Fractured Ink: Writing In Life's Chaos (audio)

Paper Planners Have Their Place

• Diana Dirkby

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My Website: https://dianadirkbywrites.com

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#cleverfox #cleverfoxplanner #budgetplanner #weeklyplanner #kindlescribe  #kindlescribecolorsoft #Scriveinerfountainpen

Want a calmer way to run your week and your money? We explore how choosing paper—yes, actual pages—can sharpen memory, reduce distractions, and restore a sense of control, while still getting the most from your Kindle Scribe. As writers navigating real‑world chaos, we share how handwritten planning slows the mind just enough to reveal trade‑offs, anchor commitments, and make budgets feel tangible rather than abstract numbers behind a login.

We unpack the science and lived experience behind handwriting: why your brain encodes details more deeply with pen and paper, how that leads to better follow‑through on tasks and more honest budgeting, and where digital tools can unintentionally make plans feel disposable. Then we get practical with a guided tour of the Clever Fox Budget Planner, from annual goals and mind maps to monthly spreads, expense tracking, and end‑of‑month reviews. Savings trackers, debt pages, and an annual summary turn a pile of transactions into a clear story you can act on.

This isn’t a paper‑only manifesto. We explain a simple hybrid workflow: map long‑term goals and budgets on paper for clarity and mindfulness, then mirror key items into digital templates on Kindle Scribe for reminders and easy access. You get the privacy and focus of an offline planner plus the convenience of modern tech. Along the way, we talk about creative touches, tactile joy, and mental health benefits of stepping off screens—especially when life already runs on notifications.

