I don’t think of it as retro-cool but more relating to different organizing needs and an art/aesthetic thing?
For calendar things, I mostly use my digital work calendar (for work things) and a digital personal calendar (shared with my spouse so we stay up to date on each other). That works very well for me because I always have my phone on me and so it’s very easy to coordinate schedules at any time.
But I do have a bujo, which is used in the following ways:
Writing out a weekly schedule that has all my personal commitments (making myself re-write them into my notebook from the digital calendar is a good way of making sure I’m not over-scheduling myself and that I consciously drop things when needed).
The weekly schedule also has weekly goals/tracking worked into it that I find motivating and helpful (again, especially re: overscheduling).
I also do monthly and yearly planning in this notebook, which again is helpful for realistically thinking through what I actually have time for in my life!
I also keep plenty of miscellaneous lists in this notebook – from to-do lists to books I’ve read to lists of good winter meals, etc.
I use it for reflection at various times of the year, etc.
It’s not as pretty as many people’s bujos or planners, but I do still make it more aesthetically pleasing than my Outlook
I use mine for practical reasons- i have space to think on paper, and writing my week’s events by hand each week helps me see what’s coming up, whether we have time for other things and remember it when i don’t have it on me so i can plan on the fly.
I also use it to manage my task list, because its more useful to be able to write things and have extra detail or diagrams on paper than on my phone or computer.
You have options. You can buy weekly planners all in one book. Or a daily planner spread across two books. So that $54 CAD would be for 6 months only. Clever Fox from Europe does the same thing.
Ok, I can see that artistic element, like creating an artist’s book.
I also think that using pen and paper is a different experience than typing things in a digital medium. In someways it’s better.
For me, having the planner in digital form always with me is useful. I don’t carry a purse so I wouldn’t have a physical planner with me. I stick my small phone into my billfold and leave the house.
I did like the days of having a paper planner and saving it from year to year so I could flip through it and see past experiences. I can Do that with my digital calendar, but it’s not quite the same experience
@Faux I’ve never been able to figure out the calendar/digital planners on my devices. If my device crashes (which has been known to happen) I lose my information. I also have two operating systems duking it out on my Apple products and causing issues. Meaning they have to be taken in to the shop and wiped clean to start fresh from factory settings. Plus then Google is somehow loading duplicate entries into my digital calendars. So yeah, I go paper for planning.
As others have said, the practice of writing out my week is helpful but the main reason I stick with a paper weekly planner (which is just a grid dot notebook and then I add everything else) is because if it’s a screen I will inevitably cover that window with other things and out of sight is out of mind. Or if I sit down to look at my list I’ll get side tracked by the forum or checking my email and hey wasn’t I going to put a book on hold at the library I’ll do that online real quick …
Mine is because I have a really good memory but only if I write it down! I process my thoughts way better in paper than the computer screen.
I have my Outlook calendar for work and a shared Google calendar for family stuff. I set reminders for events so we don’t miss stuff there. But the paper planner puts everything together in a macro picture for future planning / time management/ life management.
i’m still using my 2023 hobonichi date-free book. i didn’t finish all the pages in 2023 and never use the calendar pages anyway, so it’s just functioning as a notebook where i write shit down that i want to remember, take notes in meetings, etc.
sometimes i’ll use a whole spread to plan out a bigger project (like starting seeds or re-doing some home decor and organization) but for the most part i just write a list every now and then when i feel like i need to organize my thoughts and make sure i don’t forget anything important. for me, the notebook works because it is one place for all my stuff — when i’ve tried digital solutions in the past, i would get caught up in what the system was for notes vs. todos vs. daydreaming vs. planning. it works better for me to just have it all written down in one place.
i use the outlook calendar for work (horrible) and my husband and i have a shared google calendar for events, because we share one car and want to make sure we both have access to it when needed.
i think i just don’t have much to plan these days and i love that for me
lots of times i will have meeting invites that i can’t see in my inbox, even though i see there are unread messages. i have to quit outlook and restart it to see them!! what!?!?!?
then, for some reason, outlook does not automatically create a zoom for meetings. it will tell you “hey you forgot to put a location on this meeting” before you send it out, but i feel like if you are smart enough to know i didn’t do it, then why don’t you just do it???
finally … when the location field of the meeting is a zoom link, it shows up in the preview pop-up. however, that link is not clickable or copyable. you have to open up the meeting and scroll down to get to the clickable link.
Also nearly everything single thing opens in a new window even when I tell it not to. Which means, me, a person who gets like 200+ emails a day (because press releases) ends up with 90 windows
hello you might like a “to do list planner”, I think this one might fit your bill? it has a grid on the left for whatever and then a checklist on the right for all your lists
Ok, so I am a a little over a month with my planner… and I think I prefer my bullet journal I don’t have enough space to write all my tasks. Especially on the weekends. Why do planners always make Saturdays and Sundays smaller? Most of my chores are during the weekend! I don’t regret supporting this small business, but yeah, I remember why I’ve been bujo-ing for years now lol
oh! I totally missed that! 
I don’t have enough space to write all my tasks. Especially on the weekends. Why do planners always make Saturdays and Sundays smaller? Most of my chores are during the weekend! I don’t regret supporting this small business, but yeah, I remember why I’ve been bujo-ing for years now lol