Calendar Addiction

I used to think I simply had a penchant for calendars. Now I realize it’s an addiction.

Let me explain.

Currently, I keep a calendar on my computer (iCal), on my ipod touch (synced with iCal), and on my blackberry (also synced with iCal). I also have two magnetic weekly dry erase calendars on my fridge—the current week on the refrigerator door, the following week on the side, which are updated by hand from my iCal. All of these calendars are color-coded by family member.

But that isn’t all. Beside my chair in the corner of the living room sits my weekly, spiral-bound paper calendar. This isn’t color coded, but it is manually synced (i.e. written) with my computer calendar and the fridge calendar. It also functions as my “to do” list. Next to it is another small spiral bound blank book in which I designate one page per week to record my specific writing goals/tasks for that time period. Oh—and the monthly wall calendar in my laundry room marked with family birthdays. (This year’s calendar is compliments of Aunt Sheri, complete with the birthdays already marked!)

So you’d think that would be enough. I mean, how many calendars does one person (family) need? But last night as I was lying in bed and trying to figure out what writing I needed to get done this summer, I realized I needed a way to see this on a calendar. But I didn’t want to clutter up my other calendars. (I hate cluttered calendars!) And then I realized I already had the perfect solution!

On my iCal, I have a “family” calendar, which includes each person in my family with a different color code. I can view the calendar with the entire family or just check the box next to one person and view only their events. So I realized all I had to do was create a new calendar group for writing and color code my different kinds of tasks—blogging, drafting and revisions, editing for others, etc. On a normal day, these remain hidden by unchecking the writing box. But when I need to see and schedule things for writing, I simply click that calendar, unclick the family calendar and wa-la! All my writing “to dos” pop up on my computer (and my ipod!), categorized. When I finish a task for the week, I simply delete it!

At that moment, I realized my calendar addiction. I mean, how many people sit around thinking about their calendars—and get excited over discovering more ways to make them work!

My name is D’Ann Mateer, and I’m addicted to calendars.