7 Reasons Your Day Planner (or Smartphone) is Empty

Is your calendar clear? Is your todo list blank? Is your address book empty?

Your time management tools can’t help you if they are blank.

When you go looking for information in your Day Planner, iPhone, and Moleskine… are they empty?

You Get Out What You Put In

Your time management tools are only valuable if you use them consistently.

This means every single day with continuity.

Whether it is a paper notebook or the latest smartphone, your time management tools can’t help you if they are devoid of information.

• Your calendar can only assist you if you it is filled with appointments.
• Your todo list can only remind you of tasks if it has a complete list of what you need to do.
• Your address book can only provide important contact details if you capture them in the first place.

Your productivity tools are only as good as the information you put into them.

The Empty Day Planner (or Smartphone…)

Unfortunately, many people’s time management tools are a blank slate. They have the tools, but they don’t use them.

The key to a successful time management system is to choose tools you’ll use and of course, to actually use them.

If you don’t, then they will be empty when you try to reference them.

Here are 7 Reasons Your Time Management Tools Are Empty:

1. You Start Over Every Day – Your tools can only keep information if you maintain them day-to-day. If you start with a blank pad each day, you have no continuity from the previous day. I know many people who operate this way.
2. You Don’t Have the Right Tools – It is hard to capture information if you don’t have the right tools. Do you have a place for each of the following: appointments, notes, todos, and contacts? If you can’t say yes to every one, then you are missing an important tool in your toolkit.
3. You Are Afraid to Write In It – Do you resist writing on your calendar because you don’t want to clutter it up? Or you don’t write in your notebook because it is too nice looking and you don’t want to “mess it up?” Ironic, I know. Your productivity tools can’t help you if you are afraid to write in them.
4. Too Complex or Too Burdensome to Use – If your tools are too complex or burdensome, then you won’t go through the effort to use them. It shouldn’t take 17 clicks to enter a task on your todo list. Nor should they have so many features that they become unwieldy.
5. You Don’t Know How to Use It – You can’t be effective with your tools if you don’t know how to use them. Choose tools with which you are proficient. You may need to spend some extra time learning that new gadget, or else it will end up in a desk drawer in the near future.
6. You Don’t Carry It With You – It’s hard to use your time management tools when they are sitting at home (or the office) and you are not. You must carry them with you at all times so that they are at the ready when you need them.
7. You Aren’t Disciplined Enough – You have to have the discipline to use your system every single day. Time management is not something you turn on and off only when you need it.

Use Your Time Management Tools Every Day

The key to successful time management is consistency.

Keeping your system up to date, regularly using your tools, and capturing information.

So, make sure that your Day Planner (or Smartphone) isn’t empty.

The productivity you get out of it… is always determined by what you put into it.

Question: Is your Day Planner or Smartphone empty? How could you do a better job of getting information into it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.