Today I thought I'd tell you about a brainwave that I had last night. Instead of doing the ironing, I "FILOFAXED"!!! (Is that a naughty word? Am I in trouble? *sulks off slowly to the naughty step*)
A small wave of panic washed over me last night as I remembered that I have an awful lot of birthdays from September to December that I need to buy cards and presents for (29 to be exact!). Thus far, I've dealt with this by putting them all on my year planner. This helps me to keep my 'week on one page with notes' (planning ahead) diary up-to-date and serves as a perpetual calendar. I also use my year planner for important deadlines (ie: car tax, MOT, insurance fa la la), when I'm on call and for noting down when the school holidays are.
The problem is, I only use my year planner to help me fill in my 'week plus notes' diary and I forget to look at it at any other time! I write the birthdays in my main diary, but I only come across the reminder that I need to deal with a birthday about a week or two beforehand, which is fine really. But when I have so many birthdays to deal with, I also want to see a list of them at a glance (and that I'd look at regularly), so I can keep an eye out for a present or card well in advance and keep my eye on the bigger picture.
So the birthday ruler was born! And here it is:
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| Double-page spread showing my new birthday ruler |
I use a black ruler/page marker for my 'day per page' diary.
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| Front of ruler with months January to July. |
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| Reverse of ruler with months August to December, including a marker arrow to draw my attention to the next birthday on my list! |
It's nothing fancy - I just typed up a list of all the birthdays/anniversaries I have on my year planner, split them roughly in half, decreased the font size, printed them off, cut them out and stuck them on my ruler with sellotape It didn't take long at all! I'm actually considering making another one for the clear ruler I use for my 'week plus notes' diary. This would have all my important deadlines on it.
I like to be able to see the big picture when it comes to everything I have to do. The months from September to December are soooo busy with deadlines, birthdays and Christmas that whilst I don't want to frighten myself, I need to remind myself that I must remain organised and get everything sorted that needs to be sorted. This birthday ruler helps me plan ahead a little more, rather than just fire-fighting as and when birthdays arise.
How do you deal with important (perpetual) reminders and birthdays? Do you use a year planner like me, or have you got another method that works really well for you? Do tell!
Thanks for reading!
Lucy x
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Great idea Lucy, i just have mine in my diary annd put them on my to-do list to buy cards/presents etc, may give it a go thanks for the idea :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy to share! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteIf I don't keep things in my line of sight, I forget them, even though they may be elsewhere in my FF. I might borrow this idea if I may?
Yes I agree Cloudberry, out of sight out of mind and all that! Glad you like my idea; go ahead and borrow away!!!
ReplyDeleteI have a page of the months birthdays in the first week of each month, once i've looked at it that week i tend to forget and rely on facebook to tell me on the day (I only do presents for our families and i know the dates of all of them anyway)
ReplyDeleteI also have a birthday list on notonthehighstreet.com so i get monthly emails (and i can add things to a birthday instead of to my own wish list if i see things for people... genius)
Hi Clare! Thanks for reading.
DeleteI've not heard of that website. I'll have to check it out; it sounds really good!
That is such a good idea - currently I have a sheet for each month (which I usually forget to look at), so it doesn´t work that well really. Thankfully most of the birthdays that I need to remember are in my head so I don´t do too badly. I remember Christmas... :o)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it LJ! I just find that the birthdays on my year planner are 'out of sight, out of mind'. This way I'll see them all the time and not forget who I've got to get cards and presents for!
DeleteI love that! I'm terrible at remembering birthdays and this is a great idea. I use my page marker as a color guide for the families going ons. Like my eldests color is green and mine is pink. Helps me see who's who in my filo. But I really might do this for the otherwise of my ruler.
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth! I'm actually thinking about possibly making my own larger version of a page marker/ruler and putting boxes on that I can tick for 'card' and 'present' when I've got them sorted. Like a birthday ruler checklist. Whether I'll get round to making one is another story!
DeleteIt's a great idea Lucy, often the greatest ideas come at all times, looks like it works very well, good on you. At the begining of each year I write down birthdays etc on the appropriate day in the month(s) So when an anniversary is due it's right there and hard to forget or over look.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anthony! All mine are written on my year planner but I forget to look at it! Using this birthday ruler means I look at it every time I open my Filo!
DeleteGenius idea! I may have to steal that one.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alison! Steal away!
DeleteGood idea! Another one to steal and adapt.... I might print out and laminate a tick list of birthdays/events to use as a day marker.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes I was thinking of doing something similar, but I'm not very creative or patient so this will have to do for now lol!
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ReplyDeleteYou definitely need to use a lot of tools, such as pliers. . . There are various tools you need.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eozy.com/tools