When I finally figured out this favorite saying of Mom, it really annoyed me. Since I had just screwed up, I obviously hadn’t learned the lesson now, there was no way I was going to be younger, so I had best learn it now. So, now was the time to take a deep breath and change my ways.
I guess I need someone to keep telling me. (I never suggested that to Karen Kay, although I am sure she would have adopted the saying.) I am really bad (and KK knew it) at maintaining a calendar, so she took over that role. I was delighted, since it involved no habit change on my part (but I did have to communicate calendrically important dates to her).
Since she is gone, though, I guess it is time to grow up and do it myself. And, the tools are better now. Anyone who knows me knows that my handwriting is atrocious, so paper calendars don’t work well when they simply result in a guessing game to figure out what I wrote in that little rectangle. Computers can help, especially since I am keyboard-proficient. But phones never worked well for me, since I am not a good thumb-typist.
But the combination of a smartphone and voice recognition has suddenly made this learning more likely to happen. Especially since I stumbled across the app Todoist. I simply open it up and tell it something (like “Help with the Easter egg hunt at the church at 10 a.m. Saturday”) and it not only gets it right quickly (generally), but it will show it on the screen anytime I view the app and it will send me an SMS notification at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning!
An old dog really can learn new tricks, Mom, and thanks for the constant reminder.
