Why Do People Use Paper Instead of Digital Calendars? An
Explorative Study
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER
OF SCIENCE
Rick Smit
6032524
M
ASTER
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NFORMATION
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TUDIES
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UMAN-
C
ENTERED
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ULTIMEDIA
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ACULTY OF
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CIENCE
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NIVERSITY OF
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MSTERDAM
August 7, 2016
1st Supervisor 2nd Supervisor
Daniel Buzzo, MA Dr. Frank Nack
Why Do People Use Paper Instead of Digital Calendars? An
Explorative Study
Rick Smit
University of Amsterdam Department of Informaticsm.r.smit1@student.uva.nl
ABSTRACT
The field of time-management has been intensely
investigated over the years. Strangely, the motivations
of calendar users have been a subject that hasn’t been investigated a lot. The aim of this study was to investigate why people use paper calendars. This paper presents an explorative qualitative study, in which fifteen participants were interviewed on how they use their calendar. One of the main findings was that paper is still widely popular. Several reasons were found on why users prefer paper. The use of paper promotes the effect of prospective remembering
whereas digital calendar seem to retard this effect. The
findings of this study are roughly in line with previous literature on this subject.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]:
User interfaces, Evaluation/methodology, Interaction styles, User-centered design
General Terms
Design, Human Factors, Time-management
Keywords
Information system research; Design science;
Natural science; Information technology; Calendar;
Time-management
1.
INTRODUCTION
While the personal calendar hasn’t changed much
throughout the years, its importance is still widespread as a time management tool (Bank, Cain, Shoham, Suen, & Ariely, 2012). Where one has to manually add events with a specific time when using a paper calendar, several improvements have been implemented with the advent of the digital calendar (Bank et al., 2012). The use of digital calendars enables the use of recurring events, integrated invitations, and event reminders (Bank et al., 2012).
Despite the improvements when using a digital calendar, the use of paper calendars and planners remain popular. According to Tungare, Perez-Quinones, and Sams (2008) , one of the largest suppliers of paper planners in the US, At-AGlance, sold more than 100 million calendars in 2000. It is puzzling that, with the advent of the so-called digital age, the paper calendar remains so popular (National Geographic, 2016). The aim of this study is therefore to
investigate the motivations and preferences of people on why they keep using paper calendars.
The structure of the paper is as follows. First, related
literature will be discussed whereafter the motivation of
this study will be discussed. Subsequently, the methods
on how the data was collected and analyzed are described
whereupon the results are discussed. Finally, the paper
discusses the implications of the found results where after a conclusion is formed, and finally future work is discussed.
2.
RELATED LITERATURE
As Tungare et al. (2008) stated, there is a long history of calendar studies in the human-computer interaction literature. Before the use of digital calendars, Kelley and Chapanis (1982) investigated how professionals use their
calendars for scheduling. By interviewing 23 business
professionals, they concluded that the use of calendars was
indispensable for the participants. Kelley and Chapanis
(1982) suggested that if the electronic calendar were to be implemented into the corporate world, it would need to be able to accommodate a large amount of different types of
uses, as the participants reported. For example, several
participants thought that one calendar was sufficient while others used up to six calendars at once. The participants of this study did suggest that some clear advantages were seen in the use of electronic calendars, like ease of access, and the possibilities to changes appointments fast and easily (Kelley & Chapanis, 1982). They also stated that this was a clear drawback of paper calendars and they listed a set of features that needed to be implemented if electronic calendars were to be successful. Examples of such implementations were the coordination of information among calendars
in different locations, multiple-point remote access to
shared information, instant updating and easy changing of information, and more (Kelley & Chapanis, 1982).
Payne (1993) investigated the use of calendars and the
ability of users to remembers tasks. He found that the
majority of electronic calendar designs were perceived as inadequate. The reasons on why these electronic calendar designs were seen as inadequate, was that the interface demanded the use of a baroque command syntax and that some critical aspects of paper calendars were not matched (Payne, 1993). Another finding by Payne was the idea of prospective remembering. Prospective remembering is the type of remembering when memory is used to remember to do things in the future (Tungare et al., 2008). This study showed that the use of automatic scheduling diminishes
prospective remembering since automatic scheduling decreases the opportunity of users to browse their calendar for other appointments. Payne therefore suggested to keep prospective remembering in mind when designing new calendar interfaces.
