Double Date
I keep a hand written paper calendar. Yes, I have one on my computer, and yes, I have used electronic calendars in past jobs. But the benefit of my hand written paper calendar is that I don’t have to wait for it to load, or make sure it is in sync with all my computers and phones.
Plus with the job I have, scheduling guests and interviews, there are a lot of changes…so a trusty No. 2 pencil with a good eraser is never far away.
I just go to a dollar store and pick up a couple of month-at-a-glance calendars for shows such as Iowa Almanac and the Iowa Business Report…to keep sponsors and topics straight. And I have a more detailed appointment book broken down by quarter hour, a week at a time, for things here at KXEL.
Again, it works for me. Except for a couple of weeks in December each year—the time when you have to carry both the 2024 and 2025 calendars with you, because you are straddling two years and have to go back and forth.
Today’s the last day of that…since the 2025 calendars start with next week. But that shiny new calendar is important to see in a variety of ways.
For example, it’s a fresh start. You can pledge to write more legibly this year—that seems to be a yearly goal, but I did do better in 2024. The blank pages are full of possibilities, of opportunities, of the whole year laid out in front of you. You see it and realize that it is truly up to you from here to fill in those blank squares, to create your own story for the year.
Sort of like a brand new diary or journal. Endless directions in which you can take things, no boundaries on creativity.
Granted, after a few smudged entries or twists and turns that aren’t your fault, the newness wears off pretty fast.
But better to start that way than not. And a small sense of letting go of the past, once those 2024 calendars go into the file later tonight.
