With a little early intervention, this could be the year we all remember everybody’s birthday, get first dibs on early-morning chiropractor appointments, cash in our frequent-flier points before they expire and drag discards out to the curb in time for the bulk trash pickup.
In these overscheduled, multi-tasking times, staying ahead of the curve is a daily challenge. But spending a little time in January to plot the events we know are coming up can make every other month much easier to navigate.
How to begin?
This weekend is a good time to gather the family around the kitchen table and talk about what’s coming up. Ask everyone over the age of 12 to bring their calendars, Filofaxes, Palm Pilots and school schedules.
– Make a master schedule of dates that are fixed in the future: first and last days of school, scout camp, family reunions, any business travel you know about, vacation weeks. Calendars from previous years can help you remember events you might forget.
– Figure out when appointments are due for dental checkups, eye exams, dermatological visits. Don’t forget distemper shots for Fluffy. And throw in the 50,000-mile checkup for your car. Call in the next couple of weeks to set up these appointments.
– Jot down birthdays of family and friends on your calendar. The more organized might even buy all the cards for the year and address and stamp them.
– Mark the calendar for spring window washing, seasonal gutter cleaning, bulb planting, etc. Jot down reminders about carpet shampooing and painting needs too.
– Resolve to keep tabs on paperwork: health insurance forms, subscription renewals, car registration, bank statements, frequent-flier points. (Keep a file box of airline statements and your ticket and baggage claims so once or twice a year you can match them up and make sure you’ve been credited for everything due you. The airlines make plenty of mistakes.)
– If there are cultural or sporting events you know you want to attend, call now for schedules and find out when tickets go on sale, and mark these dates on your calendar.
– Think ahead to those predictably stressful times of year, and do what you can in advance. Supplies for the beach house can be picked up in April. School uniforms for next fall can be ordered in June.
– And as for next Christmas, go ahead and pick up wrapping paper and tree lights this weekend; anything left is probably 75 percent off. And if you get boxes of cards now on clearance, you can mark your calendar to begin addressing them in early November.
Yeah, right.