If you’re feeling scattered, overscheduled, or disconnected from your money, try using paper for a month and see how it compares. Subscribe for the follow‑up where we dive into the Clever Fox Planner Pro Second Edition, and share your setup with us—are you team paper, team digital, or proudly hybrid? If this helped, subscribe, leave a review, and send it to a friend who needs a planning reset.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello, I hope you are all well. I uh am going to be focusing today on what you can do on paper rather than uh what you can do with uh something like a Kindle device. So this may seem rather contradictory because I have uh done many podcasts on Kindle devices, and you know how much I love them. But I also find that I need paper planners, so planner books, and uh the best ones I've found are made by Clever Fox. And so I wanted to talk a little bit today about how not so much that you can use one or the other, but that you can very profitably use both. Your uh digital allies in the planning world and uh some great planners that exist as books. So the title of the podcast is um the hard copy, why budgets and weekly planners on paper still have their place in the digital world. So I'm gonna talk about budget planner and weekly planner and two specific products by Clever Fox that uh I think are really great. One's a budget planner and one's a weekly planner. So welcome back to another episode of uh two podcasts, Fractured Ink, Writing in Life's Chaos, and Products for Writing from Home. So there won't be many uh photos in this podcast because it's also destined for fractured ink audio only. So I don't want people to be dependent on photographs. So I'm going to mainly use description to describe the planners I'm going to talk about. So it's just as important to organize your life outside of your professional writing as it is to organize your professional writing itself. The time spent on professional writing complements the time spent away from it. They impact each other directly. If you have a solid plan for your professional writing, it won't be successful if the rest of your life is stressful and chaotic. After all, you are writing in life's chaos. Our podcasts, among other topics, aim to explore simple, effective ways to help writers feel more manageable and meaningful in their lives. I'm your host, Diana Dirkby, and today we're diving into something that may seem a little rebellious in 2026, sometimes choosing paper. In my podscast episodes, I frequently recommend the Kindle Scribe for organizing professional writing. It also manages many aspects of your life through the thoughtful and intelligent use of its notebook section. By the end of this episode, I hope you'll decide to create long-term plans on traditional paper, whether you use the Kindle Scribe or certain apps to organize your life. After all, why not combine digital and handwritten media? A planner can suggest ways to utilize the Kindle Scribe templates. How you organize your Kindle Scribe can inspire your entries in handwritten planners. In my life, my Kindle Scribe is mainly used for my novel writing, together with the Scriven Act, which involves working on the novel itself and organizing contact information for people on or off social media who have shown interest in my work. I also use my Kindle Scribe to take notes on specific events whose details I want to keep handy at a moment's notice. For example, my spouse and I were in a car accident last year that involved no other cars or people. We weren't injured, but the car was totaled. When filing the insurance claim for this incident, I used my Kindle scribe to quickly jot down what I needed to do, including recording the claim number. We also lost the keys to one of our houses, and I used the Kindle Scribe to note where each key was in my search for the ones we needed. It worked well. We found them. So when I talk about paper planners, I mean planners with long-term organizational tools. I mentioned in an earlier episode Clever Fox's line a day diary spanning five years. Now I can't do without it. Today I will focus on two of Clever Fox's project products, a budget planner and a weekly planner pro, both spending a year. They are undated, so you can hop in and use them at any time of the year you choose to start. Prefer your Kindle Scribe? In that case, for long-term goals, I suggest the Scribe and the Paperback Clever Fox products. The Scribe includes daily, weekly, and monthly planner templates. I'd love to know how they compare to the old-fashioned Clever Fox paperback planners, a personal goal for this year. And by the way, I say paperback, but they're actually hardback. They're a little bit more sturdy than that. Okay, but first I want to start with a general discussion of why I would consider in this day and age in love with the Kindle Scribe, I would consider planners in the in the old-fashioned sense of it being of it being a book that you're writing. So let's first start with a general discussion. With apps for everything, budget trackers that sync your bank accounts in real time, calendars that ping you five times before a meeting, why would anyone still reach for a pen and notebook? Well, it turns out many people do. And including myself. And research plus real world experience show that paper budgets and weekly planners have some surprising advantages over digital options. If you want both paper and digital products, use both and compare. So that's the main takeaway from this podcast is try both. They will help each other. Today we're breaking down the key benefits of keeping your money and week on paper. So I've eulogized about the Kindle Scribe, and now I'm going to eulogize about the moments that I choose in my life to use a traditional planner. Better memory and retention. First up, your brain literally works differently when you write by hand. Multiple studies, including recent neuroscience research, indicate that handwriting engages more areas of the brain than typing. When you physically write down groceries$120 or meeting with Sarah Wednesday 2 p.m., that information is stored more deeply. It's like your brain captures a detailed snapshot. People who handwrite their plans and budgets remember commitments and numbers better, even if they don't constantly look back at the page. Digital entries, you tend to feel they tend to feel more temporary, almost disposable. You type it, you might forget it because the mental effort is shallower. This really matters, especially when it comes to budgeting. So this is why I'm talking about budgeting first, above planning, because this is something very personal and private in my case. And uh I don't really want my budget plan to be in the