as neutral, calm, and clear.)
Intuition isn’t often honored as an important business or time management skill/strategy in our culture. Even though 85% of CEOs in this one study confirmed that intuition was central to their decision-making process
We all have intuition, whether we realize it or not.
The more we understand it, the more we can apply it to better our lives.
The massive benefits of listening to your intuition
Honestly, the benefits of listening to yourself reach far and wide. But when it comes down to it, you get days that add up to a life more beautiful than you could ever imagine.
Listening to your intuition allows you to live a life true to you.
What’s better than that?
My clients, and I, often feel like we need proof to trust more. If you’re like us… I can confidently say you already have proof!
Ask yourself, “What’s happened in the past when I’ve listened to my gut?”
Ease, flow, peace, accomplishment, success, abundance. For me?
Changing my offerings in my business, then selling them out.
Choosing to become a digital nomad and experiencing more peace and freedom than ever before.
Being super tired, putting my work down, opening Netflix for a brain break, and watching an episode that gave me tons of ideas allowing me to return and accomplish what I was doing way faster and easier.
What’s happened in the past when you HAVEN’T?
Frustration, guilt, resentment, suffering, pain, delays, and spending loads of time and energy overthinking and NOT making a decision.
Some more personal examples:
Forcing myself to do a workshop with someone, spending a month marketing, and having to cancel it because of the low attention and excitement it received.
Attempting to be a morning person and work out first thing, always being miserable when I do it and when I don’t guilt-trip myself.
Not deciding what to do with my day so just go along with whatever comes up in my inbox, and ending the day feeling like I did nothing.
How do I use my intuition in my digital calendar?
Now you know what intuition is, how it shows up for you, and how important it is to listen to it.
Unfortunately, time management or calendar management advice rarely recommends you listen to your intuition.
The typical advice is to time block your whole day or week to the minute and perfectly stick to it. Then, if you can’t then something is wrong with you.
Good thing I’m not your average time management coach!
I know it’s nearly impossible to perfectly stick to your schedule every day, all day, AND be happy. I wouldn’t even want to anymore.
So, let’s start with what calendar management even is.
What even is calendar management?
Calendar management is the process of prioritizing your time and managing your life through the use of a calendar(1).
I use my digital calendar to organize and manage everything in my business and life. It’s basically my personal assistant, and it’s free!
Linking calendar management and your intuition
You can use your intuition when you’re creating a daily or weekly to-do list and/or schedule.
You can also flex your intuition throughout the day and week by moving time blocks around when you feel like doing the thing.
Tangible examples of intuitive calendar management
Asking yourself how your schedule feels to you.
Leaving gaps to move around tasks when you feel like doing them.
Dragging and moving time blocks/containers around without guilt.
Using language that feels good to you when naming events.
Putting tasks when you’re most energized, creative, and excited.
Scheduling time to work on goals and dreams that are deeply important to you in your calendar so they finally happen!
Ask yourself, “What it would look like to use my intuition more in my calendar?”
When you use your intuition in your calendar, you can…
Trust and listen to yourself more, leading to more peace and fulfillment.
Make decisions that will give you the freedom you want.
Have more energy, be more productive (in the good way), and be happy with yourself and how you spent your time.
Your intuition is the most important, yet underrated, time and life management skill out there.
Now you know how crucial it is…
Intuitive scheduling and time blocking? Yes, please!
Enroll in Digital Calendars For Humans now.
4 Mindsets to heal for a more supportive digital calendar experience
You’re done feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and unmotivated. You want to feel organized, clear, and like the badass that you are. Yep, I’ve said it… you’re a bad ass.
If you’ve been following along with the digital calendar for humans series, you know by now your digital calendar can be a magical tool to support you in creating the life you want.
The problem? Everything we’ve been taught about how to use our digital calendars. We’ve been told that we have to consistently follow it perfectly 100% of the time.
In this blog post, I’ll be sharing why your mindset impacts your digital calendar and the four most common mindsets that need to be healed if you want to have a more supportive experience with it.
By healing these four harmful mindsets, you can use your digital calendar to work, and stress, less and live more.
