Re: Franklin-Covey planners
On my first job, I was given a Franklin planner and a class on how to use it (this was my “Time Management” training). It’s the only thing I don’t regret about that job.
The Franklin-Covey Company is out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and they specialize in “time management” and motivational tools (Stephen Covey wrote “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, among other things). These types of corporate motivational cults seem to be getting more and more popular, like the “Successories” people. Personally, I prefer “Despair, Inc.”, but that’s just me.
Walk into any Franklin-Covey store (but not on Sundays; F-C is very, very Mormon), and you’ll find everything you need to get anyone’s life in order (for a significant fee). They have a planner for any lifestyle (student, soccer mom, executive, I even knew a Goth system administrator who was a rabid F-C disciple) and in both electronic and paper format. It’s a great system.
The really interesting thing about them is that if you have the money and inclination to take all the classes, buy all the accoutrement, and really follow all the principles, it would be very difficult if not impossible to not achieve some level of success. Hand over your life to F-C, and they’ll teach you to manage your finances, organize your time, and raise a “successful family”.
However.
There’s something really depressing about the whole thing. I think there’s such a thing as too much organization.
The premise of this system is that everything in life can be broken down, quantified, and have a methodology imposed on it. And I do mean everything (they have a class on how to draw up a “Family Mission Statement”). From the F-C standpoint, you can have it all, and have it safe and secure and comfortable. I simply don’t believe this. There are the howling dark parts of the soul that the F-C blue compass can’t “worksheet” into submission.
I’m always tempted to buy the next module, take the next class, and get the Napa leather briefcase organizer with the cell pocket and the customized zipper pulls, but it’s an illusion. Instability and insecurity is a part of life, and how you deal with it is part of what makes you who you are.
11:57:17 AM 
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