Bringing Back “Old School” Productivity Hacks

As technology gets more and more advanced, we tend to forget how we used to do things.

Think of how shocked kids are when they hear how you did homework before the internet. (No one appreciates the dewey decimal system anymore!)

But are we becoming too reliant on technology? While it certainly makes our lives more convenient, we now bypass certain steps that helped us to stay on top of our organizational game.

Here are some ways kickin’ it “old school” will make you more productive:

Remember the Typewriter – This old piece of tech is symbolic of a whole generation, you’d be hard pressed to find a black and white movie that doesn’t include a typewriter. One of the downsides to the typewriter was that if you made a mistake you had to start over again. As much of a pain as this may be it made you more conscious of what you were typing.

Nowadays we send emails without even giving them a second thought! Remember the last time you received an email where someone forgot the attachment? While I don’t think you should throw your computer away you could definitely benefit from taking a few moments to read over an email before clicking send!

Pocket Diaries – Back in the day, when you made plans to go for dinner with a friend or catch a movie you would both get out your pocket diaries to compare when you were free. While mobile phones have modernized that technology, the problem arises when your calendars aren’t synced together.

It becomes a pain having to go through each calendar to make sure you don’t double book! I’ve written before about apps that sync all your calendars together – or you could just pick yourself up a pocket diary! There are plenty of people who still prefer to keep their appointments the old fashioned way.  My friend Nicole uses one all the time and we refer to it as “Granny” but it gets the job done!

No more last minute – Before mobile phones you couldn’t just text someone and meet up with them in a hour. Casual meet-ups took a lot more planning and once you’d settled on a place you just had to hope your friends would show up.

I’m not bemoaning the convenience of being able to tell someone you’re running five minutes late, but I do think that the invention of last minute plans has also made it far more acceptable to cancel. Just because you can text someone 10 minutes beforehand saying you can’t make it doesn’t mean you should. It was poor etiquette 20 years ago and it still is today!

What are some of the ways that you kick it old school to be more productive?