How to use diaries and calendars effectively

1. Viewpoint

"Many time management systems and commercial day planners fail because they assume that there is one single answer for everyone’s time problems. There isn’t. When dealing with time, it’s definitely different clock strokes for different folks, but don’t give up trying to find the best approach for you."

2. It's a fact

At first the term calendar did not relate to anything written down (there were originally no lists of dates), but to a herald’s announcement! Actually, the calendar is derived from the Latin, meaning ‘to call out’. The beginning of each month was proclaimed by the head-priest or another appointed official.

No one knew beforehand when exactly the new month would start. It had to coincide with the appearance of the new moon and only when this had been duly observed could the official declaration be made. So it was that the first calendars merely referred to the first day of each month.

3. Quotable quote

"A well maintained diary, given the nature of life and time, is anything but systematic or neat: it is full of tentative plans, plans replan-ned, crossings-out, scribbled ideas and items suddenly remembered. The only diary system worth having has simplicity and flexibility; even then, it will be no more than a tool of time management. More important by far is a realistic attitude to planning." …