So, take a deep breath and keep reading.
Why your digital calendar mindset matters, a lot
A mindset is a mental attitude or set of beliefs that impact how you think, feel, and behave. An individual’s mindset is formed by a variety of factors, such as personal experiences, cultural and social influences, and education.
How does your mindset impact your digital calendar? It can be the thing that makes or break it.
For example, if you believe your digital calendar is an amazing, magical tool that can change your life, you’re most likely going to use it. The opposite is also true. If you don’t think it’ll work for you or how important it is, you’re not going to use it nor will you get the benefits.
If you’re committed to using your digital calendar in a flexible, open, and experimental way, it’s going to help you achieve the level of freedom you want. Yep, the opposite is true here too. If you’re committed to using it the same way you’ve been taught (aka rigidity and perfectionism), you’re likely to say it feels like a prison and you won’t use it.
The good news is, mindsets are not fixed and can be changed or developed over time through intentional effort and practice. By cultivating a supportive mindset you can improve how you spend your time, your well-being, your relationships, and your success.
Four digital calendar mindsets to consider healing
“It didn’t work for me in the past”
If you’ve been saying this, it’s most likely because you’ve tried to use your digital calendar before and it didn’t help you in the way you wanted it to. You still felt overwhelmed or scattered. It felt rigid and controlling. You have a completely valid point, it didn’t work for you with the skills and tools you knew at the time.
However, there are many, many different ways to use your digital calendar and settings to help customize it for your brain, life, and priorities. Maybe you didn’t know how to best use it for you at the time, but I know there is a way to make your digital calendar work and feel good to you.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I can find a way to make my digital calendar work for me. Healing overwhelm, overworking, and exhaustion (for real) is worth it.”
“I suck at it*”
*Your digital calendar, time management, and/or organization.
My friend, no you don’t. This belief commonly stems from how we’re taught to use our digital calendar in a certain way. One that is all about hyper-optimization efficiency and is rigid and inflexible. But if you’re here at The Holistic Time Coach, it’s because traditional time management has burned you in some way in the past.
So, I want to validate you. Yes, the way you’ve been taught to use your digital calendar sucks. Not you. Time management and organization are challenging.
I wanted a slow, intentional, spontaneous, flexible, and freedom-focused life. And I’ve found a way to use my digital calendar to create that kind of life for myself. This goes for you if you’re neurodivergent, rebellious, creative, or an overwhelmed entrepreneur and/or parent too. You can find a way to make your digital calendar NOT suck.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I have beautiful skills and talents, and can integrate them into my digital calendar.”
“I have to follow it perfectly”
Ok, this is the most common misunderstanding when it comes to digital calendars. Many people come in with huge expectations for themselves and spend hours planning their entire day, or week, in their digital calendars with said expectations as the foundation. Then, when life inevitably comes up and derails their plan, they throw the entire thing out the window.
The point of your digital calendar isn’t to follow it perfectly. To me, the point is being proactive and intentional with my time and my digital calendar helps me stay focused and flexible as I work towards my goals.
Striving to create a plan that doesn’t move or change, or not creating one at all, is what sets us up for failure. When you’re committed to using your digital calendar in an intuitive way, it’s going to help you plan more realistically and execute your plans with much more ease and peace.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I am committed to my fluidity, imperfect humanity, and what’s most important to me.”
“It’s just a digital calendar”
Nope, it’s not just a digital calendar! Well, I guess it is but it’s so much more than what we think it is. You can do anything you want to do by being intentional with and protecting your time, energy, and focus using your digital calendar.
You can heal “never enough time" with your calendar. You can start celebrating yourself. You can make more time for yourself and your dreams. You can work less and have more time for the things you love. It can help you be more mentally and physically well. You can make more money. You can divest from hustle culture. You can rest more. For a lack of a better phrase, your digital calendar can literally change your life.
When you believe your digital calendar is a magical tool, you’re most likely going to use it which is when you’ll get all of the amazing benefits.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “My digital calendar is a supportive, loving tool to help me do the things I want to do and be the person I want to be.”
