Three Reasons to Use a Calendar
Ever since my classes ended in July, I have been living calendar-free. After approximately 22 years of using a daily planner like it was a life-support system, I was trying to allow myself a break.
All I did was prove to myself that using a calendar is a wise move.
1. You might miss an important appointment
If you try and depend 100% on your memory, you might miss crucial appointments and events. I missed my friend Christine’s birthday. I have known Christine for over 20 years and having to read about her birthday on her MySpace page just felt shameful. Of course, I looked at my day planner and there was her birthday all marked red, with a little doodle of a balloon. I have no excuse.
2. You could miss out on a free meal
My friend Lynn invited me to dinner for one night last week, but we made the plans over a week ago. She has a tight schedule and that was her first free evening. I was sitting home wondering why I felt so compelled to give Lynn a call and see how she was doing when the phone rang. It was Lynn. She was waiting for me at the restaurant! Yikes. I admitted my hair-brained oversight and jumped the car to meet her. Thank goodness my mom was able to watch Gigi, because Lynn was buying dinner and who doesn’t love a free meal? 
3. You might leave your kid stranded
I got Gigi ready for school today, packed her bathing suit and medications in her backpack and reminded her that her daddy would pick her up from school today, take her to her swim lesson, and then she would be at his house until Monday morning. Then I came home and got my errand list ready. I was on my way out the door to accomplish a list of things that would have had me out of the city until well past dinnertime when my sister called. She asked if she could pop by after school so the cousins could play together and I told her Gigi would be at her dad’s. “Why?” she asked, “it’s only Wednesday.”
Holy cow. I had been living the entire day like it was Thursday and had my sister not called; I may have stranded Gigi at school. Of course, they would have called and all would have been well, but I would have been mighty red-faced.
Heh.
I used to live by my dayplanner when I was raising the kids.
Now, I just wing it.
Sure, I miss some stuff, but by and large my life ain’t all that exciting.
You know, since you’re on the computer so much, you might want to take advantage of Google’s calendar feature.
I used it to remind Claude of our ‘date’ at Perilla.