jrj102 said:
randystokes said:
I live by my Palm, but my wife is practically hostile to the idea of using one (and I have an "extra" Palm Vx she could have for free -- it's not like we have to go out and buy anything new). She swears by the big paper calendar hanging inside the pantry door in the kitchen -- in her view, if it's not on that calendar, it's not happening (and if it IS on that calendar, it's my fault for not checking!).
Well, it sounds to me like the calendar hanging inside the pantry door is an "inbox" for you-- to be processed just like the tray on your desk. Each day, I would check to see if there is anything new in the next 7-14 days, and make sure that it is on my PDA. This would probably take about 30 seconds to a minute each day or 2, and would make the spousal unit happier... seems like a no-brainer.
You can't force people to use a PDA or a computer for things. This is something I have had trouble coming to grips with myself-- I am a very tech-savvy user. (Indeed, I write software for a living.) Learning that I can't expect everyone to use the same tools that I do, even though it would be easier for everyone involved, has made my relationships with employees, collegues, and yes, even my wife, better.
--- JRJ
All very helpful thoughts. Here's how I've started trying to implement some of the suggestions. I do my weekly reviews on Friday afternoons from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. Last night, to have my ducks in a row for the weekly review today, I got out my notebook computer, put it on the dining room table and fired it up. I took my wife's paper calendar (actually two of them now, because we've got the 2002 AND 2003 calendars hanging in the pantry right now) and sat down with them and the Palm Desktop software and went through to make sure everything on the paper calendars was on my Palm Desktop calendar, and to make sure I'd entered on the paper calendars (for my wife's benefit) anything from my Palm calendar she needs to know about.
It so happens that last night my wife was also at the dining room table helping my 11-year-old son finish up some homework, so it provided an opportunity to do a little catching up on things with my wife. I could review my calendar and lists and say "Oh, did you reschedule X," or "Do you want to do Y? How about Saturday?" So it provided me with a chance to do a little pre-review planning with my wife, to go over our respective lists (though many of her lists are still in her head!), etc.
So, it accomplished the results I needed, helped me get ducks in a row for my weekly review, and provided some quality, low stress planning and discussion time for me and my wife (and our son, who chimed in as well). Even my 15-year-old daughter, who was in another room working on her computer on school stuff, heard what we were doing and came out to add some things to our calendars and discuss a project she and a couple of other kids at school are doing together (and which is now going to be done at our house). Advanced the balls on a lot of fronts.
So it looks like Thursday evening will provide a good opportunity for reviewing my wife's calendar with her, adding things to my Palm Desktop calendar and to her paper calendar, and just getting some of our family ducks in a row. I'll then have all that information to consider in my Friday afternoon weekly reviews. So, our systems may differ, but this may be a way to get them to work together productively. (I've suggested to my wife I would help her set up a paper-based planner/organizer using David's suggestions, but she's declined so far . . .)