Brush and Turner (2005) conducted a family survey of Microsoft employees and found that the adoption rate of the digital calendar was surprisingly high. The high adoption rate could be attributed to the fact that the respondents of the survey are employees of one of the biggest software companies in the world, Microsoft. When respondents were asked why they used a digital calendar for their family activities, the two most given reasons were to have all scheduling data in one place and to be able to access their calendar from multiple locations (Brush & Turner, 2005).
Around the same time, Tomitsch et al. (2006) stated that the paper calendar is still dominant when calendars are used for private matters. This was due to the possibility to use a calendar in different ways. The researchers observed that users of paper calendars tended to use calendars for to-do lists, diaries, as containers for additional material, and for recording contextual information. On the other side of the spectrum, users with a demanding side job tended to use digital calendars for their time-management only (Tomitsch et al., 2006).
Thayer et al. (2012) investigated the use of sharing digital
calendars to aid in relationships. This new behaviour of
calendar use could only be used with a digital calendar and not with a paper one. By interviewing the participants in their use of calendar and how it affected their relationship, they found four strategies that were commonly used by
participants that shared their calendar. Participants
maintained multiple calendars as a means to control their
privacy. Secondly, participants used their calendars to
coordinate and enhance their relationships. Thirdly, they used their sharing abilities to stay in touch with friends. Finally, participants used the data from other shared calendars to anticipate when their friends or significant others needed emotional support or understanding (Thayer et al., 2012).
Tungare et al. (2008) conducted an exploratory study where
the use of personal calendars was investigated. The set
up was similar to techniques reported in the Personal
information Management literature. Tungare et al. used
a combination of surveys, interviews, and examination of calendar artifacts to conduct their study. They found that participants tended to over-rely on certain calendar artifacts to remember appointments, which is in line with the finding of Payne (1993) (Payne, 1993; Tungare et al., 2008). They also noticed that paper calendars were still continuously
used by the majority of participants. The participants
stated that the reasons of using a paper calendar were so they would leave a paper trail they could track, being able to annotate events, and to opportunistically rehearse their appointments (Tungare et al., 2008). Tungare et al. concluded with a set of opportunities to improve the designs of digital calendars. One of these design opportunities is add the possibility for digital calendars to leave a digital paper trail.
Hund et al. (2014) conducted a study where the authors argued for an unified continuous and multi-granular
calendar. The aim was to combine the aspects of the week and month overview with the list view of a calendar. By investigating the benefits and drawback of the different layouts of calendars they tried to design a new type of layout. The participants responded that the proposed layout is significantly faster for navigation and search tasks. Still a small fraction of the participants stated they preferred the grid view of the calendar since it was in their opinion still faster due to the better overview it provided. Hund et al. explained that this preference was an effect of the
mere exposure effect. This effect describes that when an
individual is repeatedly exposed to a stimulus that it is a sufficient condition to enhance the its attitude to it.
3.
MOTIVATION
Interestingly, research on the specific motivations of people to use a paper or a digital calendar remain limited. The studies of Tungare et al. (2008) and Payne (1993) are two of the few studies performed that tried to take the motivations of the users of different calendars into consideration. Related literature does seem to suggest that there are reasons why some people prefer paper calendars (Payne, 1993; Brush & Turner, 2005; Tungare et al., 2008). The aim of this study is therefore to explore the motivations of people on choosing the specific type of calendar they use. Hence the following research question has been formulated:
Why do people prefer a paper calendar over a digital calendar?
Like in the study of Tungare et al. (2008), the aim of this study is to not formulate any a priori hypotheses due to the
exploratory nature of this study. Besides the motivation
of paper calendar users, this study is also interested in the current opinions on digital and paper calendars. The technologies have evolved tremendously over the last years and therefore it would be interesting to investigate on how practices on calendars have changed (Tungare et al., 2008).
4.
METHODS
In this section an overview of the participants is provided, and the methods with regard to data collection and analyzing the data is discussed.
