My Non-Smartphone Calendar

“Don't say you don't have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” 

~  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Ending with that quote I had given a ‘time management’ presentation to my class back in university.  I have always been the organized kind of person, having my daily to-do lists, planning my day and the week; it’s a different question whether I finally get everything done or not.  But I liked having a schedule, however tentative it may be.  And if I didn’t find a certain kind of organizer, diary, or calendar of my choice – I made it.  I actually do that with anything – when I don’t find what I want, I make it if I can.  My calendar is one of them.

(a picture from Sept 2009)

This is the kind of calendar I used to have in my room back home, on the wall near the dressing table (since that’s where I spent most of my time!) – scribbled with special occasions, exam dates, project deadlines, and sometimes worked as my personal diary where I would just walk past and quickly write in the box when I remembered something for the day.  When each day ended, I would make a big inclined ‘Z’ on its box.  The ‘Z’ doesn’t mean anything – I just liked it more than making a big ‘X’.  Ever since I started doing this in the year 2006, I stored all the ‘months’ (A4 sheets) of each year.

To me, they were just the right size and shape, lightweight, didn’t need to be pinned on wall, no huge pictures or prints, and ample space to write important stuff.  All I had to do was make a sample template and plenty photocopies.  On the back of recycled papers, mind you, I do believe in the 3 R’s.  To that you say, why not use a Smartphone, tablet PC, whiteboard, sticky notes on laptop, or organizer in e-mail instead, girl?!  Well, my style works best for me.  Call me old-fashioned.

(here, pencil is better than pen, you know why?)

So, continuing to put up the calendars after my marriage, their location has now shifted to the kitchen instead of dressing room, the exams & projects have been replaced by dinner invites, and the personal diary part mostly contains the happy times or fights with my hubby.  I did the latter with the intention that if he walks past and reads and sees the sad faces I made in the boxes, he’ll probably feel guilty and be nice.  After a few months I realized this doesn’t work and am still looking for another trick.

Apart from all that, this month onward I’m going to use these calendars on the refrigerator to also plan my meals.  Menu-planning was an unheard task back home, because my mom used to cook whatever we demanded for the day.  But ever since I started cooking after marriage, I either wasted a lot of time searching what to cook, or I wasted a lot of vegetables and fruits that rotted while I was still searching what to cook.  Using this calendar to plan menu for the week, I’m hoping our grocery shopping will be better planned, with lesser wastage, and help me make variety of dishes than settling for dal & rice or stuffed parathas when I can’t think of anything else.

And may be this month on I’ll start making sad faces on it again, especially writing “he’s not buying me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer :( :( ” all over – who knows when miracles may happen.

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Tell me how you organize/plan/schedule/manage your time/day/week/month ... as well as meals?

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