Your digital calendar CAN work for you.
I’ll prove it to you in the Digital Calendars For Humans Course.
7 Magical Google Calendar Settings For Intentional Planning
Planning and living intentionally is about understanding what is most important to you and living it out. It's about making conscious, deliberate choices and taking purposeful action to create the life you want.
As a tool designed to support your daily life and help you stay organized, Google Calendar can play a significant role in helping you plan and live more intentionally.
With its advanced settings and features, you can easily create a flexible schedule, set reminders and appointments, and stay on top of your daily tasks.
By leaning into Google Calendar's many settings, you can help make this process a bit easier, giving yourself the support and structure you need to stay focused on what matters most.
If you're hoping to get things done with less stress, simplify your life, or simply live a more fulfilling existence, consider taking some time to learn the many settings that Google Calendar can offer you.
With a thoughtful and intentional approach, you can use this FREE tool to help you plan and realize the beautiful life you want.
7 magical Google Calendar settings & features
There are so many things you can do with a digital calendar. However, if not all, of my clients (yes, even my fellow Type-A organizers!!) don’t realize just how many settings and features Google Calendar has to offer.
After identifying and customizing the settings and features that would help them manage their time, they were able to dramatically simplify their planning process and witness focus-motivation-clarity-and-energy magic unfold before their eyes.
The same is available to you if you put in the upfront resources to set it up properly!
1. Time Zones
As a digital nomad, managing time zones is key. I have clients from California all the way to Singapore, and I host and attend workshops across the globe.
But you don’t have to be traveling around the world to need to manage time zones. With remote work, online classes, and more, time zones are non-negotiable to manage.
Using the time zone settings in your calendar will help you more easily manage and guarantee that your plans are accurate and consistent across different locations.
Say goodbye to confusion, missed appointments, and other scheduling errors, Google Calendar is here to help!
Note: Google Calendar has three different places to customize time zone settings, so you’ll want to make sure to enable the right ones for you, your event, and your business or workplace.
These are all my subcalendars, that change as my goals change!
2. Sub-calendars
Sub-calendars are individual calendars within your main Google Calendar account. They’re beneficial for intentional planning because they help you keep different aspects of your life organized and separate from each other.
Separate calendars for each of the hats you wear will allow you to more easily color-code events with the option to toggle them on and off, helping you get a clearer view of each area of your life and prioritize your tasks, time, and attention accordingly.
Also, sub-calendars can be shared with others, which can be particularly useful for intentional planning in a collaborative setting.
Your goals, responsibilities, and lifestyle determine how many sub-calendars are best for you. As a time coach, I help you figure out if you want to use sub-calendars and if so, how many are right for you.
3. Integrating with other tools
Google Calendar can be integrated with many apps, including Google Tasks, Google Keep, and Gmail helping you to keep track of your appointments, deadlines, and to-do lists, all in one place. If you’re tech-savvy, you can even automate certain tasks and streamline your workflow.
Don’t forget you can also sync and access your digital calendar with your phone, tablet, and computer so you can use it on the go! Personally, I have my calendar synced between my computer and phone and integrated with my Notion (where I manage my projects and tasks) and Gmail.
Reading about settings is one thing.
In Digital Calendars For Humans I show you all of these settings… and more!
Calendar-wide notifications
4. Custom notifications
Google Calendar notifications are important for intentional planning because they help keep you on track and focused.
You can use reminders lovingly remind you about upcoming important events or appointments, helping you prepare and show up ready and present.
You can also avoid getting sidetracked by less important tasks and focus your attention on what's most important to you using notification settings.
If you struggle with procrastinating or being on time, calendar-wide or event-specific notifications are here to support you. If you already know you’ll need help implementing the right calendar settings to streamline your schedule, book a free, no-commitment exploration call with me today!
5. Shared Calendars
As a business owner and coach, I’m constantly on Zoom calls with clients and collaborators. Something that always frustrated my husband was I forget to tell him I had to be on a call (aka when he needed to go away and be quiet), so I shared a digital calendar with him so he’d know when I was taking a call.
