So just about a month ago, I did
the unthinkable. And I decided
that in 2020, I wanted to try a
paper planner, the full focus
planner to be exact. And if you
know me, you know that that is a
huge deal because I am digital,
everything. In fact, I somewhat
make fun of people that use
paper because I think it just
doesn't make sense whatsoever.
But after hearing a ton about
the full focus planner and what
some people talked about, I
wanted to try to see how it
might work as someone who is all
digital, but being able to bring
this in for certain reasons and
see if it actually helps
productivity. And I've been
using it for about a month and a
half. So I want to tell you
about what I think so far. I
posted recently on this YouTube
channel, a bunch of people have
asked me what I thought I've had
so far because people know me as
someone who's really into
digital, I have an iPad and an
iPhone and I have a Mac and I
basically do everything
digitally. I don't take any
notes on paper because I like to
have things in both places. I
use an iPad with an Apple Pencil
to be able to keep Digital
written notes. But having
something paper means it's only
in one location at one time. And
that's been my biggest gripe of
actually going to anything
paper. But I found that there
were times that I had so many
tasks and building up on all the
different platforms that I keep.
So we use Asana for task
management, at scaling,
creative. And then I have,
obviously my normal calendar, my
Google calendar that I do all my
actual organizing in. But
sometimes I found that I was
forgetting to prioritize
specifically the most important
things for that day. So the
thing that enticed me the most
about the full focus planner was
the actual day pages. There's so
many different things that
people use the full focus
planner for, but to me, the
biggest selling point was these
daily pages. And the day pages
are really simply your daily big
three, and then your schedule
for the day and then just a note
section. And for me the daily
Big Three was literally the the
biggest selling point to me
being able to before each day
starts or really prioritize what
three things at the bare minimum
Do I have to get done today? You
see my Asana list can get really
full of things. And it can keep
building up and keep building up
and my calendar as well can have
a bunch of things that are
happening in that day. But
trying to prioritize three
things that are a must that have
to happen. I've really actually
been helping me a lot over these
last month and a half has it
been using the full focus
planner. And sure, I can
prioritize tasks in Asana and
put something on top of list or
make the due date a certain time
or the new time a certain time
and all that works. And it's
been pretty effective. But I
found that too many times I was
getting done with the work day,
and not being able to complete
all the tasks that I had made to
myself. And then what's
happening is some of the most
important ones are getting
pushed in the next day and I
wanted to see if I could find a
hybrid solution that would allow
me to be able to use this to
help with just those important
things. There's a lot more to
the full focus planner like your
goals that you create your goal
detail talking about the goals
that you want to achieve when Do
you want to achieve them and
goal trackers keeping track of
all those things? And then
there's obviously month views of
the calendars to be able to keep
track of things. And all those
things are useful. And I've used
a little bit of all those, just
try it out. But really, for me,
what's been the most beneficial
out of everything is simply the
day pages. And then the weekly
review, which at the end of the
week, being able to look back
and say, did you accomplish what
you wanted to accomplish? At the
end of each week in the planner,
you have what's called the
weekly preview and it says, what
are your three biggest wins for
this week? And your after action
reviews? You look back at your
previous a weekly Big Three, and
how far did you get in those
goals and what worked and what
didn't? And what will you keep
doing or improved or start doing
based on the last week and then
we'll ask you what major events
or deadlines or need to be put
on a calendar need to get
created or or done next week.
And then you have Step five,
which is the weekly Big Three
where you refer to the things
that you need to get done, and
you create what is the weekly
big three, and then throughout
the week You have the daily big
three. So it sounds kind of
confusing, but it's been really
beneficial because what I do is
I'm able to put in like the
weekly Big Three at the
beginning. So typically I do
that on, let's just say, a
Sunday evening or maybe even on
a Friday afternoon, I take a
look back at all the stuff that
happened in the week I write
down what worked, what didn't
how far I got in certain things,
what are my biggest wins, which
helps really helps me to be able
to celebrate good things that
are happening. But then I'm able
to take a look and say, Okay,
well, let's take a look at next
week and see what are the
biggest things that I have to
get done next week. And then I
start to implement those into
daily big three is to make sure
that I'm hitting them, and it
helps in end of the week to
actually look back at them and
see did I actually make any
progress on the things that I
wanted to do? So the way that
I've been using it alongside of
my digital platform is each and
every morning at the start of
every morning, so let's just say
730 or 8am in the morning,
sometimes before I get into
work. I look at my calendar for
the day and my calendar is
obviously always having things
being put in digitally. So I'm
always putting things in
advance, I'm moving things
around, I'm rearranging things.