Kindle cloud or the Kindle ecosystem. A little book, say from Clever Fox, uh that's not so heavy that I can't take it with me. So um this is especially true for budgeting for me. So back to our general discussion. This really matters, especially when it comes to budgeting. When you manually record your income, fixed expenses, fund money, and saving goals on paper, you are forced to slow down and truly see the numbers. This hands-on method increases your awareness of your financial habits. Many people say that ditching budgeting apps for a simple Legistyle notebook or a more advanced product like those from Clever Fox helps them feel more in control and less surprised by where their money goes. Next, fewer distractions, deeper focus. Let's be honest, most of us open our phone's calendar or budget app with good intentions. And five minutes later we're scrolling notifications, checking email or doom scrolling. Paper, zero notifications, no pop-ups, no temptation to just quickly check Instagram. It's a distraction-free zone. When you sit down with a weekly planner spread or your monthly budget sheet, you're in a focused flow state. Research on time management shows that people who use paper planners often create higher quality big picture plans because they naturally consider the whole week or month at once without zooming in and out of tiny digital windows. Well, of course, the Kindle Scribe has some great templates for planning by the day, week, and month. Uh, and it has a nice big screen. So um, but still, I think what I'm saying now still applies. One study from a University Research Center found that paper calendar users not only followed through on more planned activities, but actually built better, more realistic schedules overall. They saw contingencies, buffer time, and the weeks flow more clearly. For budgeting, the same principle applies. Writing categories and amounts by hand makes mindless spending feel more real. Crossing off or adjusting a line item physically reinforces the commitment in a way that type tapping a screen rarely does. Next, increased sense of ownership and mindfulness. There's something compelling about the physical act of writing that fosters commitment. And you know, in my case, that I uh love to write on paper in the old-fashioned way, if you've seen some of my uh early episodes. And in particular, I love to write with a nice fountain pen on paper. So it's actually an aesthetically uh rewarding experience for me to write on paper. That doesn't mean I love my Kindle Scribe less and that I'm not considering upgrading to the Kindle Color Soft or the Kindle without front light. It just means that it's another experience again, writing on paper that is important to me. So there's something compelling about the physical act of writing that fosters commitment. Tasks on a screen can feel disposable, delete, undo, gone. But when you write a task or expense in ink, it feels significant. You don't, if you don't finish something, you have to intentionally cross it out or rewrite it later, which prompts honest reflection. Why didn't this get done? Is it even important? Budgeting by hand reinforces this. Physically tracking progress toward a goal, such as watching your debt reduction line move down or your saving column increase, creates an emotional connection to your money. It's not just numbers on an app dashboard, it's your handwriting marking milestones. People who switch to paper budgeting often find it more mindful. You hesitate before buying that impulse coffee because you know you'll have to write coffee$5 and see it clearly. This small resistance creates awareness and usually cuts down on unnecessary spending. Next, reliability and what is important for me for my budgeting, especially privacy. No battery dying at the worst moment, no app crashes or updates required right when you need to check your budget, no internet outage is blocking access. Your paper planner and budget books are always accessible offline and completely private. The privacy is important to me because I share my Kindle account with family members. There's no data syncing to the cloud, no company mining or spending habits for ads, and no risk of a security breach. In a time when we're all a bit tired of constant connectivity, that independence feels truly refreshing. Plus, there's no learning curve, no need to figure out new features or pay for premium versions, just grab a good quality notebook and a pen, and you're good to go. Next, creativity, tactile joy, about which I've spoken with paper and fountain pen, and reduce screen time. Finally, the fun part. Paper allows you to make it your own. Color code for weeks, doodle small icons next to tasks, use stickers or highlighters. Many people find that the creative outlet reduces stress and makes planning something to look forward to instead of a chore. Clever fox items include stickers. You will have heard about my love for scravina fountain pens, and that I have a gold and a silver one for special moments, and blue ones for daily handwriting tasks. So back to the tactile joy again. And let's not overlook the mental health aspect, which is especially important for me because I live with schizophrenia. Taking a break from screens for planning provides your eyes and brain with a real rest in a world where most of our work and entertainment are digital. That paper ritual can feel grounding. So to wrap up, are paper budgets and weekly planners suitable for everybody? Of course not. Digital tools excel at sharing calendars with families, setting automatic reminders, and easily tracking hundreds of transactions. But if you're feeling scattered, overscheduled, or disconnected from your money and time, try using paper for a month as well. Get an attractive weekly planner and a budgeting notebook. Write everything out by hand. You might be surprised at how much more present, focused, and intentional you feel. And then, of course, you can turn around and uh incorporate what you've learned from writing on paper to your Kindle Scribe and the templates that you choose. And then if you find that's not as nice an experience as working with the uh planner on paper, then just keep using the planner on paper. So let's now look at two long-term planning paperbacks that Clever Fox puts out for planning over a year. I'll hold them up so you can see their attractive color and that I do own them. So this is the uh budget planner.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and the much bigger Planner Pro 2nd edition.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm trying to get a good light on it, but um I'm kind of on the wrong side of the light. As you can see, it's very attractive, very sturdy, not too heavy.

