BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Organization From paper calendar to electronic calendar

So, I got rid of the paper calendar and went electronic. It's been great but I feel less organized.

It's harder to look at a day at a time - especially when I'm away from my computer and my phone is a small screen.

But, it's also hard to do anything at a monthly glance. I feel like I used this often on paper - to see where my children were off of school, to see when after school activities ended and/or to see which days were "free" days.

I'm wondering if anyone else survived the transition and how you got on top of everything again.

I just can't get into electronic calendars at all. I need to be able to just glance at my calendar and add something any time, without having to be at the computer or look up said calendar.

We have a calendar hanging in our kitchen that everything goes onto and everyone can look at it to see what's going on.

I think for offices, such as where my husband works, it's nice to have electronic ones. Everybody in his office can add to it, like meetings, when they will be gone, etc, and everyone else has access to it.

I'm a paper calendar my self, mine is hanging in my kitchen right near the phone! convenience for me

oy! back to paper?
I like paper and I like writing... what was I thinking?

I don't think it's one or the other. I keep an online calendar (with outlook) for things to pop up like "trash and bottles tomorrow" or other time related events. It keeps me on track and alerted to upcoming things I have to prepare for.

But I also keep 3 months of calendar hanging right by my desk. That way when I glance at it each morning I know what is coming up for me to prepare for - and if someone calls with an idea to do something, I can glance and see if that day is free.

So they serve two different purposes, and both are important to my overall organization

My outlook calendar feeds into both my cell phone and my PDA (I haven't yet migrated to one of the all inclusive phone/PDA gadgets). It helps me with overall organization as I'm managing calendars for multiple people and paper just can't cope.

The only time I use a paper calendar now is for academic planning purposes. That's it.

You would think I'm computer illiterate because I don't keep an online calendar, but when it comes to daily schedules I have to use the fridge calendar that faces my sink. I'm a very visual person and have be able to write things down and cross them off in front of my face where I spend the most amount of time - my kitchen.

That's interesting, Bob does the cooking here so I'm rarely in my kitchen But the one on my desk serves the same purpose, I'm at my desk all day long!

A paper calendar is great for planning, but an alarm-clock timer is extremely useful too for the "you have to leave in 15 minutes for dinner" sorts of alerts. Paper isn't very good at that

Thunderbird has a new addon - a calendar program. There is a daily view or a monthly view. There is a tasks module.

I use a paper and an electronic calendar. The paper calendar is mostly for my personal appts, meetings, birthdays, etc. I have to keep that one in my purse. The electronic calendar is mostly for work related items - project deadlines, meetings, etc. It has taken me a while to get used to using the electronic one but I like it now.

I've also started making to-do lists and my grocery lists online using the Scott Common Sense site. They have some great tools that are super useful. Does anyone else use this?

When I prepare my grocery list (I haven't checked Scott Common Sense yet) I put the items on my sheet in the order in which the store is laid out. It's a great help as I go around the store so that I don't have to keep checking the list to be sure I have picked up everything.

That's a great idea! It makes it so much easier when you get to the store. The list on scott common sense is similar to that. It groups items by type - produce, breads, deli, dairy, etc. - in most stores they are all laid out together. It's been helpful but actually tends to add items to my list, haha. I see foods on the checklist and think I should add them too. Oh well!

That's probably what they hope will happen. Supermarkets are fascinating the way they are laid out. I have to admit, the only thing that is common to all of them is the outside wall - Produce, meat, dairy. The rest is set up to tantalize us into buying more than we need.

I really am going to try to plan my shopping trips better for August, as part of my frugal living August plan. We'll see if it helps! Right now I just wander aimlessly and grab things.

I used to do out a monthly calendar of our meals (been slacking on it for quite a while now - probably since my gastric bypass).

But I would figure in 2 nights to go out somewhere nice to eat, 2 nights to grab fast food, then literally plan out a menu for every other night.

We didn't have to eat said meal on the night it was written, but I would just mark through the meal on the calendar when we had eaten it.

It not only helped with our budget, but it also help healthwise, too. Because I could see that I had this many meal planned out with chicken, this many with beef, this many meatless, etc. and I could balance it out thats way.

And I also included at least 4 slowcooker meals on there (basically 1 for each week) - for days that I knew I would be running around like nuts, but we would need something nutritious.

Then I could go do my bulk shopping at Sam's, and only need to go to my local grocery about once a week for fresh produce and milk.

I love my slow cooker - don't use it much during the summer but the rest of the year it is a big time saver. I put it on in the morning before I go to work and voila, dinner is just about ready when I get home. All I have to do is add the vegetables. Stews, chicken, barbecue, whatever I can put together. Whenever I get home from work, my DH always asks, "What's for dinner?" and he's generally home. He will remind me about any left overs in the fridge. Sometimes that helps; but he's notorious for putting together some weird meals made up of left overs.

Lisa, I'm with you, I use both an electronic calendar and a paper calendar. I love the conveinience of the reminders and my Outlook task list, but I also love being able to write in my calendar and keep track of events that way. The kitchen calendar is necessary as if it is not dept up to date I always near "You never told me!" That way, I have a back up defense, whether I did or not, if it's on the calendar, they can see it in writing.

Sarah... I'll probably have to bring in the paper again when my children are older. Now, they are all still young enough that they rely on me to tell them when and where (to bring them as well). My oldest is 7.

I was just yearning for my paper calendar again (I last had a Mom Agenda) and then spoke with a friend who told me she was going electronic - it was too hard to have everything in three different places.

I did have one of those magnetic write on/wipe off weekly calendars. I had to take that down when our new fridge was non-magnetic. I tried to invent one that I could carry with me - to no avail.

At work we use electronic calendars but I still need and like to use paper calendars. I used a clio for awhile but I much prefer paper. I did not get a daytimer refill this year yet but I do have a hard back book-calendar that I may use.