Ramblings-n-Writings

Posts Tagged ‘calendar’

Ron Edmondson wrote a post yesterday titled “How do you calendar your life?” He observed a friend organizing his schedule with a regular paper calendar, and Ron was somewhat surprised. Paper?!? This is the digital age.

Ron then asked, “What do you use to keep track of your life?  How do you stay organized?”

Up until 2 months ago, I was a paper calendar person for the most part. I wrote daily items on my 8-1/2×11 spiral bound paper calendar, and I recorded certain items in my Mozilla Lightning calendar on my laptop. I also had a mini calendar I carried in my purse just in case. That system worked fairly well.

Notice I said, “Up until 2 months ago…” That’s when I got my iPod Touch. Bye-bye multiple paper calendars; helloooo slim, sleek digital calendar.

All of my appointments, scheduled book reviews, deadlines, birthdays, and anything else I can think of are recorded on my iPod Touch. It travels in my purse, rests on the kitchen island or the nightstand, and is never far from my reach. I no longer aimlessly flip through pages of a calendar.

The only downfall is I can’t sync the iPod Touch with Mozilla Lightning (if anyone knows a way to do this, please tell me! Update: I figured out how to sync Lightning with Google Calendar and iCal on Touch. No 3rd party download necessary either.), so I’m still entering information in two places. But it beats writing it out by hand!!!

Besides the iPod’s calendar feature, I use the Notes program to brainstorm ideas, take notes on podcasts, write rough drafts of book reviews and blog posts (when I’m not at home), and record goals. The best feature is I can then e-mail the note to my laptop.

I also like the To Do application where I can create an item, record details, and set priority for the item. My lists cover everything from grocery shopping to household chores to writing research.

Lest you think my life revolves around my iPod, I do have a regular old paper calendar hanging on the refrigerator. Not much is written on the month of April, just the date where the Farmer started some seeds. Never mind that we have 4 doctor appointments this month, a 6-day vacation, house guests coming this weekend, and an important mediation next week. Why mess up a calendar with such a pretty picture?