My Hybrid Productivity Method - Paper 🤝 Digital

If you’d asked me this time last year if I’d ever use a paper planner, I’d have laughed and said “No!! Digital is the best fit for me!”. And for many things it is, but I slowly began to realise that I need physical reminders if I must remember to do something, otherwise I forget tasks even exist.

A task app hiding on a Macbook screen through which I run my entire life just isn’t enough of a reminder. There’s too much distraction! So I started to experiment with a hybrid system and it’s changed the way I approach my work.

Hybrid productivity for me means combining the best of digital tools (for storage, retrieval, and all that good stuff) with paper, which acts as a physical reminder in my environment. This is a real life hack for me. If something isn’t in front of me, I’ll forget it exists. So, I’ve essentially rearranged my entire life around this principle. My paper planner is a huge part of that.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the digital components of my setup first, then talk about my planner, and, most importantly, how they communicate with each other through my review and planning processes.

My Digital Setup

Digital tools are better than my brain for a lot of things: storing, retrieving, and connecting information. I have three core tools in my setup: Google Calendar, Todoist, and Capacities.

📅 Google Calendar is self-explanatory, but I have a strict rule: only events or tasks that must happen at a specific time go on the calendar. I don’t use it for optional scheduling because I don’t want to make daily decisions—I just want to blindly follow my calendar. Since most of my days are flexible, assigning tasks to arbitrary times only causes confusion.

✅ Todoist is where I capture tasks that need doing but don’t have a specific time (so aren’t on the calendar). My setup is simple—just the inbox and a few sections to mimic a Kanban board. This is where all my personal life tasks go.

💻 Capacities plays a few roles: It holds my vision for the year, routines, and my knowledge base.

My vision for the year is on a “2025” page. I decided on the areas of focus, the goals for those areas, my “why” and ideas for routines I could create to help me consistently work towards those goals.

I have pages in my personal and work spaces to hold lists of these routines for me to refer to when scheduling or working on projects that are examples of those routines. For example, filming a video is the perfect time for my filming routine checklist in Capacities, or on the 1st of the month, I open my Payday Routine toggle and make sure I’ve done everything.

BTW I did a lot of thinking about routine based task management last year if you want to read more

More generally, Capacities is also the destination for everything I learn, including new productivity methods like the 3x3x3 system which I’ll talk about below.

These tools work excellently, and they all talk to each other too. Capacities integrates with both tools so it feels like a great eco-system. But all of these apps live in the “thinking” layer of my system: they help me plan, connect, and reflect, but not execute.

Task execution is about me living my real life, and my real life is full of me getting distracted and falling down rabbit holes that may not be on my todo list… This is where paper comes in. I needed something physical to help bridge the gap between planning and doing.

My Paper Planner

I randomly found my planner on a trip to TK Maxx in January. It’s an A4 spiralbound planner with a simple layout: Monday to Thursday on one side, Friday to Sunday on the other, plus a few extra spaces for goals and tasks.

Why it works for me:

• It’s always visible. Spiralbound means it lies flat and stays open on my desk or in my line of sight, wherever I am.

• The top space is for weekly goals. Every glance at the planner is also a glance at my intentions.

• No timeslots. With flexible days, specific hours don’t matter to me. A simple box for daily tasks works better.

• Built-in constraints. Limited space keeps my to-do list realistic. I can’t add 100 tasks to today! I could do that in a digital tool, even though it is a futile exercise.

• The act of handwriting. I view tasks as the human intent to act, so I like matching that intentionality with handwriting. It just works for my brain. 😅 

But there needs to be a productive conversation from digital to physical (so I know what to do) and from physical to digital (so I know what I have done, and I can update my reference lists). This is where the planning and review process comes in.

The Planning Process

I spend about 20 minutes at the start of each month transferring recurring daily, weekly, monthly tasks (listed in Capacities’ routine pages) into my planner. I also check Google Calendar for appointments and mark them with stickers to make them stand out.

This setup reduces daily decision-making because a lot of it is already added by the time I sit down at my desk in the morning. Then, to reduce time spent deciding on what to do for the rest of my days, I use an adapted version of the 3x3x3 method:

• Four repeated daily tasks

• One full block (morning or afternoon) for project work

• Three little things that always come up

The specifics here of course also include Team Capacities’ project management system because that’s how I know what work to do, but my own systems compliments this, and I use my systems at the weekend and my days off too. For example, if I need to film a video, the Capacities systems tell me what that video is, and my Routine pages step in to make sure I do all the necessary steps to upload to Youtube (there is a lot more than you might think!). I use the Routine pages to help me schedule all these tasks.

Assigning tasks to certain days is not scientific though, and it’s pretty low stakes. It’s just based on a best guess. In the same way I identified routines, I also identified patterns in how I work and how the Capacities team works, so I’ve got into some natural rhythms over time. If I’m not sure when something will fit, it goes on an overflow task sheet and I pick it up in my review later. I find this set up feels very easy to maintain, and on the average week it feels like I’m progressing on all fronts, which feels good!

As the week progresses, I highlight completed tasks in purple. If a task gets moved or delayed, it’s highlighted in pink. This colour-coding gives me a visual cue: if I don’t see any purple stripes, something’s changed and I need to reschedule tasks, or remind myself to get back on track. I find it a simple but powerful check-in system. You will never find me working without my planner or my highlighters in my eye line!

Reviewing is key

When Friday morning hits, I have to turn the planner over and anything on Mon-Thurs disappears from my mind because I can’t see it. This is a problem if I have undone tasks.

To fix this, I moved my weekly review from Friday afternoon to Friday morning. I can simply look at the Mon-Thurs spread and move undone tasks to Friday. It’s a simple and reliable way to end the week that helps me wrap up the week intentionally and plan the weekend, freeing up mental space during the day.

I also do a daily reflection. I use the daily notes section in Capacities to log what I got done and reflect on what I learned. I’ve adapted the 3x3x3 method into a daily template for this, which helps me track progress and stay mindful.

Final Thoughts

This system—digital tools for thinking, a paper planner for doing—has completely transformed how I approach work and life. Content creators throw statements like that around a lot, but I truly mean it. The consistent presence of a physical planner, plus my routines and intentional planning, has helped me execute tasks more effectively and the effect on my happiness and even confidence is honestly remarkable.

It’s also reinforced the realisation that I must lean into physical reminders everywhere, so I’ve rearranged my house accordingly. Instead of being upset or frustrated at my brain about this like I used to be, I realise I just needed to find the way that suited me, and after nearly 6 months, I’m happy to report this hybrid system seems to be just the ticket.

How do you plan your days? All digital, all paper? Hybrid? I’d love to know!