4.1
Participants
The study took place from April till July 2016 in the Amsterdam area, during which 15 participants were interviewed (nine men and six women). The participants
were recruited by e-mail or chat. All participants were
acquainted with the author, were Dutch citizens, and
were Dutch native speakers. The participants ranged in
age from 22 to 55 (mean: 30.9, median: 26, SD: 10.6). Seven participants were undergraduate or graduate students of the University of Amsterdam, one participant was an undergraduate student of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (University of Applied Sciences), two participants held jobs in the medical sector, one participant owned a medical company, one participant was a manager at a restaurant, one participant owned a catering company, and one participant worked at a non-profit organization. Lastly, one participant was a self-employed accountant. Due to the scope of this study, relationship status and other demographic data was not collected.
Interview questions
1. Do you use a calendar (paper or electronic)?
2. Is there a reason for your use of a paper/digital
calendar?
3. How important is it to your work?
4. What kinds of calendars do you use?
5. How many calendars do you keep?
6. Where do you keep your calendar(s)?
7. Does anyone else use your calendar(s)?
8. How many of your appointments get noted?
9. What determines which ones get noted?
10. From what sources do appointments typically
arise?
11. Do you use your calendar(s) for anything other
than appointments?
12. How do you deal with regular or routine
appointments?
13. What is your pattern of reading your calendar?
For example, routine? length of looking ahead? 14. Can you call any ”critical incidents”, in which your
calendar keeping failed?
15. Is there anything else about your time
management that we have not covered?
Table 1: The key interview questions asked during the interview in English.
4.2
Data Collection and Methods of Analysis
4.2.1
Interviews
Each participant was interviewed once in person, where a standard semi-structured interview protocol was formulated. The questions closely resembled the interview protocol used by Payne (1993), and focused on general calendar use. Participants were asked to speak freely about their
time-management activities. The protocol allowed for
follow-up questions while still ensuring that all the
interviews would include a standard set of questions. Since the interview was of a semi-structured nature, a simpler schedule and protocol was designed than would be the case with a fully structured interview (Robson, 2011). The interview contained the following elements:
• introductory comments;
• list of key questions about their time-management; • closing comments.
The list of key questions can be found in table 1. Since the questions were all posed in Dutch, the translated to Dutch questions can be found in table 2.
The interviews were conducted in Dutch and lasted between 11.48 and 34.05 minutes (mean: 19.7, median: 19.7, SD:
5.5). All the interviews where recorded and transcribed.
After the transcription, the interviews were coded and all the participants and names were anonymised.
4.2.2
Coding the Interview Transcripts
According to Saldana (2009) encoding in a qualitative
inquiry is most often done with a word or short
Interview questions
1. Gebruik je een agenda (papier of digitaal)?
2. Is er een specifieke reden waarom je een
papieren/digitale agenda gebruikt?
3. Hoe belangrijk is je agenda voor je werk?
4. Wat voor soorten agenda’s gebruik je?
5. Hoeveel verschillende agenda’s houdt je bij?
6. Waar bewaar je je agenda(s)?
7. Maken anderen gebruik van je agenda(s)?
8. Hoeveel van je afspraken zet je in je agenda?
9. Wat bepaalt welke afspraken opgeschreven
worden?
10. Vanuit welke bronnen komen je afspraken vaak
vandaan? Denk bijvoorbeeld aan werk, school,
etc.
11. Naast het maken van afspraken, waar gebruik je
je agenda(s) nog meer voor?
12. Hoe ga je om met terugkomende afspraken?
13. Hoe ga jij te werk als je je agenda leest? Denk
hierbij aan routine en hoever je vooruit kijkt.
14. Kan je enkele ”Critical Incidents” opnoemen waar
je agenda niet goed bijhield?
15. Is er voor de rest nog een punt over je
time-management die we niet besproken hebben die je graag nog wilt vertellen?
Table 2: The key interview questions asked during the first interview translated to Dutch.
phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion
of language-based or visual data. Saldana (2009) also
stated that there are several different methods on qualitative research and coding.
