Old fashioned tickler file drawer
I just had my hip replaced. 2 weeks now.
I had 9 medications pre-prescribed. Plus the three that I already take. Shit.
Basically had to take something every two hours for 4 days. Lovely.
I set up in a spare bedroom, set my pills on the counter top and laid a long piece of wide masking tape in front of each pill bottle. I marked the tape off in days with some room to write what I did when.
I knew I was gonna be a bit out of it.
And I set my phone to go off every two hours. It worked.
Otherwise, I mostly remember recurring stuff. I look to my Wife for the stuff more than a few months away. That’s her gig. It’s nice to drop that off on someone else. I don’t have to worry about it.
I have recurring appointments for physical therapy, orthopedic appointments, and doctor visits and I have to set up door-to-door transportation for them all. If I didn’t keep track of them on my phone, it would be harder to call to set up my transportation. I can multitask on my phone and look at the calendar while I’m on a call with the transit company.
Lists, mostly. (There’s also a paper calendar, but the lists are primary.)
There’s a this-day list, a this-week list, a following-three-weeks list, a long-range list, a set of by-month lists (that last not for appointments, but for things I should be trying to do that time of year.) Things get moved over between lists to produce a new this-week list each week: copy the old one, delete what’s actually done that doesn’t repeat, add as applicable from following-three-weeks removing the top week as I go; add the next week to bottom of following-three-weeks, check and add in as needed from long-range and by-month lists. Yes, I know, this would drive most people crazy. Works for me.
I used to do this on notebook paper. Now I do it on the computer. Not in a spreadsheet, I hate spreadsheets; it’s all in Textedit set to Wrap-to-Window. A magical piece of virtual paper that’s at any given moment as wide as I want it to be and as long as I want it to be. And, unlike my handwriting, it’s legible!
I really don’t have much that’s reoccurring except to pay rent which I get a reminder email and my bills on the 15th. I use a physical day planner and my phone.
The physical day planner is a passion planner so not only is it for day to say activities, it’s for goal setting. I do get a text from my hair stylist every 3 weeks and I sometimes have to move that around.
I use the Google calendar on my desktop + laptop + tablet + phone. It’s great at reminding me of stuff, and the recurrence patterns are very flexible. The annoying part is that I can’t integrate that with the office, where all the appointments, meetings, etc. are in the corporate Exchange / Outlook ecosystem which I can only view on my work laptop.
There are recurring tasks that don’t fit into a “every N weeks” pattern, they’re more of a “it’s been a while since I did this” pattern. For instance, adding salt in the water softener, or… shaving my chest :o. For these, I use a little application called Sciral Consistency. You tell it how many days should elapse between occurrences, and you tell it when you do it, and it shows you visually which of those tasks you should be looking into. It’s a little cumbersome because it only runs on the Windows desktop, no mobile or cloud components, and it’s separate from all my Google stuff.
Ooooo… very interesting… 
I use Google Calendar for non-regular things. But for regular things, a calendar isn’t necessary. When the trash is full, I take it out. When the grass looks tall, I mow it. When the bushes look wild, I trim them. When the dog gets too hairy, I give him a cut. These aren’t things I schedule. For things like appointments and meetings and stuff, I definitely need something to remember all that, though. I keep my Google Calendar synced to all my devices. Work uses Outlook, but I normally just transfer the pertinent things to my Google calendar and ignore the rest.
Like a couple of others, I use a regular paper calendar, only I put mine right beside my front door, and since I go out of it numerous times a day, it’s almost impossible for me to miss anything of what I have scheduled. I’ve been doing this over ten years, it’s something I learned from my mom, only she had her calendar in the kitchen.
LOL, I’m 47. I doubt I’m going to have MORE stuff to remember as I get older.
My parents are in their 80s and depending on what’s going on with their health issues, there may be multiple physician, physical therapy and other such appointments each week, along with people visiting the house, like plumbers, electricians and so forth. So yes, it can get more complicated as you get older.
The problem isn’t how much you have to remember as you age, it’s your ability to do so. You’re likely approaching a mighty steep dropoff in that ability.
Great! Less stuff for me to be worried about then!
Wait, what were we talking about?
Under this keyboard is a monthly planner calendar. Since I started using them say 20 years back I have not forgotten or missed anything (from drug refills to events) since college. I got 2020 and entered in the basics back in September.
You’re asking me?
Doctors and the like give reminder calls. Otherwise I’m not seeing them more than once. Pretty much everything else I just keep in a simple text file with additional info like phone numbers and the like. That gives me both the upcoming appointments and a history. When I was working I kept everything in my calendar which was on the network but my personal matters aren’t complicated enough to get involved with that.
Google Calendar at work.
Magnetic Paper calendar on the fridge. We don’t have that many personal appointments to remember.
Google Calendar at work.
Magnetic Paper calendar on the fridge. We don’t have that many personal appointments to remember.
I am highly reliant on digital technology for most things, to the point where I use my computer to generate a large paper calendar that covers about 15 weeks at a time. The calendar goes on the fridge and every morning I move a little round magnet to land on the current day, which reminds me if necessary of that day’s tasks/meetings. I write most things in pencil so I can make changes easily (my schedule changes a lot).
For recurring tasks like giving flea medicine or cleaning the cat’s water fountain, I write one reminder forward on the calendar. Since it doesn’t really matter if the cats get their medicine after 28 or 30 days, or if I clean the fountain after 15 days instead of 14, I don’t always do the chore on the reminder day, but sometimes a day or two later. As soon as the task is completed, I draw a little square around it to remind myself I did it, then count forward from the current day however many days til the next treatment/cleaning/whatever is due.
I find that the physical acts of printing and taping the calendar together, writing on it, erasing stuff, moving the little magnet, etc. are great aids to memory and to keeping me oriented. I also like having several months in view at a time - just seeing “oh, it’s already been two weeks since my houseguest left” helps me stay anchored. Otherwise, the irregular nature of my schedule might cause me to drift a little.
Hmmmm… :dubious: