I want you to think for just a minute about what you would do if you lost all your phone numbers in your phone; then add with that your schedule for the next year. This is what happened to many people last week who thought their information was safely stored on some server out there in the world someplace. I don’t know about you, but I feel myself getting sick to my stomach right about now!
I know that it is not the end of the world, but it sure would feel like it if I lost my datebook, phone numbers and contact information. Do you have a routine for routinely backing up all your information in your phone or in your computer?
A few years ago, I was a keynote speaker on the same agenda with Dr. Steven Covey. He called me to his dressing room and asked me, “What exactly do you do?”
I told him that one of the things I do is teach people how to use a calendar, and once they graduate from me that they could understand his calendar system.
Calendars are funny things! If you don’t look at them, they will not tell you what you need to do. Now, don’t start making excuses that you have a great digital calendar. I have one of those, too, but my main calendar is the old-fashioned paper one that hangs on the wall in my bathroom. In fact, we have two paper ones and two digital ones for my schedule.
Let me tell you why I have my calendar in my bathroom. It is the first thing I do every morning. I start my day there. The first thing I do each morning is the first thing everyone does when they first get up – go potty. After I take care of business, I step onto my scale. That is when I post my weight to my calendar. Do you see what I have done? I have piggybacked a habit that we already have with a habit I was trying to establish. I did this five years ago when Leanne and I were writing our book, Body Clutter.
I used to use only a digital calendar called a Digital Diary, but being a Sidetracked person, I would forget to put batteries in it. Then I upgraded to a Palm Pilot and then a Palm Treo phone. That worked well for me because all my information was on my computer, too. That way if I lost it, if it got stolen or it broke, I had my important information backed up! Well, that worked fine ’til I booked myself for an early-morning live radio interview and missed it because I had checked my calendar.
This is when I started using my bathroom calendar for everything! On interview days I would write in RED so that it would get my attention. When I would book an event, I would immediately post it to my bathroom calendar and then e-mail Michele and Nikki to put it on their calendars. Nikki uses a digital one that is on a server someplace, and Michele uses a paper one that goes in her purse. Then I post it on my Palm Treo calendar on my computer.
We have a routine that twice a week – we sync our calendars. On Monday, when we have our weekly telephone conference with the crew, and on Friday, to remind me what we are up to next week. Robert has even gotten into our calendar sync since he missed a doctor’s appointment that was on only his calendar. Now it is on mine and Michele’s calendar.
Do you have your calendar backed up? Do you have a printed out list or even a handwritten list of your phone numbers and addresses? Are all your eggs in one basket? Mine aren’t, but I had to learn the hard way!
For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out Marla Cilley’s website and join her free mentoring group at www.FlyLady.net, listen to her www.blogtalkradio.com/flylady show, or read her books, Sink Reflections, published by Bantam, and her New York Times bestselling book, Body Clutter, published by Fireside. Copyright 2009 Marla Cilley. Used by permission in this publication.
Share
Contributors
