Once upon a time, I used to just remember everything.
When I was in high school and college, I didn’t understand why someone would need a written calendar. How hard could it possibly be to remember that on Mondays you do this, on Tuesdays you do that, etc? I thought that anyone who couldn’t simply keep their schedule in their head must have something wrong with them.
Then, I graduated college and entered the real world.
I am now completely dependent on my calendar reminders.
Part of me used to feel like that was not a good thing, but now I don’t feel that way anymore. My name is Kelly, and I am a Google Calendar addict… and I’m thrilled about it! I never used to realize how much mental energy I was wasting keeping my schedule organized in my head. Once I started putting everything in my calendar and, most importantly, setting reminders on those appointments so I wouldn’t forget, it was like a giant weight was lifted from my mind.
I used to worry about forgetting things, even though I rarely did. Not anymore.
If you make an appointment with me for something, even if it’s just meeting next Friday to go get lunch, I put it in my calendar immediately. And then, I decide how far in advance I should set reminders for myself. If it’s something I’m not likely to forget, such as a recurring appointment, I might only leave myself a reminder 30 minutes or less before the event. If it’s something that’s not going to happen for two months, I’ll usually put a reminder a day or two ahead of time, as well as one an hour or so beforehand.
I occasionally give myself mini heart attacks when I set a reminder for a day ahead of time, the reminder goes off and then I think I must have forgotten something and now that thing is in half an hour. But, after reading the date I quickly see that this is reminding me that my appointment is in 24 hours. If I had been using reminders all along, I don’t think I’d have this mini heart attack phenomenon with alerts for things over a day away. I’m pretty sure this is a holdover from my “I better not forget anything…but I’ll still just keep track of it in my mind” days. I guess I’m a recovering mental calendar person.
Google Calendar is my calendar of choice, but you could use another one.
I used to have an iPod Touch before I got a smart phone and I would just use the calendar in that. But I could never get the iPod to sync properly with Google Calendar, so my calendar was always just available on the iPod Touch. It was useful, but not as useful as the Google Calendar I use now. When I got a smart phone I got an Android and using Google products with it is so unbelievably easy. I’m now able to change or add things to my calendar on my phone and see it reflected when I go to the calendar on my computer. It’s so wonderful. I also like using the actual Google Calendar app better than syncing it with an Apple’s iCal because I can add multiple reminders from my phone, but my husband (who was able to successfully sync his iPhone with the Google Calendar) can only choose one reminder time.
Is it possible to be too addicted to your calendar? Nah!
I have been known to respond “Yes” to a calendar invitation from my husband for “Watching a Movie” with the location and time set to “8:00 PM on our couch”. But, that’s a totally normal thing to do… right? 🙂
What about you? How do you keep track of all the things you have to do without going crazy?