Also, I’m a digital nomad so I constantly move countries and have to manage travel. My husband and I have a collaborative travel calendar that helps you keep track of our planes, trains, BnB’s, and reservations.
Shared calendars have been an amazing tool for intentional planning and living and for better communication and connection with my husband.
6. Description boxes
The description box in Google Calendar is a feature I see being under-utilized all the time. If you love to plan but love flexibility and freedom, the description box is an amazing feature.
The description box is here to help you keep track of any important notes that go with an event or task.
On top of the description box being a feature that helps you to stay organized, you can add here reminders, affirmations, sub-tasks, or any other important notes to stay intentional and give yourself more freedom and choices.
A Google Calendar is one of the best planning tools I’ve found to help my creative and rebellious peeps be flexible and organized!
Check out Dr. Caroline Addigton’s story of how our work together helped her realize time management doesn’t have to be rigid.
7. Customizing your visual settings
I’m a big visual learner, my brain doesn’t process something well unless I can see it, read it, or touch it. That goes for time too, hence why my google calendar is key to living intentionally.
Personalizing the way your calendar looks makes it easier to use, more effective as a time management tool, and more motivating to stay on track with your goals
Lucky for you there are a lot of settings to help you make your calendar more visually appealing. Some favorites are:
You can choose custom colors for the events and background, making it easier to quickly identify and distinguish different types of events.
You can also choose the display options that work best for you, such as the type of view (day, week, month, or agenda) and the start time of your day.
You can tell it to start your week on a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (my weeks start on a Monday!) If you love that feeling of checking a to-do off their list, Google Calendar has a “reduce the brightness of past events” setting for you.
Determining which settings are helpful for your brain is what I help my clients do!
Don’t let tech hold you back
from making the most of your time.
Buy Digital Calendars For Human now.
10 Best calendar apps that make time blocking a breeze
The art of time blocking has the potential to transform your life, both at work and within.
Whether you're a freelancer, entrepreneur, or work in an office, intentionally scheduling your day can make all the difference to living the life you want to live.
Fortunately (and sometimes unfortunately), technology offers us plenty of tools that can simplify time blocking.
I’ve carefully selected these tools and apps for their unique features and functionalities, each with the potential to approach time blocking holistically.
If you’re looking to streamline your workday so you have more time for the things you love, I hope you will find the perfect calendar app that meets your unique needs and is easy to integrate into your life.
10 Best calendar apps for time blocking
So you ditched the paper planner and decided you’re ready to get more organized and intentional with your time, using time blocking. Now you get to choose the best place for you to schedule your time. Or if you’re already using one that isn’t meeting your needs, here you can discover a better place for you to time block.
As a caution, there are lots of options out there but I’m here to make it the least overwhelming possible. Below you’ll find my favorite calendar management apps you can use to time block.
Free calendar apps attached to your email
If you didn’t know the email you’re currently using has a free calendar attached to it, now you do! And they’re all extremely customizable allowing you to time block with your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs in mind.
The calendar linked to your email is by far the easiest place to try out or uplevel your time-blocking skills. And because your email calendar is something you’re already familiar with, it’ll be easier to use and sustainably stick with.
Google Calendar - Free
A classic! This is what I use and recommend to all of my clients who already have a Google (Gmail) account. It’s a free and user-friendly calendar app that integrates well with Google and many other apps and tools. It offers a variety of features and settings for customization and has a clean and simple interface.
Apple Calendar - Free
The calendar app that comes pre-installed on Apple devices is a great choice if you are an Apple user. You can time block directly into your Apple calendar on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and the rest of your devices will sync up.
Microsoft Outlook Calendar - Free
If you’re a Microsoft Outlook user, you can time block using their built-in calendar app. I haven’t used an Outlook calendar since working for a company that used it. I currently work with two clients who use Outlook, but they work the same.
Task/project management apps with time blocking
As of writing this, Trello and Asana, two crowd favorites for task/project management do not have a built-in time blocking feature. You’d have to integrate some additional tech or manual labor to time block tasks into your calendar. However, there are two well-known task management apps that can seamlessly schedule your tasks.