The method of coding the interview transcripts was done by using coding as a heuristic method. This meant that the coding process was used as an analytic tactic (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 56; as cited by Saldana, 2009). While coding and analysis are not the same, they were used side
by side. Coding was primarily done to find patterns in
the transcripts that might prove to be useful or interesting to this research. Since coding and analysis were done at the same time, the coding was done once, also called the Initial Coding, where the iteration of the coding occurred
with the further analyzing of the data. The coding was
used to summarize and condense the collected data. This was done by using the ”In Vivo” and ”Simultaneous Coding” techniques (Saldana, 2009). In Vivo Code is taking what the participant himself said and placing it between quotation
marks. Simultaneous Coding is a coding method that is
used to code for patterns (Saldana, 2009). Both techniques were used side-by-side.
5.
RESULTS
In this section, an overview of the type of calendars used
by the participants will be provided first. Of the 15
participants interviewed, six participants indicated that they used a paper calendar (40 per cent), eight participants indicated they used a digital calendar (53 per cent), and one participant indicated he used a digital and a paper calendar simultaneously (6.7 per cent). This participant will not be
Figure 1: The anonymized paper calendar of one of the interviewed participants.
placed in either group specifically but will be used in both groups where his use of the digital calendar will be used in the digital calendar group and his use of the paper calendar will be used in the paper calendar group.
Five of the six participants that used a paper calendar (83 per cent), used a calendar that used a two page week overview. One of the six participants (16.7 per cent) used a calendar with a one page week overview with a page for notes on the opposite side. An example of the typical used calendar can found in figure 1.
Of the eight participants that used a digital calendar, all of the participants stated that they used a form of cloud-based calendar, like a Google or Apple account. Two participants (25 per cent) also mentioned they
used a spreadsheet as well for better overview. One
participant (12.5 per cent) stated he used a cloud-based calendar for private meetings and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) calendar for work-related appointments. A screenshot from one of the user’s digital calendar can be found in figure 2.
In the sections that follow, results found from the data will be discussed and explained. First, the main findings will be briefly discussed with a short summary on what the findings mean. Secondly, the findings briefly discussed in the aforementioned section will be explained in-depth in subsections, where examples will be drawn from the data to illustrate the motivation of the participants (Brush & Turner, 2005).
5.1
Findings
When collecting and analyzing the data, several interesting results were found. Of these results four main themes stood out, which are structured from most to less interesting.
The first and most interesting finding was that paper still played an important role in individual time-management, regardless of the type of calendar the participants used. For example, six out of the eight users of digital calendars (75 per cent) indicated that, besides their digital calendar, they preferred to use paper for notes.
Other users of paper calendars stated that they used a digital calendar at work or that they used the online roster of the university to update their calendars. Several reasons were given for this preference of paper, the most mentioned reason was that they liked to physically tick off a task, which wasn’t possible to do with a digital calendar. Besides having the option to physically tick off a task, people like writing and apparently, this helps in memory retention. Further explanation on the finding is provided in section 5.1.1.
The second interesting finding was that participants generally agreed that a paper calendar provided more overview than a digital calendar would. The main reason that was mentioned, was that with a digital calendar the calendar and overview tends to get lost on the screen. By having their calendar next to them on their desk it created more overview and was more separated with other matters. Further explanation on the finding is provided in section 5.1.2.
The third finding was, as could be expected, that
participants who used a digital calendar stated that one of the main reasons they used a digital calendar was that it was easier to access their calendar. Most people had their calendar synced on their mobile phones so they didn’t have to carry an extra calendar along.
Participants using a paper calendar tended to keep their
calendar on fixed places so they wouldn’t forget it. The
Figure 2: The anonymized digital calendar of one of the interviewed participants.
of paper calendars tended to forget their calendar when they left it somewhere else than their desk or bag. Further explanation on the finding is provided in section 5.1.3. Finally, privacy when using digital calendars wasn’t an issue. Only one participant stated he had concerns about how private the use of a digital calendar actually was. The reason behind this indifference can’t exactly be explained. While not actively discussed during the interviews, it was surprising that only one participant had concerns about this issue. Especially with the ongoing discussions about online privacy (Wirtz et al., 2007). The participant who had concerns about his privacy did admit he traded in
his privacy for functionality. Further explanation on the
finding is provided in section 5.1.4.
In the following sections, the main results found will be discussed in depth where examples from the data will be presented to illustrate the reasoning and motivation of the participants.
