Which Is Better: A Planner or a Digital Calendar?

From: Angela Lashbrook
To: Lisa Fogarty  
Dec 16, 2:38 PM

I’ve been using Google Calendar for . . . I don’t even know how long. Fifty years, maybe? Longer? What makes it absolutely critical for me is that I can share events with various people in my life, primarily my husband. I—it is mostly me doing this—create cal invites for doctors’ appointments, reminders for when the cleaners are scheduled, and even use it as a task manager with all-day events that say things like "deposit due to day care."

Because events are on both of our calendars, there’s a greater chance that things won’t fall through the cracks, or that we won’t double-book, say, an appointment with a contractor and a parent-teacher conference that we both need to attend. 

Lisa, I know you’re a fan of analog calendars over digital ones. What makes you stick with pen and paper over a screen?

From: Lisa Fogarty  
To: Angela Lashbrook
Dec 16, 2025, 3:21 PM

I’m not going to lie. My stubbornness about adapting a purely digital calendar format has been the source of some tension between my tech-loving husband and me. Like you, he lives and breathes by his Google Calendar. Every time I get a notice from his calendar about an event I planned and told him about, a part of me dies as I click that button to accept his "invitation."

Why the drama, you ask? Because I’ve already recorded the date or task or whatever in my Blue Sky analog calendar, and on another paper calendar that I print out and tack up to our refrigerator so that I can torture my Gen Z and Alpha children with my paper-and-pen ways. 

An analog calendar works for me for two major reasons. First, I am a visual learner. Seeing a paper calendar spread out before me with various dates and times on it is something that I absorb much better than receiving digital notices, which feel like dribs and drabs to me. I feel like an analog calendar provides a big-picture view of what I need to do. 

And second, I remember things when I physically write them down. Keeping an analog calendar is kind of like journaling for me, but with all the creativity sucked out and all of the practicality pumped in. If I am moving my hand with a pen, even if it’s to write down that I have a kid’s orthodontist appointment on a Tuesday, I remember it instantly.

However, when it comes to sharing with family members, it isn’t as efficient, is it? Uh oh, Angela, is this revealing my selfish side? Are analog calendars for the self-absorbed among us?!

I’m curious, how does Google Calendar work for you in terms of long-term planning? 

From: Angela Lashbrook
To: Lisa Fogarty  
Wed, Dec 17, 1:03 PM

Lisa, you make some very good arguments. I love taking notes, highlighting, and underlining things in my books as I read, as this helps me absorb the information better; I took a class last year and the weeks when I had the time to write notes in a notebook as I read were the weeks I actually retained any information. This is supported by research. Ooof, now I’m making your arguments for you! 

But because I’m either at my computer or have a phone in hand at all hours of the waking day (yeah, I know), it’s a lot more likely that I’ll actually write down an event if I can do it in an app than if I have to jot it into a notebook or physical planner that I don’t carry around with me wherever I go.

In short, I’m understanding that you use your notebook to help you remember; I use my Google Cal to do the remembering for me. As much as I would love to get better at remembering important dates on my own, the risk is too high (my toddler’s pulmonology appointment, for example) to allow for much chance of error. This helps ease my anxiety about forgetting events, too.

Chances are, I’ll have taken the 45 seconds or whatever to add an event into my Google Cal. The downside here, obviously, is if I don’t take those 45 seconds to put an appointment into the calendar. Relying on my calendar to remember an event for me depends on me informing it about such an event in the first place. I have, admittedly, forgotten important dates because of this.

On the other hand, it’s much easier while on the go to add something to my calendar app than it would be to whip out my paper planner (that I’d need a bag big enough to carry around) and write it down or, if not, hope that I remember to write it down once I get home. 

Re: long-term planning. It’s very easy, in my view, to jump months ahead in the app and note a visitor, a vacation, a call with my accountant, etc. I can also create recurring events—I have one for my anniversary, for my cleaners, my husband’s weekly podcast recording, and so on—that will repeat regularly until something in our schedules changes, at which point the events can be updated or deleted. 

