I was in a training session, on break, standing around with my classmates.  I pulled out my Day-Timer to jot down some notes.

“Hey!” said someone.  “I remember those.”

He was referring to the Day-Timer, my pocket calendar.  I use the 3-by-6 inch size, encased in a leather wallet with a pen loop.  Each month is a spiral-bound insert.  Each day is a two- page spread.

I’ve been carrying Day-Timers around for about 40 years.  Every year I order a set of 12 monthly inserts.  The annual cost is around $60.

My classmate’s excitement was understandable.  At one time, everyone in business carried some sort of paper-based planner/organizer.  Some were pocket-sized.  Some were smaller and some were larger, with two formatted 8-by-11 inch pages for each day.

The concept died out with the rise of digital.  Now people keep their notes and calendars on their phones, electronic notebooks, and desktop computers.  I do that too.

But a pocket planner has some unique utility.  It is tangible like a book.  It is an ever-present notepad; a pen and paper at the ready.  It’s much easier to jot notes on paper than struggle with the tiny keys on an iPhone.

I save my used monthly refills in the plastic box they arrived in.  I save the boxes too.  Now I have saved notes and plans going back four decades.

I was never much for actually planning my day that way.  But today I am promoting my planner to its full intended use—planning.  I am inspired by a real estate guru named Ron LeGrand who says he does the same thing.

Oh, and about my encounter with that classmate, who was amazed by the anachronistic product that I pulled from my pocket. That was 16 years ago.