I’ve just got back from shopping for my son’s mountain of school things for the beginning of term. And one of those things was a school planner. I’m indoctrinating him early into the joys of the school planner, so got him a Moleskine 18-monther.

I love them. I love pulling the plastic off. I love the gentle breath of air the pages take in as I open the front cover. I love the feel of the pages. I love everything about them. Until last year, my favourite part of the year was buying my own, so who would I be to deny the next generation that thrill?

But now I have a Nexus and, technically, have no need of a written planner. All of my lessons, I can add in flick of a finger, rather than having to write each one into a planner by hand, and I can easily co-ordinate my freelance work with no flicking of pages (wonderful creamy pages). My ColorNotes saves me from having to rewrite the parts of my to-do list that I haven’t to-doed into the next week. And all of my e-mail, plans and gadgetry are all there, at my fingertips — with a backlight, so I don’t have to faff around turning the light on and waking the house up when my brain floods me with ideas in the early hours.

Buying his Moleskine earlier this afternoon was emotional, though. It hurt. Watching him pulling the plastic off and flicking through the pages was bitter-sweet. How wonderful that he can share in that pleasure, but how long will it be until he realises how much easier digilife is? My heart was screaming at me to buy one too, to go back to my written planner, to treat myself. But my head far too sensibly told me that using the Nexus makes more sense, it’s easier to keep on top of things, and I can organise all my juggling so much better with it.

At least I’ll get to use his daily when I check his homework and write notes to his teacher. Have to see the positives, eh!?