How about you? How do you keep track of events and appointments that are a while into the future in your Blue Sky journal? 

From: Lisa Fogarty  
To: Angela Lashbrook
Wed, Dec 17, 1:30 PM

Alright, here’s where I’m tipping my hat to you (and your Google Calendar): A digital calendar makes it significantly easier to plan for the upcoming months and weeks, especially when you’re out and about. Just yesterday, I was in a waiting room, scrolling on my phone, and I saw a notice about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, with like $35 tickets, and you can go and pet the dogs and learn about the different breeds, and it sounded like heaven.

After squealing, I texted my husband about it. He wrote back right away: "Get them." But I couldn’t get them because I didn’t have my Blue Sky calendar and planner in front of me, and I had no idea if that weekend in February was already booked. Is it the biggest deal to have to wait until you get home and check your planner? No. Unless the tickets sell out. 

The Blue Sky features full calendars for each month and (my favorite part) a ton of space for each day of the month where you can jot down your tasks and events for that day. When I plan for the future, I like to skip to a calendar month and view it in its entirety, so I can see everything at once.

Then it’s like, okay, I made a haircut appointment on the 17th, and that will cost me $100, so maybe don’t plan to go out for dinner with friends on the 16th—space it out more. But, Angela, the way you describe being able to plan wherever you are makes so much sense to me. 

One thing I love, though, about analog calendars is that they make me feel like there’s one less digital interference in a life filled with them. I don’t want to get more beeps and alerts. I don’t want to feel tied to my phone for yet another thing. Also, some calendars and journals are beautifully designed—and some pens feel meditative to use.

Do you ever feel like you lose some of that experience using a digital calendar, or like it adds to the stress of always needing to be on top of stuff all the time, wherever you are, with no breaks? 

From: Angela Lashbrook
To: Lisa Fogarty  
Dec 17, 2025, 3:39 PM

I don’t feel like my Google Calendar adds to the stress of always needing to be on top of the stuff in my life; it’s the stuff in my life stressing me out, not my calendar informing me about it. That said, I can imagine if you had notifications set up in a way that didn’t serve you—if you had it set up where you received more than you needed, for example—then yeah, that would be stressful. 

That said—and this is my beef with Google Cal—it’s not pretty, and there’s not much of a way to make it pretty. It is pure function over form, and obviously functionality is critical here, but I’d love the ability to customize my Google Calendar with a color scheme I prefer, or a background image/pattern, or different typefaces.

Right now, you can choose a custom color for each individual event, and that’s . . . it, I think. This is not a huge deal, but I do prefer to have the things in my life look nice, and I simply do not think Google Calendar looks very nice.

I really hope you were able to get your Westminster Tickets! 

From: Lisa Fogarty  
To: Angela Lashbrook
Dec 17, 2025, 4:25 PM

Thank you! After checking my calendar at home, I realized the dates don’t work, so the cute dogs will have to wait a year. :( I just thought of one more pro and one more con to using my analog calendar. Pro: the satisfaction of crossing out a task I’ve completed for the day. I know there are ways of doing this digitally, but, for me, nothing beats taking that pen and slicing a line of ink through a task I crushed.

But the big con is: I’ve had to cross out canceled meetings and appointments countless times, and that also means updating family members and making a mess out of my calendar page. Sometimes, just the sight of a messy calendar or journal evokes feelings of anxiety in me. And, as if we don’t already have enough issues we’re dealing with daily, the need to update others in my family about changes I’ve made in my analog calendar only adds to my mental load. Here I am talking myself right out of an analog calendar—and still, I can’t quit it! 

At the end of the day, I haven’t found a way to use only an analog calendar, especially if you have a spouse like mine who benefits from a digital one. I’ll always have to lean more toward digital, too—it’s the way of the world.

But I’m pretty sure that I’ll keep an analog calendar and journal for myself for a long, long time. Angela, you’ve made so many great points, and I can see why you’re loyal to Google Cal. I’m not going to be a total convert, but you’ve made me understand why my husband is trying to wean me off analog. I’ll thank you for him!