Today I experienced complete planner fail at work.
Let me give you a background to this story. I’ve been happily using my Hobonichi Techo Cousin as my work planner. Last year was so successful that I ordered one for this year as well. I had so many things to track that having numerous calendars and a full diary page was so useful. The lightweight paper made it portable too. I even did a gushing post about this just last month. I had my work life under control and life was beautiful.
Then I changed jobs. I thought to myself, the planner has worked so well and possibly so because I have learned how to manage my work so it should work anywhere. Within a week of starting I found out that the nature of my work would be quite different. I had more project based work so I also decided to supplement this with a Hobonichi A5 notebook. I wanted to give it a chance to work and I think I forced myself to think it did, until today.
I was called into an impromptu meeting with the Chief and he started going over numbers and discussions that we had last week. Since all of this is still new, I wrote everything down. But I couldn’t find where I had written it. I remember putting it in my notebook and indexing as well but, he was running through things so fast, that I didn’t have time to look them up and take notes at the same time. I was blank when he asked me a question and what’s worse I started to fumble about things I did know as well. It was horrifying.
So that’s it, I decided right there that this system was not working. I needed to organize myself in a different way. I needed to have sections for projects and reference and notes. The obvious solution was going back to the old ringed system… the old Filofax. There’s a reason that agenda / organizers like that have worked for years.
I know that the only way I can make it work is in the A5 size and that’s what I will be using. Once I have thought it through, I will set it up and adapt it to my needs. I am slightly skeptical about the weight and I feel that carrying my planner to and from work everyday will be a chore now. But, I am ready to put up with it if it means that I will never experience a day like that again.
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Hi there – just wanted to say I hope you’re not being hard on yourself. If our ‘smart’ phones and computers can lose data (entirely), I would think any person might get rattled in that impromptu situation even on the best of days. Particularly while you’re so new that you’re still learning all of this new information. At least you are the conscientious type who took notes in the first place! 🙂
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I guess I’m always used to being on top of my game. With the change of roles, I was caught a bit off guard. And my Chief is so smart and so quick. But I’m feeling much more prepared now. I’ve got things a bit more in order and while it’s work in progress, I think I know what line of thought to follow. Thank for you for the lovely words of reassurance. It definitely helps that someone understands.
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