Things that I have that I don’t use:
- Dayplanner
- Palmpilot
- Sunbird
I try so hard to stay organized. I try so hard to schedule things so that I don’t run out of time. But, I just hate doing it. The palmpilot is so, so old. I bought it right after high school. Just starting college and the like, and I thought it would be nifty to stay organized in the most geeky way possible. So, it only lasted a few months, if that.
While I had (and still do have) the palmpilot, I was still way, way too attracted to a paper dayplanner. I don’t know what it is. I just love to write in them. So, at the beginning of last semester, I forked out $20 for one I liked, intending to use it to write down when quizzes/tests/homework was due. That only lasted until September. The moment the teachers got behind schedule, my schedule was wrong. And I stopped using it.
This semester, I downloaded Sunbird, intending to use it to stay on top of things. It only lasted two weeks. It’s missing a basic functionality that I was too lazy to work around. There is no way to assign to-do items to a specific day (as in, make it show up on the calendar as well as in the to-do list.
I realize there is an easy work-around, by making those to-do items an event, but really, I just didn’t care.
But, with the middle of the semester bearing down fast, and multiple essays coming due, I figure I had better give it another chance. After all, I am classically-trained to believe that I have a week longer than I really do to finish things up.
I was talking to N a few weeks ago, during the course of a work day. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s secretary for two of the busiest lawyers at a large law firm here in town, as well as a full-time student over at Sac State (English major, naturally). We were discussing ways to stay organized, because as English majors we tend to have multiple essays due right after one another.
She was telling me how on her new laptop she was using Outlook to create alarms that would pop up when she had two weeks/a week/ two days/ one day left to finish the paper, so that she couldn’t forget when it was due, and she’d remember to do it.
Since I spend so much time on my computer, I realized that it is a genius idea. Sunbird has alarms, so I’m going to try to start using it to remind myself when things are due.
So we’ll see. Besides, I have two weeks until the next round of essays are due… I think.
—I am sure someone really famous said this first, but my uncle says it all the time (and still, I can’t remember what the 7th “p” is supposed to be, as he refers to it as the “Seven Ps.”)
I have OCD…and it gets pretty bad, especially with school stuff, and I am obsessed with looking over my notes to make sure they are neat, so whenever I have an assignment due I wrote it in my notebook. That worked for awhile, until I realized that I didn’t need to take notes in most of my classes. Anyway…I made a spreadsheet and wrote down all of the things I needed to do, and whenever something was do I would schedule the spreadsheet as a scheduled task in windows and the coolest song ever would start playing and open up the spreadsheet to remind me I had things to do…besides fiddle around with my website, which I also am OCD obsessed about…and again…I ramble too much in comments.
I’m kinda like that…. I’m focused until I’m done, but I am a definite procrastinator. I do so much better when I have that deadline hovering over my head, and I know there is no way to avoid it.
yea. even if i have it written down and don’t forget about it i still put it off till the last minute. i once did a 15 page paper in 3 hours. I got an A. granted it was for a philosophy class, which is all bullshit, but I didn’t do any research up till that point either.
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