5.1.1
People
Use
Paper
Regardless
of
Their
Calendar type
During the interviews, all participants, with the exception of one, clearly stated they either used a digital or paper calendar. But, it became clear during the interviews that most participants used both types of calendars. They often
used the other type of calendar in lesser degrees. While
participants who used a paper calendar mainly used paper, four out of the six participants (67 per cent) who used a paper calendar used a digital calendar to some degree. For example, one participant intensively used a paper calendar but used the digital roster of the university to update her classes and to look up specific details of those lectures.
She synced her mobile phone with this online roster so she
could easily check last minute changes. Users who used
a digital calendar didn’t necessarily use a paper calendar besides their digital ones, but mainly used paper, or another analog notation system, to make notes on and create task lists. For example, a digital calendar user stated that his company actively used whiteboards so it would be easier for colleagues to see the current progress of a project. This was done while all the deadlines and tasks were stored digitally as well. In total, six out of the eight users of digital calendars (75 per cent) indicated that, besides their digital calendar, they preferred to use paper for notes. As Participant 15 stated:
”I just find it more pleasant to be able to physically read my notebook than to read it from my phone. Really weird, but I find it irritating to have a todo list on my phone” -Participant 15
When asked on precisely why he dislikes digital to-do lists, he responded with:
”I have the idea that [a digital to-do list] is less clear,
somehow I like to write it down on paper. I tend to
remember it better. Secondly, I like to browse. Thirdly, I like to tick it off. It is really weird but it feels nice to be able to physically tick it off.” - Participant 15
This statement is in line with what other participants note
on why they like to use paper. Likewise, Participant 5
explained the reason why she preferred paper over digital to-do lists. The statement below makes it clear that there is some consensus on why participants like paper:
”Because I can, which is completely mentally, tick it off...and that is in my opinion less with a PC.” - Participant 5
This statement is interesting since this suggests that finishing a task is done by a physical act to mentally close
the task instead of just finishing the task. Participants
using paper calendars supported the notion that paper helps in finishing a task mentally. Two participants using a paper calendar also stated that writing down notes and appointments with pen and paper aids with memory retention, as shown below:
”...if I summarize [lectures] on the computer, I remember a lot less than if I summarize on paper and with my calendar... it tends to stick in my mind more.” - Participant 4
Other users of paper calendars stated that they used a digital calendar at work or that they used the online roster of the university to update their calendars. Several reasons were given for this preference of paper, the most mentioned reason was that they liked to physically tick off a task, which wasn’t possible to do with a digital calendar. Another reason given by the participants for using a paper notebook or calendar was that they liked the idea that the paper notebook and/or calendar was physically present, which isn’t the case with digital calendars. Two participants who used a paper calendar stated that they like the ability to ”browse”, or ”flick through” their calendar. This is in line with the statements of participant 9 who used a digital calendar and a paper to-do list as well. He stated that the idea of a calendar located next to you on your desk is more relaxing and increases the idea of overview, as can be seen below:
”I find it easier to make notes in...I like that it lies next to me on my desk instead of being another tab in my browser...Now it just lies next to me and I can just tick off things and make notes in it. It works very well for me.” -Participant 9
To summarize, people seem to use paper because it provides them with a way to mentally tick off certain tasks by actually physically ticking it off on a piece of paper. Another reason to use paper is because people tend to prefer a physical object to hold in their hands. By having a paper book people can flick through and browse their calendar and/or notebook. Apparently this seems to aid in memory retention. To explore how this process relates to the use of calendars is a subject that would be interesting for future research. This will be further discussed in the section 7.1.
5.1.2
Paper Provides More Overview
During the interviews, four out of six participants (66.7 per cent) who used a paper calendar stated that one of the benefits is that a paper overview provides great overview. This is a peculiar finding since most calendars are smaller or are similar in size to a standard laptop screen. As one participant who used a paper calendar clearly stated:
”Yes, I find it pleasant to have the whole week in front of me...I write all my [tasks] down in my calendar so I have a complete overview of my to-do list as well as my appointments.” - Participant 2
This statement isn’t necessarily limited to participants who use paper calendars. Several participants that used a digital calendar stated that one of the drawbacks is that that they lack the overview that a paper calendar provides.
