Comments on: Today is our busy day

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:25:19 +0000

I have never found anything that works for me. A paper calendar - I forget to check,
A computer program, I forget to check in with.

I do have postits all over, whereas once upon a time (young age) I could remember everything!

By: shannon

shannon — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:46:36 +0000

You’re inspiring me to try ical again. Right now I just have stickies all over the desktop with lists.
Not especially helpful.

By: Alexa

Alexa — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:25:44 +0000

I too love the lovely iCal. Especially as I like to plan months and months and months in advance, like a crazy person. I also have a little notebook full of lists I carry around with me. And my most sophisticated system is for my writing ideas: whenever I think of one I scribble it on a post-it note/napkin, fold it, and put it in the back pocket of my purse. Every Saturday morning I dump them all out and transcribe them onto a list…genius, I know.

By: Meagan

Meagan — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:00:35 +0000

For some reason, electronic or computer-based organization doesn’t work for me. I really need something that I can carry around with me AND that I don’t have to flip around too much inside to get to where I need to be. So for now, what’s working best for me paper: I have an ordinary week-at-a-glance calendar used in combination with a monthly calendar that goes in my purse so that if I’m out and about I can jot down an appointment easily. Once a day I move what’s on the monthly calendar to its appropriate place in the weekly calendar. At the same time I keep a running to-do list paperclipped to this week in my weekly calendar-I try to keep it to five or six items and then when some bump off, I add more for the next day. I keep everything together because for me, the fewer places I have to look, the better. So assignment deadlines go there, as do the different chunks of each assignment and on which days I should do them, my column deadline and if I have a topic I’d like to cover in a certain week, I jot that down too; queries, haircuts, dental appointments, phone interviews–everything.

I look at it every night before I go to bed, and leave it lying open on either the dining room table or my bedside table so I can’t help but look at it first thing in the morning. If I had one consistent workspace I’d probably leave it there instead but right now I tend to end up working on my laptop whereever it works best with what the kids are doing that day.

Your system sounds like it works really well too, Dawn–I may have to incorporate the color coding into mine, only since I’m doing it on paper, that would mean I’d have to have a bunch of highlighter pens laying around and the kids would probably take off with them and then I’d be lost! I went through a lot of different ways of keeping on top of stuff before I settled on this system–I think the most important thing is just, like you said, making sure it’s something you’ll actually look at.

By: MFA Mama

MFA Mama — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:35:15 +0000

Seriously? Way too much coffee and tons of Post-It notes. Your system sounds better, but too much work for me