A Simple Plan

With all the wonderful gadgets we have available to us, it is easy to get lost in today's technology.  I have experienced the mind-numbing addiction of staring at the computer screen for hours on end.  I try to limit my computer, phone and other related gadget time so that I don't miss out on life.  Gadgets also eat up precious creative and productive time.

Then I felt the need to return to a more detailed planner for the coming year, 2012, but could not find one on the market that would work for me and was within my budget.  I tried designing my own, but felt like I was re-inventing the wheel.  Before I proceeded to invest large amounts of time in this project, I decided to see what I had in my computer.

I have not previously used computerized planning systems because
(a) it is not convenient to carry the computer around with me and
(b) printing out daily, weekly and monthly schedules, and reprinting with changes and updates, uses an enormous amount of paper, which is also not convenient to carry around and
(c) computers crash and lose information.

Fortunately, I found that there is a calendar on my ipod which will sync with a calendar on my computer.  The ipod is very convenient to carry around.  I now have a backup drive to store my programs, so there are 3 locations for my information to be stored.  I can also print out copies of my schedule, although I will probably just do this for the end-of-year archives, if this all turns out to work the way I hope it will.

For my weekly to-do's I am using the notepad on my ipod, which I can email to myself if I want to print out a list (my ipod does not sync with my current printers).  Right now, I am just filing the emailed copies in case the ipod crashes.

Although it has taken me 3 solid days of my Christmas break to input everything and learn how to use this system so that it will make my life easier, it seems to be working so far.  As long as everything is backed up where it can be retrieved and printed out if necessary, I should be fine.  If nothing else, I can make a printout and go back to the pencil and paper style.

It's getting so complicated to keep it simple.