SPEAKER_00:

A little book of instructions on how to use them.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I've held them up so you can see that they're attractive uh and that I own them and use them. In fact, I own several as time passes because they're undated and you know I I have at the moment uh a couple of free ones because they're gonna be for next year and the year after. Um I mean that they're free of my writing, not that I bought them for free. The individual pages don't photograph well, and I want to keep this episode clear for my audio only audience. So I will describe them instead. The budget planner is 5.8 inches by 8.3 inches, and the weekly planner is 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Here they are, and each here they are, I just showed them, and each comes with a four-page guide on how to use the different features in the planners. So I will list the advice below from the guides that Clever Fox puts out. And I'm only gonna cover the budget planner because I think that's enough for one session, and um the planner pro second edition uh I'll reserve for my next podcast. So, as I say, they're actually hardcovers. So they're paper inside, but they're hardcovers on the outside.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

The budget planner starts with a page that has 10 lines for you to write your goals for the upcoming year. Regularly review and track your progress towards your financial goals. Don't be discouraged by big goals, break them into smaller, manageable steps. The second page features a mind map, which is a great way to do this breakdown. The third and fourth pages cover your strategy and tactics, respectively. Each page is divided into two sections. My strategy includes new skills I need to achieve my financial goals, and my money affirmations for wealth and prosperity. Overall, write down the skills you need to learn on your financial journey, the actions you will take to earn more money, reduce your expenses, and the affirmations you will repeat to train your mind to focus on the positive. Then there are two pages of important dates divided into one section per month for a year. Next, your monthly budget plan should cover two pages. Write down this month's goals and tasks. Set reminders for bills and payments due on the calendar. Update the income and savings tables as the month goes on. Create a monthly spending plan before you make any purchases. Complete the budget table by entering the budgeted amounts for all your expenses. Next, there are four pages for expense tracking, each divided into columns: date, description, category, and amount. Record all your expenses for the month and assign a category to each one. The next page is the monthly budget review. At the end of the month, reflect on the past month, fill in the monthly budget summary table, analyze your spending during the month, insert the amount you have spent for each category, calculate the percentage for each category by the formula category percent equals category spending over total expenses times 100. Plot a pie chart, pie included, to visualize your monthly expenses. Answer the questions and think about how you could do better next month. To help you, an ideas and notes page is included for you to freely write your ideas. That's the one month section, which repeats for 11 more months. After those 12 one-month portions, there are some other useful pages. First comes a four-page savings tracker, followed by a six-page debt tracker. Use savings trackers to monitor your progress towards achieving your savings goals. Use the debt tracker to monitor your progress toward paying off your debts. There are two pages focusing on your holiday budget. Finally, there is an annual summary, a regular bill tracker, a check register, and a place to jot down what bank credit and debit accounts you have. Use the annual summary to monitor your income, expenses by category, and overall progress throughout the year. Use the regular bill tracker to plan and keep track of your monthly bills all year long. The planner includes stickies and a pouch at the back. Well, that's enough for today. It's a lot of information. And I would suggest if you are planning on doing uh your budget planning on the Kindle Scribe, I I would advise you getting the uh Clever Fox budget planner as well. It's not very expensive and it will give you good ideas. And uh simply to write in your Kindle Scribe and write in the budget planner at the same time over the same period and compare. Okay, so there's a lot in the Planner Pro 2nd edition, and we've been talking for quite some time. So I think that's enough for today. So I will devote my next episode to the Clever Fox Planner Pro 2nd edition. Now I'm currently reading a book on how to organize well the use of a Kindle scribe. And uh I haven't finished it yet, so I can't talk I can't talk about the book until I finished it. But uh I think you'll find that it's a little bit the same idea that uh what the author tries to do is to mimic uh um something like what Clever Fox puts out, you know, the Planner Pro Second Edition on the Kindle Scribe. And the author also puts in a whole lot of other information about uh organizing um uh your highlights and your notebooks, etc. So I will definitely mention the book next time, and uh I think to use the Clever Fox Planner Pro 2nd edition, your Kindle scribe, and this book, you'll be in really great shape and you can make um a decision as to how you want to continue um next year, just with Kindle, just with paper, and always listening to good advice. Okay. That's enough for today. I'll devote my next episode to the Planner Pro Second Edition. If you're team paper, drop me a message and tell me your favorite setup. If you're all digital, I'm curious to know what keeps you there. Until next time, plan intentionally, whether it's on paper or pixels, take care. And above all, thank you for listening. So please subscribe, uh, like, and comment. Love to hear from you. Have a great day.