Your ideas please

Oh, crap!

I mean... oh yea!

Tomorrow, according to the alert my Google Calendar just sent me is Random Act of Kindness Day. Second official.

Should it be that hard to think of something to do? No.

I could.... let someone ahead of me who needs to merge on the highway? I could put a candybar in someone's box at work. I could send my parents flowers. I could shovel someone's driveway.

But see I list that stuff and then my mind goes through all the reasons those ideas are no good. The first, I usually do anyway. The second, well, we all know high-fructose corn syrup is evil, and what if they gave up chocolate for Lent, and what if they start to think they have a weird inter-office stalker or something? The third is sooo been done. I mean, I did it last month. The last... well if someone I didn't know was suddenly shoveling my driveway, I think I'd be just a little bit frightened (like... who IS that?!?). Plus there's the issue of Luke.

This shows you how my mind works. It rationalizes all the joy out of ideas before they ever bloom.

So, give me some of YOUR ideas to trash!

Won't you?

I need help!

Give up yet?

Have you guessed which item is going to be the hardest for me to keep?

Give up?

It's maybe not what you'd expect. The one on there that has me shuddering is No. 7, Keeping an up-to-date calendar.

Really.

That's some scary shit right there.

Let's take a look at all the unused "calendars" I have around here. This is what I rounded up in about 90 seconds of searching my desk, office and bag.

I swear, I'm the most disorganized wanna-be Type Aer ever. I so desire to have an organized calendar. Maybe this is a faulty assumption, but I feel if my calendar was in order, my life would be, too. Everything would be plotted, accounted for, budgeted, arranged. I so want that. But... it seems I've lacked the willpower to actually do it. Every tine I make a new commitment to keep one, I usually convince myself I need a fresh start, and off I go to buy a new ooooh pretty shiny planner. The high lasts about three days. Then the planner is tossed into a drawer, a pile, a stack. Buh-bye.

I'm not sure what is going to make anything different this time. The urge is strong: I wanna get a new one first. Well, you know what? I think I need to earn a new calendar. So let's see if I can keep one going for .... 30 days. If I do, it'll be great timing to get the 2010 planners on sale.

What else might help? A set time of day for updating. A system for what goes in the calendar. A decision about whether I'm looking for an online calendar or a hard copy, and whether I need one for my life life and one for my work life.

I'd love to hear what works for you. Do you keep a calendar? How do you stick to it? What's your system?