I used to be such a calendar junkie. I would fill up my calendar for the entire day with things I wanted to do. It worked great! For a couple of days. Then I would crash and burn and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the week. Not the way to run your life.
David Allen recommends ONLY putting things on the calendar that actually have a time attached to them. Meetings, parties, classes, and the occasional hot date (!) all fit into this category. Grocery shopping, laundry, and brainstorming do not.
Our family has one wall calendar. We all write our appointments on it so that we know where the scheduling conflicts might be. I’m trying to get them to color-coordinate it, but that is probably a pipe dream.
When you are making your daily plan for the next day, be sure to check your calendar first and write down your commitments. You can then decide what you want to do with the rest of your day with what’s left over.
Questions? Comments? Email me at sarahjoy AT todayshomemaker DOT com or drop me a comment. I’d love to hear how you implement the Getting Things Done system into your life.
And thanks to all of the people who have emailed me so far! I really appreciate all of the great feedback. You guys are so full of ideas and inspiration.
Stumble it!
In addition to only putting appointments on my calendar I also use it to track stuff i.e. medications taken (two co-occurring chronic conditions), my weight, pain levels, migraines, extras I did, etc. Then I can go back and skim the pages of my calendar for patterns, etc.