3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Not Letting the Important Stuff Fall Through the Cracks

I was in the shower yesterday morning when it occurred to me that it would have been nice to send my dad a St. Patrick’s Day card. Since I had this thought on St. Patrick’s Day, it was clearly too late to do anything about my wonderful idea. Add to this the fact that last month, I missed my sister’s birthday because I quite literally did not know what day it was, and that I very nearly missed my writers' group meeting this month, and I'm beginning to see a pattern emerge. 

And it isn't pretty.

I could blame these things on the pandemic but, the truth is that slowly, over time, some of the things I used to be really good at I’ve become not-so-good at. I was dismissing these things as anomalies but my sister‘s birthday was my wake-up call. I’ve written before about losing things in the flip of the calendar page, but the terrible feeling that accompanied being a day late for an important occasion triggered me to start thinking about making a change.

When it comes to organization, stuff management is only part of the battle. Managing our time so that we make room in our lives for all the important things also matters. Here are three steps I'm planning to take to make sure I've got a better handle on key dates.

Do the prep work. I used to sit down every year and dutifully write all the birthdays into my calendar but, somewhere along the way (probably once Facebook started reminding me of people's birthdays), I stopped doing that. Initially, it wasn't a problem because my youthful brain (and the occasional nudge from my mother) meant that I didn't miss any important occasions. In the absence of both of these, however, I need to go back to the habit that worked so well.

Stay true to style. For some, it's a birthday book that lists all the important dates; for others, a big, family calendar in the kitchen that lists everything. For me, the best place for reminders is my personal planner, which I check on a weekly basis in order to create a weekly cheat sheet. If it's in the planner, it makes the cheat sheet. If it's not, it's a crap shoot.

Build in a reminder. I've decided I also need to scan each month for "cardworthy occasions" and make a note of them. That way, I'm prepared for not only the day-of e-mail, phone call and/or Facebook post, but I also have a card in hand and in the mail on time. Right now, in light of my recent brain blips, that seems like a tall order, but taking a moment to make that list and check it each week will, I hope, send me in the right direction.

I can’t salvage this year, no matter how much I want to, but I can salvage next year and maybe even next week, especially if I build the steps I need to take into my existing systems. So today, I'll put my calendar in a place where I can see it so I can make time tonight to put some important names into their respective calendar squares. 

It's a process, and there's still plenty of time for me to finish the year more thoughtfully than I started it.