The Calendar

We are a month into the new year. By now almost everyone has replaced last year's calendars with new ones for 2010. When I was young I learned an important trick from my mother. We always make an effort to have a calendar with big squares that can be written on. In our family it is referred to as "the calendar." If anyone has an important engagement or appointment it needs to be written on the appropriate date, along with the time. If you do this it can make organizing your life much easier.

For this to work well you need to have some ground rules. I know that many people write their engagements in their day planner, computer, or cell phone. That doesn't help the rest of the family since they can't see those things. If you write something on a blank square of the calendar, you have first dibs on that date. If someone wants to schedule something on top of your date, they need to let you know. The two things may not conflict. If they do, at least you have a chance to figure out which event is more important. When someone asks if your spouse or children will be home over the weekend, you can check to see what is written on the calendar. If someone asks about you, they can check there too so be sure to write things down.

Scheduling current plans is only part of the jobs of "the calendar." I use it to keep track of what month or date certain things need to be accomplished. For instance to eliminate grubs in our yard, we use "Step 3" at the very end of June. On the bottom of the page in the daily spaces that remains empty for June I have written "Use Step 3". If one of our vehicles needs to be inspected in a certain month, I have written that on the empty daily spaces at the top of the calendar. On the appropriate months I have written when annual visits to the veterinarian, optometrist, dentist and so forth, should be scheduled, so that I can call and get an appointment before the end of the month. That way we don't miss out on anything important.

While that is quite a lot for a calendar to handle, our calendar does one more thing. Every year between Christmas and New Years, I transfer birthdays and anniversaries from the old calendar to the new calendar. I check to be sure that I have the right date with the list in my address book and I also put them on the calendar in my purse. But it is the kitchen calendar that I check. I used to just put the names on the appropriate square, but now I also put the year of the person's birth too. That is especially important on the calendar in my purse. I have stood in card stores trying to figure out if it would be appropriate to buy the card for a ten year old, or an eleven year old. At those ages, it can be quite insulting to get a card for the wrong age. I have of course graduated to receiving cards for those who are 29 again...and again.

While you might think that this has covered the important dates for you, there are a few more suggestions that make this technique work efficiently. Years ago we discovered much to our chagrin, that my mother's best friend had her birthday on the 1st of the month. I still remember her birthday because of that mistake. So if someone is born in the first few days of a month, write a brief note on the bottom of the previous month. If you need to send a card to that person, how far away they live, might determine if they get a note on the previous page.

There is another lesson that I have learned the hard way about the calendar. If you look at the birthdays and see a birthday a couple of weeks away, address the card now. Twice last year, I missed sending birthday cards or taking cakes for people that I really didn't want to miss. I kept thinking that I had two weeks before I needed to mail the card and I didn't want it to get there too soon. I know better now. You can profit from my mistake.

The last thing you can do is to write birthdays on your pocket calendar when you hear them. If you check it as well as the address book when you are writing dates on the calendar in December you will have a list of everyone's birthday within a year or two. This will make people think you are very thoughtful. No one likes for their birthday to be forgotten. Not even me.