Todoist - Free with paid option
Todoist is a task management app that includes a calendar view. With Todoist, you’d create tasks with due dates and times, then the calendar view provides you with your schedule, allowing you to see the big picture and stay on top of your deadlines.
ClickUp - Free with paid option
ClickUp is a comprehensive project management platform for businesses that offers time blocking. You can enter your projects, tasks, and then attach them to your workday helping you stay focused and get the important things done. Beware, ClickUp has lots of features so I would only recommend ClickUp if you’re tech-savvy and have team members to help you manage it. Learn more about time blocking in ClickUp.
Specific time-blocking apps
There are many time-blocking apps out there, all with similar features to one another. I’ve provided a list of apps that have different and unique benefits from the digital calendar that comes with your email.
Fantastical - Paid
This is an Apple-user-specific calendar app that's designed specifically for time blocking. The unique feature? Relationships are key to our time. Fantastical comes with the ability to easily schedule meetings with your clients, teammates, or friends.
DigiCal - Free with paid option
Calling my Android users! DigiCal is a great time-blocking app that shows you a monthly view and the week/day view on the same screen. This is a helpful feature to see a macro and micro view of your time so you can be realistic and effective with your planning.
Sunsuma - Paid
Sunsama is a gorgeous app that is easy to get the hang of. You’ll create a task list, assign a date and time, and then that gets automatically put into a time block. They also have a feature called ‘contexts’ that help organize tasks based on the related area of life, for example self-care, work, home, etc. Holistic time blocking is all about looking at the interconnectedness of all the parts of our life.
Reclaimai (affiliate link) - Free with paid option
If you’re a business owner that manages a team and loves tech and AI, Reclaim is a great time-blocking tool to use. It’s a smart calendar that’s designed to help you optimize your schedule depending on what you deem is flexible or not. You’ll also be able to manage your team member’s calendars and easily find time to meet.
TimeBloc - Free
TimeBloc is an app for both Apple and Android users. Not only does it help you time block without getting overwhelmed, but this app also has a routine feature. You can use TimeBloc to learn how to integrate routines, like a morning or evening routine, into your schedule that help you list the specific tasks that you’d like to do in each routine. This will help you identify what really needs to happen to feel healthy and fulfilled.
Which one to pick?
As you can see there are many calendar apps that are great for time blocking, but the best one for you will depend on your individual needs and preferences. Pausing and figuring out what your unique needs and preferences are is so important to leveraging time blocking.
My honest preferences and recommendations for choosing:
Identify what you’re already using, grow your time-blocking skills there, then branch out to more tech-intense apps if you feel the need to.
When you pick an app, decide to make it your home base to keep track of all your appointments, tasks, and habits for work and personal. Many people use 2-3 calendars, multiple places for to-do’s, and maybe a project management software. That’s so much to juggle, and the point is to get less overwhelmed and more organized!
Choose an app that looks right and feels good to your brain. You won’t want to use an app that doesn’t, you won’t stick with it!
As a small business owner with a lean business model, I typically choose free software unless there’s a good reason for it. If you wanted detailed reports on how you spent your time or to manage a team, it makes sense to get a paid time-blocking app. Of course, know your budget first before investing the time and money into an app that you might not want to pay for later.
Personally, I don’t need a time blocking app to time block when I can just do everything I need in my google calendar. Simple is best for me!
Determine where you’ll use the app (phone, tablet, computer) and find what works best for the tech that you have – apple, android, or web.
After reviewing the top calendar apps here, which one should you choose? Let me know in the comments below!
You’ve got the app. Now what?
Start using it! Digital Calendars For Humans is here to help with that.
Is a digital calendar really right for me?
Ever experimented with time blocking and then thought it wasn’t for you?
It’s possible it isn’t for you.
It’s also very likely that you were taught traditional time blocking. A process that tries to take the beautiful parts of being human out, making it incredibly difficult to use and benefit from.
Attaching a task to when we think it “should” be done isn’t all that effective. Neither is forcing ourselves to follow unrealistic plans.
There are many different ways to implement time blocking. It all depends on who you are (mind, body, and soul) and your life circumstances.
