Comment by SweetSoftPillow 4 days ago
I never use a calendar; most days, I don't even know what day it is. So, your approach is very interesting to me. Could you please tell me more about what your day looks like on the calendar? How detailed is it, and do you do this even on holidays?
In my case: I don’t have that many TODOs. For instance, I clean home twice per week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Don’t need to write it down anywhere. I have perhaps 2 or 3 doctor appointments per year (and they are usually within a few weeks in advance, so easy to remember). I don’t have kids (this one could be the game changer, I admit).
Work-wise: sure, I have everything in the work calendar. But i have separate laptops for work and personal life. I never mix them.
If we want to go out for dinner, we just go. Cinema? We just go as well. No appointments. I do exercise at home. We usually travel around 2 times per year (again, not easy to miss)
My wife is 35 weeks pregnant and I go with her to all her OB appts. If we didn't put it on a shared calendar, someone is gonna miss it (though to be honest it'd probably be me, which isn't the end of the world).
We almost never schedule dinners, but we buy cinema tickets ahead of time (or concert tickets, or whatever event). Those ones are hard to remember because the show may be at 6 but doors open at 5 so lots of stuff needs to be coordinated.
It's simple, I don't have things like that that I need to do on any sort of daily basis.
I have a work calendar for work meetings, but never saw a need for personal calendar.
OK sure I put doctor and dentist on my personal calendar, but dentist is 2x a year and doctor is like once a year for a physical. On my personal calendar I might have a dozen things put on it for the whole year. Some upcoming family event, some wedding, etc.
My dentist and doctor schedule the next appointment during my appointment. So if I had my annual physical appointment tomorrow, my next appointment would be 8/23/2026 which I definitely would not remember, even if they gave me an appointment card. If I'm lucky they'll call me to remind me a few days before, but having it on my calendar ensures that I don't schedule a meeting (or travel!) during that time.
not OP, but the only way for me and my 3 kids (2 high school, 1 junior high) to keep everything straight between appointments, sporting events and practice, work schedules (2 kids have jobs) is to use a shared calendar. We learned early a few things, like 1. don't get cute and put padding because you are worried about being late, it messes with other people 2) don't put reminders, they confuse people 3. if it isnt in the calendar, it isnt happening
We used our calendar for a recent road trip to keep everything sorted. Even on vacations, if you are doing more than chilling at a campsite, it can be very useful for the same reasons.
I think you're reading more into this than I meant. For example, today:
I cannot imagine how people operate without a calendar. How would you remember a half dozen or dozen things, every day, some of which might have been scheduled weeks or months in advance?