Why paper diaries? How you can use them to help your students to flourish academically and personally!

5 minutes read time

In today’s primarily digital world, the idea of a paper diary might seem obsolete, especially for students who rely heavily on their devices.

With our 2025 standard and customised student diary range now available for pre-order, you might be wondering whether the cost of paper diaries is actually worth it for your students.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of using a paper planner, as well as give you some helpful tips on how you can ensure that your student diaries are used and loved by your students, so that you can make an informed decision and help your students to plan, inspire, and flourish academically and personally.

Five reasons why paper diaries will actually benefit students:

1.Writing on paper helps to improve memory

When writing things down, two things happen that help you to recall information better.

Writing enables the ‘generation effect’, which is when we are better able to recall information that we have created for ourselves, rather than recalling information that we have read. This process involves engaging the senses through ‘encoding’ and ‘external storage’.

External storage refers to the actual piece of paper/diary that is a physical reminder of the goal or task that you have written down. The concept is the same as taking notes in class – you will always have a physical piece of paper to refer back to for information.

Encoding on the other hand happens in the brain when we see something, and the information is sent to the hippocampus for analysis. The hippocampus decides what is important to store in long-term memory, and what it can forget.

These two concepts come together when the time comes to take action. When your brain sees information that you have written down, it assigns greater importance to it. As a result, you will remember the information that was written down, whether that be the due date for an assignment, the details of an assignment, subject content, or other tasks and events.

2. Planning on paper helps to maintain focus

Choosing to write in a diary allows your brain to be more engaged and increases focus and productivity. By eliminating the need for devices to record and store information, you also eliminate the temptation to be distracted by your devices.

3. Writing things down helps to prioritise and stay motivated

Using a diary to write things down takes more energy and therefore stimulates your mind. Students are able to clearly organise their thoughts and plan their course of action, making them more productive and motivated to complete tasks.

4. Using a student diary is a great way to maintain a visual record of everything that has been accomplished

There is a lot of satisfaction that comes from making a list and checking it off. By using student diaries as a way to plan and prioritise their workload, students will also be able to break down their goals and tasks into achievable steps, and track their progress by crossing off tasks from a list. This also creates motivation to maintain an organised study and homework routine.

5. Using our 2025 Student Diaries can significantly increase your students’ chances at academic and personal success

Did you know that you are three times more likely to succeed when you write your goals down (by hand) in comparison to when you have plans/goals but do not write them down? Writing makes it easier to see the big picture and become intentional and detailed in how you manage time and structure work, meaning that consistent use of student diaries will enable students to increase their chances at success, what ever that looks like to them.

Creating the habit

Having teachers encourage the use of their student diaries across all classes is a great way to demonstrate the importance of using diaries to students.

Teachers can start by requesting that students write all of their upcoming assignments and homework tasks in their diaries every day. When distributing the diaries, teachers can also explain that the diaries are a great way to plan their homework around their extracurricular activities and social commitments, which would make the diary feel more personal.

Eventually, students will develop the habit of using their diary and have a healthy reliance on them. This is a good thing!

Diaries will hold students accountable and allow them to plan and prepare for each lesson. This will also build their confidence because they will be on top of their work or be able to communicate when they need some extra help.

Some of our diaries also include our Building Character and Resilience Program, a character education program designed to foster good habits that will enable students to flourish academically and personally!

The benefits listed are skills that will be influential in your students’ success throughout their academic and personal lives.

Give your students the opportunity to plan for the future, be inspired, and flourish every day with Createl Student Diaries!

Take your students through a short step-by-step guide

Explain the features included in their diaries and detail how they can use them every day to enhance their study load.

We have created the following handout for teachers to use in class when distributing the diaries. By quickly running through this with students, you can kickstart your year with your 2025 student diaries!