Thinking Ahead to 2009
2009 is fast approaching. If you haven’t already, now is the time to get a 2009 daily planner and begin filling it out. Start by transferring important dates like birthdays and anniversaries. Next fill in any upcoming doctor appointments, school events for the children, after-school activities, work presentations, project due dates, meetings, and any other important things-to-remember.
Don't forget to put in any pre-planning notes. For example, if you know you are signed up to prepare a special treat for your child's upcoming class Valentine's Day party; write down in your calendar on a date a few days before the party to purchase necessary items or ingredients from the grocery store. I've even been known to write myself a reminder in my calendar to "put note in car" so I remember to stick a post-it note on my car seat the night before the school treat is needed. This reminder note helps me on those mornings when I am rushing to get the kids in the car to drive to school and want to make sure I don't forget anything.
Some people work best with a simple written day planner notebook and/or large family calendar hung in the kitchen. Others prefer an electronic organizer. Either way, figure out what system works best for you and stick with it.
What type of daily planner have you found to be most helpful?
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Comments
I have several planners. I use Google Calendar, with a few different calendars so I can colour-code the type of appointments that go in. I use Google Sidebar with a to-do list, showing me upcoming appointments, daily tasks, and some goals. I use a Palm Zire 31 with daily pop-up alarms to help me keep track of when to get up, when to send my kid to school, etc., and my upcoming appointments list is copied into a document there so when I’m out and a new appointment is booked, I can write it in there.
I also have bookmarks set up to help organize myself. There’s the daily list, there’s a list for the days of the week, there’s a list for once-a-month, and I’m creating a folder for yearly things.
Overall, I’m finding that I need to use a few different ways at once to keep track of what’s coming. I don’t relate to anything more than 2-4 days in the future; it’s unreal, so twice a week I need to review upcoming events to make them more real to me. If I don’t, then I find myself at the dentist completely shocked that my appointment arrived, wasn’t it two weeks from now? Well, it was, two weeks ago, when I looked…
Hey sylrayj,
Sounds like you have a great system in place!! Thanks for sharing.
I got turned on to the one and only planner that has worked well for my style! It is called a Planner pad and you can actually order it beginning in any month, like I have mine go from october to october based on our federal government fiscal year!
Here is a link to the site, if you want to check it out:
www.plannerpads.com
The thing I like about it is that it covers a week at a time on two pages together, on top you can list your goal for that week and then it is divided into what I call my brainstorm section, here I list all the tasks or appts I know I have, then I filter down to the middle section of that week which has an are for each day of the week, so you get to insert the tasks on the appropriate days, then it filters down to the final column which is each day broken down into hourly slots to insert the appts or projects you have!! Cool stuff, but anyway, check out their website, it explains a lot more on there!
At the house, I use one of those dry erase calendars for all of us, we each have a different color marker so we can look at our color for the day to see what is up!! I let the kids organize this one, it gives them some ownership in the system of planning our lives in an ADD family. I also use a “stubby” list system that I learned in an ADHD organizing book, it is where you take you tope 5 tasks and list them on a paper and check things off as you go!!!
I like the paper planners that have a week down one side (5×8 ish) and a “notes/to do” page down the other side (another 5×8ish) PLUS a whole month 2-page spread so I can see visually what the big projects are that are coming up/due soon. Haven’t found that for this year, so I have one regular monthly calendar for that.
I also have a tiny pocket calendar for appointments and classes only so I can check it if someone asks me to do something. I just have to be very sure to copy from one to the other, or I’m toast!
Like Sylrayi, I use a paper planner (Franklin Covey) and a Palm Zire 31. I use different color highlighters for the appointments that are the different ‘roles’ in my professional life, aka; Personal, Coach, Therapist: which is then broken down into the appt being a specific color if it is an intake.
The thing is, the Palm alarm goes off so many times a day that I have come to ignore it or not even pay attention to it. SO.. now I have a Smartphone with Many different sounds for reminders. They are loud and persistent. It is working well. Also, I have a fantastic, absolutely HORRID old fashioned sounding alarm on my computer that wakes me in the morning. I HAVE to get out of bed to shut it off! It is a very simple, free program.
http://www.scottflute.com/ You can set it for different times every day, you can also have many instances of it set up at the same time. Enjoy! thanks for the great conversation. judi
P.S. I forgot to say that both the Palm and my Smartphone are synced with MS Outlook for having everything categorized, color coded, in my contact address book and a large visual calendar and pop-up reminders that make any sound or music you want them to. It’s a triple ‘whammy’, you can’t lose! judi