That’s why holistic time blocking, or time blocking for humans, is much more impactful. When you are uniquely strategic with what tasks you time block, you’ll finally stop feeling dread when you look at your week ahead.
In this article, you’ll learn what makes time blocking so effective and five surprising kinds of people that it’ll help work and stress a lot less.
Why is time blocking so effective?
Time blocking, also known as calendar blocking, is a planning strategy where you proactively dedicate certain tasks to a certain time frame. It’s also an execution and accountability strategy.
When turned into a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule template, it can decrease time spent planning by more than 50%, freeing you up to do the things you want to do.
Attaching a task to a specific time frame helps you be more realistic with your time and more likely to do it. Unlike operating from a to-do list, your mind will stop worrying about all the other things you “should” be doing. This clears up tons of mental space and energy to get focused, deep work done.
Not only that, time blocking helps you externalize time, meaning you can actually see it visually. Time is a slippery concept that is hard for many to truly grasp. Externalizing time decreases time anxiety, urgency, and overwhelm among many other benefits.
What kinds of people will benefit from time blocking?
Time blocking for neurodivergent
Agustina at @theautisticlife shares, “as Neurodivergent people, our differences in executive functioning skills such as focus and attention, emotional and impulse control, working memory, planning, and organization can all be linked to our distinct perception of time.”
Working with many neurodivergent folks over the last few years, I’ve seen holistic time blocking be particularly helpful in creating a way to manage their time, prioritize tasks, and prevent burnout in a way that works for their brain. If you want a time strategy that works, it’s essential to account for your unique brain.
Time blocking for parents
Parents not only have their own tasks, goals, and lives to care for, but their household and children too. Time management can feel really challenging to many parents because plans are constantly changing. That’s why time blocking is such an impactful time management strategy. The key is being uber-realistic with your plans and extremely flexible.
Holistic time blocking has really helped parents with the most unpredictable schedules to reduce stress and chaos, prioritize time for themselves, and create more balance between work and family.
Time blocking for entrepreneurs
Along with parents, entrepreneurs are often juggling 5 things at once, all day long. Also, depending on the business you have, you have to delegate and manage a team of people. Making time for focused work to move the business forward, and taking guilt-free time away from the business, are challenges I regularly hear from my entrepreneur clients.
Holistic time blocking supports business owners in getting ahead of the fires they’re constantly putting out and taking much-needed time and space for themselves. It helps them prioritize the projects and tasks that will excite and motivate them.
Holistic Time Blocking made simple.
Buy Digital Calendars For Humans now.
Time blocking for creatives + rebellious folks
When I say creatives and rebellious folks, I’m talking about writers, artists, photographers, and people who live against the grain. Think of anyone who doesn’t want to live in a cubicle for 40+ hours a week in a soul-sucking job, and has a passion for creating things–whatever the thing may be.
The most common time management challenge for us is: You can’t predict when inspiration will strike. You also get lost in your art and completely forget about time. You can’t live on a schedule, nor would you want to! However, most creatives feel like they’re not accomplishing the work they really want to do. They’re constantly doing everything else but their art.
When used in a certain way, time blocking helps creatives take care of everything else in their life so they can free up their mind, space, and energy to create their art. Holistic time blocking helps rebellious folks actually create more freedom and autonomy in their lives, allowing them to create the impact they want.
Time blocking for spiritual beings
Many spiritual people are often experienced by others as flaky. Think Frankie, in Grace & Frankie. She’s all over the place, late to things, and loses everything. However, from working with spiritual people, they just haven’t found a way to plan effectively while going with the flow.
How can we find time to meditate while also making sure we get our work done and pay our bills? Deeply connect with nature without thinking about all the things we have to do after?
Holistic time management – specifically redefining what time means to you and collaborating with time as the spiritual being you are. This is one of the things I help folks do in my 1:1 coaching.
Our connection to spirit/God/the universe deeply depends on our groundedness and peace. Holistic time blocking helps bring spiritual people to live their purpose in the 3D world more effectively, while staying in tune with spirit. Once you find the perfect balance between intuition and structure, you’ll be unstoppable.