”[With a paper calendar] you open it and you see the week overview where everything is filled in. With a telephone you have to adjust the settings so that you can see it properly.” - Participant 7
One of the possible reasons that a paper calendar provides more overview is clearly formulated in the quote below. The participant, while using a digital calendar, is explaining why he prefers to have a paper to-do list over a digital one. ”I find it more pleasant that [the to-do list] is on my desk next to me. I’m working a lot with searching for job openings online for work, so I have a lot of contacts and tabs open. If one of those tabs is my to-do list, it tends to disappear all together.” - Participant 9
From this quote it is easy to note that the participant experiences a limitation in the screen’s ability to display
information. In other words, how several participants
noted, it is easier to lose overview on a screen. This is
supported by the statement of participant 12, as shown below:
”...there is a lot of information on a screen and you
can quickly miss information. You’re filtering a lot of
information on a screen...A screen is comparable with a large A0 newspaper that you fold open where there are a lot of small four by four centimeter pieces of information. You have to scan those first.” - Participant 12
And he continues with:
”...on one piece of paper there is just one piece of information and that makes it clear.” - Participant 12
These statements seem to suggest that overview is
dependent on the number of applications active on a
particular medium. For example, if the calendar is used
on a laptop that is used a lot for a text editing, it would be easier to lose overview due to number of other opened text files. Whereas a paper calendar has a single purpose, showing your time-management.
To summarize, it becomes clear that a paper calendar has an edge over digital calendars in regard to overview and
clearness. Why this is, is mainly because the medium
usually used to display a digital calendars, is used for other applications as well. This means that a lot of information tends to occupy a relative small screen. A paper calendar has a single purpose and that is to display time-management. This makes the paper calendar have more overview, even when the size of the calendar is smaller than the screen on which a digital calendar is shown.
5.1.3
Accessibility of Calendars
From the interviews, of the eight participants who used a digital calendar, six stated that one of the main reasons for using a digital calendar was of how easy it was to access the calendar (75 per cent). As Participant 7 stated: ”You always have your phone with you so that’s pretty convenient and with [a] paper [calendar] you have to carry something extra along.” - Participant 7
As seen above, most participants synced their calendars with their mobile phones so they always had access to their calendars, regardless of where they were.
Logically, participants using a paper calendar don’t have the benefit of having access of their calendar all the time, at least not to the same degree as would be expected with
a digital calendar. Participants using a paper calendar
countered this problem, knowingly or unknowingly, by keeping their calendar in one specific place, most of the
time in their bag. The following quote illustrates where
participants store their calendars:
”I mainly keep [my calendar] in my bag, which I always take with me. Or my schoolbag. I have two bags and sometimes I keep it on my desk. Just on places where I can find and grab my calendar. Always close to me.” - Participant 11
Several participants stated that they sometimes put
their calendar on their desk at home but this was less
frequent. By keeping their calendar in their bag, they
were less likely to forget their calendar. Interestingly
enough, participants stated that when they did forget their calendar, this was due to the fact they put their calendar in an unusual place. For example, one participant canceled her interview for this study last-minute since she forgot her calendar at home. She left her calendar on her couch instead on her usual places, like her desk or in her bag. To summarize, the reason people use digital calendars is
because of how accessible a calendar is. Regardless of
location or medium used, it is nowadays possible to access the digital calendar. Participants who use a paper calendar tend to keep their calendar at fixed places, like their bag or desk, to prevent forgetting their calendar.
5.1.4
Privacy
As previously mentioned, a potential loss of privacy doesn’t seem to be a big issue when using a digital calendar. While it wasn’t actively discussed during the interviews, only one out of the eight participants (12.5 per cent) using a digital calendar explicitly stated he was concerned about the loss
of privacy, which was surprising. Because his calendar
was cloud-based he wasn’t sure on how private his private calendar actually was, as shown in the following excerpt: ”And with my private [calendar] I have my doubts on how
private my private [calendar] is with Google. I find that
unpleasant, actually.” - Participant 3
When asked what the ideal situation would be he stated that he would prefer to have his own cloud server. That way he would be sure about what would be shared with who. He
continued with that he lacked the know-how on how to do this so he opted to trade in privacy for functionality.
