Japan and China may have a reputation for being technologically advanced, but recording appointments and to-dos with pen and paper is long-held tradition in Asia. There is also evidence that it’s gaining popularity with millennials there as sales of paper planners have increased in the last few years.

Increasingly, the trend is catching on in the West among younger people. As a matter of fact, some adherents to the pen-and-paper planner culture are so fervent in their use that they post videos giving the world a tour of how they organize in their diaries.

Even some of my colleagues at Fast Company have become paper planner devotees. “My grandfather used to carry a small pocket diary, and when he died, we found decades of them in his drawer,” says Fast Company copy editor and writer Michelle Lewis. “I’ve adopted his method of recording appointments and events. I indulge in a Smythson Panama diary every year. It’s light, compact, and beautifully crafted. As all my correspondence and work is now online, keeping track of my activities on paper allows me to feel like I still retain a bit of old-fashioned control, on my terms. I don’t go anywhere without it.”

Anjali Khosla, editor of Fast Company Digital, says, “I switched back to my paper-based notebook system after a year of going all-digital. I’m not all-analog now, I still coordinate my appointments through Google Calendar, but I duplicate my appointments in my little notebook,” she says. “I prefer my paper system for a number of reasons. It gives me a break from staring at screens. It also causes me to stay in the moment and plan my days with intent. I feel satisfaction when I physically check an item off my list.”

Hearing how much people who have ditched planning apps love their pen-and-paper planners, and reading that the best way to remember things is to write it down by hand was all the prompting I needed to give up planner apps and try it out for two weeks. I didn’t ditch my smartphone entirely as I’ve done in the past (only to find out I couldn’t live without it). This time around I ceased using Calendar, Notes, and Reminders on my iPhone and computer in favor of a simple $7 weekly planner. Here’s what I discovered.

It Was Easier To Plan And Remember Appointments

As far as organizing and planning my life, I generally stick to three apps on my iPhone and Mac: Reminders, Notes, and Calendar. All work exceptionally well, making it quick and easy to mark important times and dates and jot down notes and other information. I originally thought pen and paper would be an inferior planning experience. After all, my paper planner can’t ping me when the next meeting is 30 minutes away.

But what I found is that after a few days of using a paper planner, I didn’t need those notifications anymore. The physical act of flipping back and forth between my planner pages for the week ahead seemed to have an effect on my memory, making it easier to remember the sequence and times of upcoming events.