It all comes back to how you time block.
There is hope for you to feel in control of your time, work less, make more money, experience more peace and joy, and make the impact you want to make. Time blocking is here to help you live the life you want.
Don’t spend months, or years, figuring out time blocking.
Time blocking like a human being: Why it's so important
If you keep finding yourself wondering where your time went, I deeply know how frustrating that feeling is.
At this point, you’re questioning if there’s really a solution out there that will help you accomplish what you want in the time you want, without sacrificing your health, freedom, and joy.
There is, it’s called holistic time blocking!
Many people agree on how powerful it is. Time blocking is the most common time management system used (via timewatch).
However, one of the main critiques for time blocking is it’s inflexible and doesn’t capture the reality of being a human with ever-changing energy and responsibilities.
Holistic time blocking is here to help you finally feel in control of your day, get a better sense of where your time is actually going, and follow through with the things you need and want to do while being human.
In this article, you’ll learn why it’s so important to approach time blocking as a whole, human being and the immense benefits you can experience too.
What’s time blocking?
Time blocking, also known as calendar blocking, is a planning strategy where you proactively dedicate certain tasks to a certain time frame.
I personally call the time frames that contain my tasks: Time containers, rather than time blocks.
What most people don’t talk about is time blocking can also be used as an execution strategy. You can use time blocking to stay accountable, live with integrity, and be flexible.
How? Here’s a time-blocking process laid out in simple terms.
Choose what you want to work on.
Decide when you want to work on it.
Add it to your digital calendar or planner.
Follow your time containers as best you can.
As the day goes on, update your calendar in real-time with what you actually do.
Of course, we’re human beings. Nothing is as simple as that. If life was as easy as “just doing it” the world would be a totally different place.
This is where a holistic approach to time blocking works wonders.
What does holistic time blocking look like?
A holistic approach means looking at time blocking as a whole human being with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Holistic time blocking drastically improves your chances of following through with your tasks while also staying flexible.
Traditional and holistic time blocking are different from both a planning standpoint and an execution standpoint.
One big difference? Holistic time blocking builds out your time containers in a way that honors your unique cycles and life circumstances.
Not some magically different “fixed” version of yourself.
For example, let’s say you are currently waking up around 7 am but you want to be a 5 am-er. If you put 5 am as a wake-up time in your calendar, it’ll be really challenging to actually do, and many people blame time blocking.
However, when you acknowledge where you are today, it’s much easier to come up with a more realistic solution making it easier to create momentum and progress.
Next, holistic time blocking makes sure to include time containers that help you be and stay healthy–not just to do’s and work.
Finally, from an implementation standpoint, your execution strategies must work, make sense to you, and feel good to your mind, body, and soul.
For the example above, if you tell yourself you’ll “just force yourself to wake up at 5 am” when you have a history of not doing the things you need, or want, to do isn’t going to work. Maybe 6:30 am is a better step, or maybe you just need sleep and that’s ok!
If you are someone who keeps telling yourself you’ll “just do it”, it would greatly benefit you to find what’s preventing you from doing the things you want to do, and heal it at the root. That’s what I help my clients do in 1:1 holistic time coaching.
What are the benefits of holistic time blocking?
The most important benefit of holistic time blocking is that it protects your health and well-being. As we know, health and performance are directly related. A 2017 study confirmed people are 25% more likely to perform better at work when they eat healthier.
When you’re healthier, the regular benefits of time blocking increase. Some of which are:
Feel in control of your time, day, and destiny which just so happens to decrease our anxiety too.
Distraction-free deep work on meaningful goals, because you’ve preemptively prioritized and decided what to work on.
Experience greater levels of follow-through, flow, focus, self-accountability, and time awareness.
Decrease decision fatigue, saying yes to things we actually don’t want to do, and negative impacts of urgency.
Replace your never-ending to-do list and learn how to plan ahead while focusing on the now.
All of this to say, when you’re healthy and following through with everything you want to do… abundance! Fulfillment! Satisfaction!
Personally, I’m not sure what’s better than that.