Best Results Organizing

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

I love calendars. In my geeky esteem, the start of the new year conjures Paper Doll memories about the wonderful potential that every new year brings. In my last two years of high school and first year of college, a friend’s Italian aunt shipped us each a medium-sized hard-bound calendar. Emblazoned on the cover was Diario Agenda, which I mistook as a brand, rather than the Italian for “calendar”.

Faux-leather bound, each page bore the name of the month and day of the week in English, French and Italian, as well as the numerical date. The blank, creamy pages could be used as an appointment calendar (agenda) or journal (diario) or doodle book, but to me it represented all the possibilities and dreams I had for the burgeoning future.

What does your calendar mean to you?

• Do you carefully keep one calendar (or PDA program) to keep you from missing all the important dates in your life?
• Are you juggling one calendar at work, another for personal activities and a life-sized calendar for your family in the kitchen…one where nobody seems to remember to write “Cupcakes for PTA bake sale”?
• Are you still using a 2006 (or earlier) calendar adorned with Post-Its to try to keep up with all the demands of modern life?
• Do you have salon and healthcare appointment cards taped to your fridge, blocked by birthday party invitations and months-old reminders?
• Is there any room in your calendar system for your dreams?

Clients sometimes ask whether they are hopelessly out of date using a paper calendar instead of Blackberry or PDA synced to their PCs. The truth is, the type of calendar system you use is far less important than your level of commitment to whatever system you pick.

If you tend to be a linear thinking, enjoy reading gadget manuals, and will remember to write every appointment, click every tick-box, sync and back-up every single day and keep your gadget charged and close at hand, the technical route may work for you!

If you’d rather keep a paper calendar that lets you color-code your appointments and obligations by life category or family member, or the thought of using one more beeping device gives you a headache, paper calendaring may be your best bet.

Commitment to the process, rather than the format of your system is key! (Paper Doll is already committed to her Franklin Covey classic-size daily calendar pages with the New Yorker Cartoon theme. If I weren’t so loyal, I’d be using another well-respected paper system.) With that in mind, if you don’t already have your 2008 calendar, consider the following issues:

• Pick a calendar that lets you see a month at a glance as well ample space for writing notes for each individual day.
• Select a planner that has enough space for you to write. If you have sprawling and not-so-neat penmanship (like Paper Doll), a pocket-sized planner may cramp your style, literally and figuratively.
• Use only one planner for your business and personal appointments. If you keep one calendar for your doctors’ appointments and schedule for your kids, and another for work, you’ll never know if your child’s recital conflicts with a major client presentation, or if you’ve scheduled yourself to attend a work conference the week your children have school vacations.
• Schedule everything you can up front. Once you buy your calendar for 2008, go through your 2007 pages day by day to mark all the recurring events (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) Then, record all the 2008 medical and dental appointments you’ve already scheduled. Haven’t scheduled your well-care or well-child visits for 2008? Call this week to make appointments and put them in place!

Finally, if you’re the type who forgets to check your calendar, use a few technology and accountability tips:

1. Set an alarm on your cell phone to ring at the end of every day, around 6 p.m., to remind you to check your calendar for the next day and/or the coming week.
2. Ask loved ones to prompt you:  “What’s on your schedule for tomorrow?” at dinnertime.
3. When you leave any location you visit intermittently (doctor, dentist, massage therapist, salon, etc.) schedule your next appointment if you have your calendar with you.  If you aren’t traveling with your calendar (tsk, tsk), ask them to call you the next day (at a time you know you will be available) to set up your next appointment.

Happy New Year! Paper Doll hopes your 2008 will be happy, healthy and clutter-free!

What do you get when you cross a kangaroo with a calendar?

A leap year!