The reason why privacy isn’t such a concern for the majority of digital calendar users isn’t clear. It could be that these participants weren’t aware of the possible privacy issues or that they didn’t mind. As seen in the interview protocol, privacy issues weren’t a part of the protocol and
therefore it wasn’t asked. Further research is needed to
investigate this discrepancy.
To summarize, it seems that people don’t really mind potential privacy issues when using a digital calendar. It is important to note that privacy wasn’t a specific topic during the interviews so this could very well skew the results regarding the topic of privacy.
6.
DISCUSSION
In this paper, the research described was to investigate the motivations of people to use a paper calendar instead of a digital one. This was done by interviewing 15 participants who either used a paper or a digital calendar. This study was of an exploratory nature since previous and related literature
is relatively limited. The question on why people use
paper calendars hasn’t been the primary focus of previous research, which makes this a novel approach in the field of time-management research.
In this section, the four main findings and their broader implications will be discussed. Besides on how the results relate to previous literature, the broader implications of this study will be explained, where finally the limitations of the performed research will be discussed.
People who use a digital calendar tend to use paper
notebooks and task lists. This study suggests that the
main reason to keep using paper is that it mentally helps to physically tick off tasks. Another stated reason on using paper is that writing with pen and paper helps memory retention. The final motivation on using a paper notebook besides a digital calendar is that a paper notebook usually lies next to you on your desk when you are working. This physical presence creates an ease of mind that promotes
overview. This implies that if one wants to create more
overview for in a digital calendar, one has to implement the benefits of a separate physical calendar into a digital calendar.
Perceived overview is a recurring theme when people were
asked about why they use a paper calendar. The main
benefit for using a paper calendar is that it provides
overview to the user. People who use a digital calendar
tend to agree with this finding. The study suggests there are two related reasons on why this is. First of all, a digital calendar is typically used on a medium that is usually designed for more applications than to just show a calendar. This means that a lot of information gets presented on
a relative small screen. From the interviews it became
clear that this overload of information tends to lead to less overview. Secondly, and this is related to the first stated reason, is that a paper calendar is designed to only show the time-management. A paper calendar has a single purpose and this to inform you about your time-management. This reasoning applies to any other paper notebook as well.
One of the main reasons why people use a digital calendar is the added accessibility that such a calendar provides. By being able to access your calendar on your phone or any other device with an internet connection, it becomes easier to change appointments on the go.
Surprisingly, privacy didn’t seem to be an issue when using digital calendars. This indifference can be explained by the set up of the study. Due to the current scope and timeframe of this study, privacy wasn’t a part of the interview protocol. Therefore it wasn’t actively discussed during the interviews. If privacy was part of the interview protocol the results might have been completely different. Within the current setup of the study it isn’t possible to have a clear explanation of the results. Future studies are advised to incorporate the subject of privacy into their research design as to further explore the opinions and considerations on privacy when using digital calendars.
6.1
Results in Relation to Previous Literature
The results derived from this study seem to be roughly in line with previous research into this subject. As stated by Tungare et al. in 2008, paper remains a popular alternative to a digital calendar. Despite the technological changes the opinions about paper and digital calendars seems to have remained the same. The literature indicates that the use of calendar artifacts help prospective remembering when using paper calendars while a digital calendar retards the effect, which is in line with the results of this study (Payne, 1993). This prospective remembering was not only observed with the use of paper calendars but also with digital calendar users who use paper notebooks. It can be concluded that the enhancement in prospective remembering is one of the reason why a lot of people still use paper, even if people use paper besides their already existing digital calendar.
An often stated reason on using a paper calendar, that it provides more overview than a digital calendar, is also in line with previous research. The studies of Brush and Turner (2005) and Payne (1993) agree with the finding that a paper
calendar provides more overview. The idea behind this
statement is because a paper calendar has a single purpose and that is to provide time-management.
6.2
Implications
In this study, four findings are of interest. First of all, despite the improvements of the digital calendar, paper stays popular to use. Secondly, a paper calendar provides more overview than a digital calendar. Thirdly, one of the main reasons why people use digital calendars is because it is easier to access. Finally, despite the numerous discussions on privacy, people don’t tend to mind losing some privacy when using digital calendars. One has to note that with the set up of the current study it isn’t possible to clearly state that privacy isn’t an issue with people. Further research has to be done to investigate this subject.
