Calendars and Lists

I feel like I am emerging from a cocoon, but not as a butterfly, more like a moth. Self sheltering, actually hiding, from Covid-19 for the past year because of age and health vulnerabilities, has been emotionally exhausting, particularly in the surrealistic world of the last four years.

But with the emotional freedom accompanying two shots of vaccine, I feel that I am now swimming in relatively safe waters, and can return to relative normalcy.

Normalcy to me includes using both digital tools and lists and calendars on which I rely to keep my life organized. It works for me. Perhaps you will find something that will work for you.

Each year in late December I procure a calendar displaying a month at a time with each day being a square in which I can write notes. Using last year's calendar as a source, I enter recurring events from last year on this year's calendar. Birthdays, reminders to change furnace filters quarterly, future medical appointments, anniversaries, major bill due dates, contract renewal dates, all are transferred to the new calendar.

The calendar is looked at daily and as each day passes, that day is X’d out. As new future events are known they are added to the calendar.

To supplement the calendar, I also keep a running list of major purchases with dates of purchase, cost, and length of warranty. For instance it tells me the laptop I am using is now a year old, is out of warranty, and that my desktop computer, which I still think of as new, is actually 11 years old. It shows that I got my flu shot In November 2020, so in November 2021 when I get my next flu shot, I will note that on my list.

As things become irrelevant, like when I sold my old tablet, I strike that item off the list. Every few years when that list gets too messy with strikeouts and new entries, I simply create a new list and transfer all the important entries to the new list.

And like most people I also have a digital calendar shared to my tablet and to my phone, which I find occasionally useful. But I feel I have a better grasp on things when I have a paper calendar or list in front of me that I can scribble on.

I do, however, find the checkbook app on my tablet to be far superior to the checkbooks of old which came with each new purchase of blank checks. It handles multiple accounts at a time, allows easy movement of data between checking and savings accounts, and allows for sorting of entries. That and easy online access to accounts provides all the information needed.

In fact, all payments to credit cards, utilities, and others are set up as automatic payments and I almost never have the need to write a check anymore. Whenever possible I pay utilities and cable automatically by credit cards who give rewards, and then have the credit card paid automatically by the bank. It is nice to have your credit card tell you every few months that you have one or two hundred dollars in reward money accrued.

A final digital hack is TurboTax, especially relevant at the moment. It is not free, but discounts are available at Costco and other places, and it is especially useful for people with multiple interest or dividend accounts. TurboTax can access those accounts and get the needed data for your tax returns without you having to do more than provide TurboTax with the digital addresses.

A word of caution, though. They offer to let you pay for their service by taking it out of your tax refund. Don’t do it. They charge you $35 for that action. Opting to pay their fees with your credit card will not incur a charge.