Of Calendars and Trackers and Lists and Reminders

Suzanne wrote recently about how she was forgetting things, and how to keep on top of things, which made me think about how I try to keep my own train on the rails. Spoiler alert, it doesn't always! Sometimes all the holes in the layers of Swiss cheese line up, and things fall through. But I have some methods that help.

These break down into three categories, which have some crossover: calendars, lists, and alarms.

Years ago, I found myself regularly writing and re-writing to-do lists and plans, and as I got sick of shuffling multiple pieces of paper, I came up with a bare-bones combination format, sized to print on a regular 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. 

The top half was to-do items, broken down by whether they were things to be done at home or out, on the computer or a dreaded phone call; the latter two were separate because if I just had a list of things to do at home, I would do some things on the computer, and later notice there was something else to be done on the computer, and be annoyed. (Anyone else remember the days before smartphones, when sitting down at the computer was a bigger deal?) These days, I don't usually use this, but it helped for a long time.

The bottom half of the page was a weekly calendar space.

At the time, working in offices, I would get home after work only to remember that I had meant to stop at the library or the store, so I started noting not just concrete items like appointments, but also intentions. 

Again, I haven't used this format in a while, but it certainly helped at the time, which would have been before I started using the Google calendar. I'm addicted to that now, but at times I use other methods as well.

First, for use by both my mother and me, we have two dry-erase weekly calendars on the side of the fridge. I rotate them weekly, using one marker color for Mom's things, another for mine, and a third for items for both of us (like watching the Bruins games).

This way, either of us can see at a glance if there's a conflict when planning something (for instance, I need to schedule an oil change, so I won't do it on a day when Mom has an appointment).

I also will sometimes use a 5x7 card to sketch out the coming days. It started when I used the back of something printed on that size card stock, but I like having it stand out a bit from regular paper.

As with the old way of doing it, this allows me to "pencil in" things that I wouldn't put on the google calendar. On Sunday, we were going to see a play, and that was on both calendars, but only on this are the plans: to have lunch first, and to stop at Norman Love, which meant I should bring an ice pack for the car.

Speaking of the google calendar, I use it not only for appointments and other fixed events, but as a mobile to-do list. 

If I don't get around to making the adjustment to my 401k on Monday, or calling to make the oil change appointment, I'll just move those over.

Right now I have another piece of the card stock with a few lists: the names of the people joining me for dinner on Friday, things I want to get next time I'm at Walmart, and things I want to get done this weekend. Like looking at that library book before it's due back!

In recent years, I have become a big user of alarms on my phone as reminders. The two main ones I use are to:

1. keep track of when I can next take ibuprofen, because otherwise I forget when I last took some
2. remind me just before stretch class, so I have time to go to the bathroom and log in to zoom

The stretch class (which I first heard of through Engie, thank you Engie) meets three times most weeks, at different times, and it's in Wisconsin so a different time zone from Florida. I have the classes on my google calendar, but I would never make it to a class if I didn't use alarms.

I frequently set other alarms, though, for things like:

• getting into the shower on a weekend in time to go out for an appointment
• unlocking a neighbor's door in two days to let a worker in
• changing my sheets, because otherwise I won't remember until bedtime
• calling a place that isn't open yet, because again I will forget

It has now been probably 15 or 20 years since I started telling friends, "If I say 'I'll have to remember that,' please hand me a pen. Because I will not remember." These are things that help.

In conclusion, cat: