Planning your way

These two share fifth position, with 4% of the vote each.

Bullet journals are notebooks where people can include tasks, plans, goals, brainstorming and notetaking in one place. They usually have pages with dotted grids rather than lines, and while there are common notation styles, it’s up to the user to decide how simple or complex they want to be.

Printed info appointments are often stored in folders, organised by month or theme, so the info you need is easy to find.

Coming in fourth are the old classic, Index cards.

An index card is a piece of thick paper cut to a standard size, usually used with a collection of multiple cards to record data. Back in the pre-computer days, they were used for library catalogs and other storage systems where people needed to find a specific item or piece of information quickly. They can be a simple and cheap way to store large amounts of information.

In joint third place are two very different examples of AT, which have both tactile and online options.

Acrylic whiteboards can be hung on walls or stuck to fridges and are usually blank or have a present calendar design which can be re-used multiple times. As with the electronic whiteboard, which is a digital wall calendar that can sync data from multiple devices, they provide a way for a whole family to visually plan together.

Specialised print or electronic diaries and planners are usually a customized version of a diary or planner, for example a diary that includes space for printable inserts such as NDIS appointments, savings trackers, self-regulation guides and monthly planners.

In second place, the app that most people with smart phones use every day. Depending on your device, you may be using Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or a specific app such as Time Tree or Calendly. If you have your phone or laptop with you constantly, they’re an easy way to keep yourself organised, depending on your accessibility needs.

The winner of the poll, with 29% of the vote, is the timeless printed diary or planner. Even if we’ve been warned for years that physical books are on the way out, the trusty printed diary or planner still leads the pack for our community. . Whether it’s a fancy leather bound and dated notebook or a spiral bound pad that costs less than $1, and depending on your fine-motor skills, being able to pick up a pen and make notes for work or personal planning is still the most popular way to manage our cognitive load.

If these examples have inspired you to try a new way of planning and managing your cognitive load, or dusting off that old journal you got last year, we’d love to hear from you about it!