Organization Tips for Your Calendar

Calendar Organization Tips

In the early years of my child’s Autism diagnosis, I was so busy rushing around the city of Boston. I was taking her to evaluations from therapists, neurologists, allergists, neuropsychologists and a bunch of other “….ists” that I stopped and wondered, “When was the last time I went to the doctor for a checkup?” I had to look in my calendar to search for the last time, only to find that I was way overdue to see my own doctor. So many parents of children with special needs put themselves on the back burner because the child is front and center.

You are all well aware of the importance of keeping medical appointments for the children, how do you keep them for yourself? Since those early days, I make yearly checkups with my doctor each August. I have a reminder in my electronic calendar that pops up and screams “MAKE APPOINTMENT WITH DOCTOR FOR CHECKUP” and it keeps popping up on my calendar until the date is set. When the appointment is made, I check myself “out” on the calendar for the entire day so nothing else can be scheduled. If you use a paper calendar, purchase extra bright colored stickies and slap it onto the calendar as a reminder until it is done!

 Schedule Yearly Checkups

Seeing your doctor yearly for a checkup will keep you healthy. But, you are responsible for your family’s health each day. That starts with cooking healthy meals. How does one make a healthy fast meal and tend to the needs of the family? I prepare dinner at the oddest hours – 5:00 in the morning, noon or 9:00 at night. I look at my calendar for the day and schedule it in so we do not end up ordering pizza (Friday nights are pizza nights only). Google searches for quick healthy recipes are fantastic! I print out family favorites and pop them into a binder that I leave in the cabinet. As I am waiting for my child at speech, OT, PT (….you get it), I read recipes from the pile of magazines in the waiting room and snap a photo with my phone. If the magazine is expired, I ask if I can take out the page. You can also be put on a recipe email list. The most popular recipe website, and my favorite, is allrecipes.com. This site has endless healthy recipes. The best feature is you can save your recipes in your own personal “recipe box” and retrieve them at any time! How did our parents live without the world wide web?

Keeping your family healthy is a daily task; reminders in calendars and healthy meals are the efforts that will make it work!

Susan Parziale is a certified Professional Organizer. She is also  a mother to 8 year old daughter with Autism. Visit  www.susanparziale.com

Photo courtesy Tim Webster

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2012 Magazine