Making the Switch from Paper to Digital

Photo by Rawpixel

But all things should be done decently and in order.

1 Corinthians 14:40

I don’t know about you, but I have had a long affair with planners, calendars and lists.  Several years ago, someone came into my office and counted 4 calendars. 

·         desk calendar

·         wall calendar

·         planner/agenda

·         computer calendar

She then asked, in a laughing manner, if I ever missed an appointment. 

I inwardly cringed because I had missed some.  You see, I had a personal calendar and a work calendar.  So if I were not in the office, I didn’t see appointments listed for work and if I were at work, I might miss the teacher meeting at school because it was in my personal calendar.

Needless to say, I got rid of all calendars but one and EVERYTHING went in it!  And that worked!  Some jobs required me to have daily type planners while others worked with a weekly type planner. But everything, and I mean everything, went into the same calendar.

In either case, I was always, ALWAYS a paper planner gal!  I love writing things down and CHECKING THINGS OFF!!  I just love it.  Maybe you can relate?

Many times over the years I have tried to switch to a digital calendar and FAILED! Until this year!  I have found what works for me. 

I now work from home (for a company) and have a lot of other irons in the fire. And I have finally made the switch from a paper planning system to a digital one!

I use Google calendar.  I can access it from all of my devices.  And I have multiple “calendars” set up so I can easily display EVERYTHING or just certain items.

·         1- Appointments – this “calendar” shows all the calls I need to be on and appointments that I need to keep

·         2- To Do list – this “calendar” tracks things that I need to get done on a certain day

·         3- Informational – this “calendar” shows birthdays, holidays and general things I need to be aware of

·         4- History- this “calendar” allows me to change past appointments or events with attachments or notes that I want to keep just in case

To view all of these at once, I leave each “calendar” checked.  If I don’t need to see one, like history, I just uncheck it and it comes off my displayed calendar.

The beauty of this is that I have my appointments with me at all times since I carry my phone everywhere.  I can add appointments, things to do or information regardless of where I am and I can know if I have a conflict immediately.

For those of you who have been using digital systems – kudos!  If you are still using a paper system and want to switch to digital, here’s some advice:

1.       Use a calendar that is accessible across all your devices

2.       Learn to maximize its use

3.       Find an app that you can use for notes/diary type information, if needed.

The applications that I use for these are:

1.       Google calendar   - as my planning system

2.       OneNote – to write notes and so much more

Put Your Dreams and Goals Before You

Photo by Brooke Lark

Good Monday morning to you this first day of 2018!

Well, here we are at the beginning of a new year.  It always feels like the slate is clean and it’s time to plan dreams and goals for this year.  So what are your dreams and goals for 2018?  Are you starting something new? Do you have big plans?  I do.

Let me mention just a few of my dreams and goals for 2018.

1.      Advance my writing – specifically growing my blog audience

2.      Complete 2 books and publish them

3.      Minimalize my house for next year’s move

4.      Finish reading the Bible all the way through

Notice, I did not say “resolution”, I said dreams and goals.  A few years ago I started making vision boards.  The first year I did it I was blown away be all the things that actually happened.  NO, I don’t think the stars aligned to make my dreams come true that year.  What I noticed is that with the vision board front and center, I thought about my goals daily and I did something to work for them. 

Habakkuk 2:2 says,  And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.”

Setting my 2018 dreams and goals in front of me help me see the written vision made plain so I might run to it. That’s what a vision board does for me.  I like to use this rather than resolutions in a notebook. 

Everyone knows that most resolutions end before the month of January does.  So why waste your time making resolutions.  Why not set your dreams and goals before you in a way that you can plainly see them and then run toward your dreams and goals.

If you want to accomplish your goals, 

1. put them in front of you so you can see them every day

2. make them measurable

3. and make them realistic but with just a little stretch.

May your 2018 dreams and goals come true!  I know they can with some prayer and hard work.

Happy New Year!

Be Our Guest

In case you haven't noticed, I've been on an organizing spree.  Unfortunately, I forget to take before pictures most of the time.  This is our guest bedroom.

We have a three bedroom house and the kids used to occupy all of the upstairs.  We totally avoided coming up.  However, they are grown and on their own (doing well) and I have worked to turn one bedroom into my home office and the other into an inviting guest bedroom.

I love the sign above the headboard.  Pinterest- gotta love Pinterest!  My sweet husband cut the wood and stained it and I commissioned the vinyl lettering and voila!  So far, our guests have enjoyed the guest room, too.  It's right next to the upstairs bath for easy access and the door you see leads to a large walk-in closet. (You probably don't want to walk in there just yet.)

Hopefully, we'll have guests in there soon for some wonderfully happy occasion!

Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never leave you, nor will I ever desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,". Hebrews 13:5

Blessings!