That's all always happening no
matter what, and that is 100%
Digital, none of the calendar
stuff that I do is set in stone
on the full focus planner except
the day that is actually about
the start. So at 8am each day, I
look at my calendar, and I
review all the tasks that I have
in Asana and I try to figure out
what are the three things that I
have to accomplish today, and
those go on my daily Big Three
for that day. And then I simply
write in on the side there for
the calendar, what I'm supposed
to be doing that day based on
the copy of my digital calendar,
and then I go into work and do
my regular work stuff. Depending
on how long the tasks are, they
may be something that I can
finish in a matter of hour for
all three, or it might be
something that takes all day and
it really is up to me to really
look at that big three and
decide how long those things are
going to take. And then make
sure that it actually stay on
them and get them finished. Now
underneath the daily Big Three.
There's obviously More and more
tasks you can put in. So you can
put as many things as you want
in here. But the real big point
behind the full focus planner
that I've heard them talk a lot
about, like the hiring company
is just being able to make sure
you prioritize the most
important things. Because as
someone who has a lot of
different things going on,
sometimes it can be just hard to
remember and prioritize the most
important things. So it's
totally okay to go past those
big threes. But for me, it's
just good to look at the three
that are most important first,
throughout the month and a half
that I've been using it I don't
think I've ever missed one of my
actual big three tasks. And I
think there's just something to
be said about a physical piece
of paper. And the feel of
checking off those items is just
extremely satisfying, even more
satisfying something sometimes
than a digital thing in Asana
where you're kind of completing
a task. And so I think that's
kind of the mindset of why this
is paper versus digital. I've
thought so many times about how
great it would be to have these
kind of documents as like PDF If
documents or something on the
actual iPad, so I could do these
things digitally, but I think
there's something to be said
about why it actually is paper.
And it's maybe the idea of being
able to disconnect from your
digital device and your digital
worlds and be able to just
prioritize the things that are
most important. But it is
something that takes getting
used to and depending on what
you use this for, you may not
necessarily have to take notes
in here at all. I tend to only
take notes on this little the
right side of the page in the
dailies just to be able to jot
something down quickly if it's
open in front of me, but for the
most part, I still do all my
note taking on my actual iPad,
but it's just a really nice
satisfying and productive
feeling to go into each morning.
Look at what you have to do.
prioritize your top three and
put that in your top three, make
sure you complete your top three
first and then move on to other
tasks. But it also really helps
me to look back at the end. One
probably my favorite thing is
that weekly review because it
helps me to look back and say
how did this week go? What
worked What didn't? What do I I
need to improve. And that's been
good because it kind of forces
you to reflect because you don't
want to leave the pages blank.
So it makes you write something
in that. And there's just that
satisfying feeling to me that
makes me actually do it. And it
lets me look back at the week
and really try to evaluate how I
can improve. As a leader, each
one of these books is only three
months. So you have four of
these a year. So I'm not sure
how much I will love continuing
to kind of stack them up or
whether or not I'll actually
keep the previous month's books
because I don't really know how
valuable it would be to ever go
back in them because it's not
really like they're a journal or
something that I need to kind of
resurface or relook at, really
the only things that might go
back and look at would be the
goals that I set in the
beginning of the year. Because
these goal pages do allow you in
the beginning of the year to
write a goal and write the
motivations behind the goal
right, the next steps to achieve
the goal and then the reward
when you actually achieve it and
then you have the goal tracker
down below the street tracker
they say which keeps you Keeping
track of whether you're doing
the goal or getting closer to
the goal every single day. But
plain and simple, what I found
is that full focus planner is a
really, really good option for
any type of person, because I
think you really can make it
what you want it to be if you're
like me, and really, you just
want to get more focused on a
specific day by day basis, it
can be really valuable for that.
If you're someone that prefers
an overall paper calendar, and
you want to get better at your
monthly goals and your weekly
and your daily, it's great for
that as well. If you have
certain goals you want to
achieve, it can be kind of
whatever you want it to be. And
I think you can use as much or
as little as you want. But I
think even just the day pages by
themselves in a paper form,
really do provide value to
someone that can sometimes be
busy with a lot of different
things. Oh yeah. And I almost
forgot to mention, I got this
pen off Amazon. It's called the
cross. I think it's called cross
executive pen or something and
I'll link it down below. It's
amazing slide out and it writes
So, so nice. So make sure you
have yourself a nice pen because
without a nice pen, a paper
planner. It's not so exciting
