I have a busy life.
First there is my day job as a software developer and team lead.
Then there is my family: one beautiful wife, four crazy kids, plenty of extended family in town and beyond. Besides hanging out with them, there are also sports, piano lessons, ballet, choir concerts, recitals, boy scouts and cub scouts, and all kinds of one-off events to coordinate. Not to mention the landscaping projects my wife ropes me into.
Added to that, I’ve made habits of:
Lifting at the gym,
Building with Minecraft,
Reading great books – I just finished The Brothers Karamazov,
Exploring new hobbies – Improv Comedy and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the last year,
Working on Cue,
And
Writing these emails.
It’s a lot.
And I don’t use a calendar.
Why not?
Well, it doesn’t solve a unique problem. It’s just an attempt to make sure I don’t forget appointments. I have a tickler file + daily planning for that.
It’s extra work to manage. Entering appointments into a calendar always requires the day and time, and it takes multiple steps and decisions to get that entered in. Adding something to my tickler file will include that information, but it’s just a text reminder, so I can write:
“Dentist appt Nov 3 at 5”
Then stick it in the November tickler. No more work. No fussing with appointment duration, time zones, etc. When I enter it in, it’s easy to scan Novembers ticklers and see that there isn’t a conflict, just like I would with a calendar.
Calendars make it too easy to forget things – until it’s too late. With the tickler above, when I get to November, I move it to the right weekly tickler (1st week), and when I plan the week, it goes to the right day. With a calendar, I just have my phone notification pop up 15 minutes before I need to be there.
The beauty of a tickler based on natural cycles is that I get these regular reminders – at the start of the month, start of the week, and then the day before – just because I’m going through the tickler.
By the time November 3rd comes along, the dentist appointment is firmly planted in my head.
Calendar notifications are just one more annoyance. When you have a well ordered mind that comes from daily planning, having your phone beep at you for an appointment that you’re already getting ready for is annoying.
So, if there are all these reasons not to use a calendar, why should you?
In what circumstances are they helpful?
I would say they can be helpful when working with others on a team. For example, I do use a work calendar in a limited way. It has the few regular meetings that our team is a part of, and I’ll put placeholders on it when I have personal matters to take care of during the workday.
That lets others on my team know when I’m available in case they need to invite me to a meeting.
Sharing a calendar with a spouse or partner could have a similar benefit, if you both agree on when it’s OK to add items to it.
What about you? Why do you use a calendar?