Diaries, double booking and habits...

If you’ve read any of my blogs before or know me personally you’ll know how hyper-organised I am and how important that is to me. When I left my logistics project role at Bacardi I was given a Filofax which not only made me feel like a proper grown up, it was also perfect for me! I carried that thing everywhere whilst I was at Boots- my whole life was in it. My whole life timetabled and managed, I had an electronic diary but it never worked as well for me, I’m a visual person and needed the written down version.

When I left boots my Filofax and I had a long chat and decided to go our separate ways. It was the digital age, I was staring as a virtual PA, online was the way to go- that lasted not too long as I’m just too visual for it to work for me. Back to paper it was, so I bought a little diary. No good, too small and I kept cracking the spine. So I bought an A5, hardback, spiral bound diary- better and I can keep track easily.

Until lockdown 1 back last year this went everywhere with me, then lockdown hit and I wasn’t going anywhere so what was the point. I closed out up, zoom meetings went into the calendar online and, as I was at the laptop all day- the reminders popped up and I attended without reading what I had on for the day or doing any prep. It all felt a bit like I was operating on autopilot which I imagine has been similar for a lot of us over the last 12 months.

Last week someone asked to move my usual Wednesday fixed engagement to Tuesday as a one off. I scribbled this on a bit of paper; 2 days later someone asked if I could do a meeting on Tuesday which I said could as I have no standing commitments on a Tuesday, then my brain kicked in and I remembered... and I’m glad I did.

But it made me realise how out of the habit I was of using a diary and managing my time, I still have lists every week or I’d never achieve what I need to but that chucking up of time, adding in off meetings and knowing in advance what I’ll need to be prepared for during the week is something I’ve lost in the last year and I need to get it back.

I assume recognising this is like the first step in solving any problem, at least I hope so or maybe I should apologise now for double booking anyone!