These findings clearly show that there are still some clear differences between these different types of calendars. Despite the technological advances in the arena of digital calendars it seems that digital calendars still have clear drawbacks when compared to paper calendars.
Overall, the implications of this study is that it provides insight into the motivations of users and it gives a glimpse of the psychological constructs that come with
time-management. In this way, this study is of added value to the existing body of literature, since it give provides an updated view on what the motivations and perceptions are of people regarding the use of calendars.
6.3
Methodological Limitations
This study has several limitations that affect the reliability of the study and have to be addressed in future studies of this topic. The limitations in this study are mainly of a methodological nature and need addressing. First, the study sample size is small. With only 15 participants, generalizing the results to population levels becomes difficult, which affects the external validity of this study. Secondly, the sample that was interviewed was collected using convenience
sampling. By using convenience sampling, the internal
validity of this study might affected. Thirdly, the majority of the sample has enjoyed higher education, which means that generalizing the results become more difficult. At last, two participants who used paper calendar, were very nervous during the interview which in turn affected the quality
of the interviews. Together with a relative small group
size, this might have affected the data quite considerably. Finally, qualitative research come with limitations that are inherent to this type of research. There are benefits and disadvantages when using a qualitative research set up. The quality from a qualitative research set up is dependent on the skills of the researcher. The individual biases and insights that the researcher might have affected the results. Avoiding these biases, like moderator bias and biased reporting, has been attempted but it remains impossible to completely avoid such biases especially since interpretation of data is inherently subjective.
7.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper revolved around the use of time-management and the use of calendars in particular. The aim of this paper was to find out the reasons on why people use a paper instead of a digital calendar. Besides finding out the motivations of why people use paper calendars, the opinions on and use of calendars was explored.
This study shows that the main reasons for using a paper calendar is that paper provides more overview to time-management than a digital calendar would. Also, the physical presence of a calendar on the corner of the desk helps in enhancing the perception of overview. Besides the better overview, a paper calendar is physical. This means that it is easier for users to scribble and browse through the calendar. This aids prospective remembering. Accessibility of a calendar wasn’t a big issue with users of paper calendars because the users kept their bag with them, which negated the added benefit of a digital calendar.
Opinions about paper and digital calendar doesn’t seem have changed a lot in the recent years. This study suggests that the opinions about calendars have remained the same since the study of Tungare et al. (2008). It has to be noted that the sample size of this study was small so it wasn’t methodologically possible to reliably compare the results of these studies.
7.1
Recommendations for Future Work
Because of the previously stated methodological limitations, future research on this subject has to carefully consider the methodological constraints that a small qualitative
study produces. Due to the scope and timescale of this study it wasn’t possible to consider all the methodological objections. Hopefully, future research has the resources to enhance validity by using a larger sample and by adding a quantitative element so that both the quantitative and qualitative aspect of the study enhances the reliability of the results.
Furthermore, due to the time constraints of this study, relationship status and other demographic data was not
collected. During the interview it became apparent that
this data could have been useful in analyzing the results. It is therefore recommended to include such data in future research.
Finally, this study found that having a physical act, like physically ticking off a task, helps in mentally closing a task. How this process works is an interesting topic to investigate and future research should certainly look into this process.
7.1.1
Design Suggestions
Despite the limitations, the results of this study do shed some light on how to improve existing designs of digital calendars. A suggestion for future research is on focusing on how to implement prospective remembering in digital calendars. Currently, digital calendars have several options on how to limit the diminished effect of prospective remembering on calendar use, like the use of alarms and reminders. While this does work, it addresses the symptom
that the digital calendar itself creates. What the exact
design changes should be is beyond the current scope of the study and further research has to be conducted on how to improve prospective remembering in digital calendars.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank all the participants who were willing to help me with this study. Special thanks to Denny for helping me with transcribing the interviews and giving me tips on how to conduct the interviews. Special thanks to my friends on supporting me with my thesis. Special thanks to my supervisor Daniel Buzzo and second reader Frank Nack on steering me into the right direction with my thesis.
Last but not least, thanks to Lidewij for her endless supply of energy. I really enjoyed working together during our year in the student council. You were the best chairwoman one could wish to have.
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