The secret joy of stationery in a digital world | Nicola Adam column

This week I bought a planner.

Not just any planner but an aesthetically delightful, over-priced, strokable, bit of stationery with a blue and white flocked cover, pages picked out in gold and plenty of pleasing sections with which I can set my goals for the day.

What’s wrong with a computer, I hear you cry. Of course I have a plethora of those too with online diaries and beepy alerts and unfathomable syncing from one device to another.

But despite the access to all this expensive technology with which to organise my day, I still operate on the Nicola system of hoping I remember stuff and sticky notes with unreadable handwriting and frankly, it’s not working.

Inspired by my radio-work wife and co-presenter Gemma Ray, known for her healing crystals, life-improving, inspirational quote, self-help habits, I stopped rolling my eyes for five minutes and actually took up her advice and bought myself the planner of dreams.

I’d forgotten quite how pleasing stationery can be. I was immediately transported back to the days when my greatest joy ( there was no Netflix then) was embracing the excitement at the start of a new school term with the purchase of my allotted allowance of paper and pencil cases from whatever shop was the cheapest.

Next up, was the laborious process of begging my various relatives for spare bits of wallpaper so I could spend hours covering my school books using half a tonne of sticky back plastic as advised by Blue Peter.

As an aside, I was at least 35 before learning sticky back plastic was actually just Sellotape but they couldn’t say the brand name (now I’ve said it) But the joy of those unique covered books.

Then there was exam revision timetables. If I’d spent even a fraction of the time actually revising as I did colour-coding using metallic pens and swirly handwriting, I would not be here but on my mega-yacht, swigging champagne and eyeing up my billionaire empire.

So safe to say I love my new planner, but will it be the secret to my success?

Watch this multi- coloured space.