No one knows what terrors and joys 2019 will hold, but it’s fair to assume that it’ll bring birthday drinks, work meetings, appointments, trips, holidays, days out, nights out, nights ‘out out’ and many, many invitations for coffee. And for a lot of us, all of these activities will be entered into a brand new, clean-leafed paper diary, its spine crisply cracked open on the first of January.
Of course in the digital era plans can be made via text, WhatsApp group messages, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, Instagram Stories, Doodles, synchronised iCals and — imagine — a phone call. Yet a Mintel report from last year shows more than half of us still prefer to use a paper diary to a digital calendar, while around 8 per cent of respondents replied ‘don’t know’, which is presumably their bone-headed answer to any question regarding their future plans.
It cannot be that we’re all simply Luddites: we’re all phone users, too. But diaries retain a talismanic significance, a waft of romance and a nostalgic link to our past. ‘Turning a page and seeing it written up is a neat way of keeping yourself safe from missing out on things,’ explains Elaine Quigley, psychologist and chair of the British Institute of Graphologists, adding: ‘It does keep you straight on the path of not letting people down.’
When digitised plans can be deleted with the same ephemeral tap-tap from whence they came, ink on paper literally draws us into the real world. There’s something so much more solid and reliable about making plans on paper. Plus, isn’t there something reassuringly trustworthy, in a post-truth world, about reading our own handwriting? When a digital appointment is erased, it’s like it never happened. Fake news! And while a written reminder won’t necessarily stop you cancelling, it’ll still be there to remind you what you are missing out on.
We flake on each other at the drop of a new Netflix series, yes, but ditching a plan we had previously felt mattered enough to commit to paper seems that much more grave, a reminder that we’re letting our former selves down. Making physical marks on paper can in itself be beneficial, Quigley adds: ‘The act of writing things down is actually a stress-buster.’
So there you have it: for a more organised, less flakey and stress-free 2019, you need a paper diary.
Put down the phone and pick up one of the above stylish diaries for the chicest way to stay organised in 2019.
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