Testament to Life Sans Day Planners

Dear Ms. St. James: I enjoyed your article on day planners, which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune. In this state, the home of Franklin Quest, vast numbers of people have been convinced, by Franklin Quest, of course, that they’re not going to get into heaven without a planner. Franklin Quest actually offers seminars where people pay to learn how to use a planner.

Countless people I know are slaves to their planners. They look like robots, checking their planners for their smallest daily activities.

Many of these people find it inconceivable that there are successful people who don’t use planners. In fact, an entire newspaper article on Bernie Machen, the new president of the University of Utah, was dedicated to the fact that he doesn’t use a planner.

I wonder how I made it this far in life without using a planner. I am a 58-year-old pathologist who directed a 160-person department and residency program for 15 years, directed the careers of 180 Army pathologists for three years, and now manage a partnership, am president of the state society of pathologists, attend a lot of meetings and have a significant calendar to maintain in volunteer work for my church. Somehow a monthly calendar on one page works.

Thanks for brightening my day.

--DR. THOMAS D. COPPIN

Bountiful, Utah

Dear Dr. Coppin: As a now-recovered day planner user, I take special pleasure in hearing from successful people who figured out long before I did that it isn’t necessary to be physically attached to a planner in order to get through the day. In simplifying my life and my career, I cut back drastically on the number of activities I have to keep track of each day. I’ve gone from an 11-by-16-inch, three-ring, black leather time-management system that was chained to my wrist to a 3-by-5-inch calendar that never leaves my desk.

I’m doubly impressed that with your complex schedule, you manage to keep track of it all on a one-page monthly calendar. Those of us who’ve used planners were taught how to use them and, in the process, often made our lives much more complicated than they needed to be. The good news is that in the same way we learned to use those planners, we can learn to stop using them and still have a rich, rewarding and even simpler life.

Thanks for brightening my day and for showing us what is possible.

* Elaine St. James is the author of “Simplify Your Life” and “Simplify Your Life With Kids.” For questions or comments, write to her in care of Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111.