Comments on: Brilliant recurring calendar events?

Question: Brilliant recurring calendar events?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:44:40 -0800

What brilliant recurring events have you set up on your calendar app?

So I was thinking, as my reminder went off a few days ago signaling that it was time to recalibrate my Macbook's battery, that there are probably a lot of little "life maintenance" things I should be remembering to do on a regular schedule. Immediately, I set to compiling a list of important things that I wouldn't normally think/remember to do, but that would Enrich My Life in some way.

I got one item — "Replace alarm clock battery every year" — down before I decided to just decided to ask MeFi instead.

So? The lifehack-ier the better!

By: NotMyselfRightNow

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:47:43 -0800

When I get a haircut, I immediately schedule an event three weeks later, telling me to schedule/get my next haircut.

By: vytae

vytae — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:48:19 -0800

-change your smoke detector batteries
-set your clocks forward and back for daylight saving time
-call your mother on her birthday
-heck, put every birthday you know in there
-pay your rent
-get up and walk around once an hour, if you're at an eye-strain- and rsi-inducing desk job

By: ferociouskitty

ferociouskitty — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:48:51 -0800

Left over from a stint in physical therapy for a back injury, I have two daily stretch breaks scheduled into my Outlook at work.

You should also replace your smoke detector battery.

By: donajo

donajo — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:51:32 -0800

I have a reminder to have my chef's knife professionally sharpened before Thanksgiving.

By: garlic

garlic — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:53:11 -0800

pay your car/house/motorcycle insurance.
change your oil, or whatever vehicle maintainence.

By: ceri richard

ceri richard — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:54:00 -0800

Oooh, good question!

1. Worming tablets for dogs (cats, other pets?).
2. Dental checkup.
3. Review magazine subscriptions: still enjoy? do nothing / haven't read last 4 issues? cancel subscription.
4. December 1, review and update Christmas card list.
5. March 1, June 1, November 1 - clean gutters of all leaves and debris.

If only I ever did any* of these things...

There's a declutter book with a long list of these somewhere in the house, if I was organised enough to find it I'd tell you the title and author. Sigh. Besides, you'll get a much better list from mefites :-)

(*well, except for the worming tabs)

By: ceri richard

ceri richard — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:55:10 -0800

6. Once a year - go through sock and shorts/knicker drawer, throw any that are disreputable and replace.

By: davcoo

davcoo — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:05:58 -0800

- Car maintenance (oil change, radiator flush)
- Expiration of life/health/home insurance policies or anything else that requires renewal
- Vehicle registration and inspection
- Change the furnace filter

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:08:28 -0800

Any organization you belong to for which you have to pay annual dues.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:28:41 -0800

Reminders on birthdays at least one week in advance, so I have time to buy and send a card.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:35:46 -0800

Address Book can take care of calendaring all the birthdays for you.

Deaths, especially for remembering the dates of the deaths of friends' loved ones. It's really meaningful to be able to say to your friend, "Hey, I know that you lost so-and-so a year ago this week, how are you doing?"

Flipping your mattress.

Tracking periods (may not apply. must be regular.) No accidents or freakouts this way.

Girl Scout cookies are sold in February. If you're into that sort of thing. :)

College applications are usually due by November and April, as is financial aid.

Expiration dates of flight vouchers and air miles. Add reminders in advance to book travel.

By: pdb

pdb — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:42:10 -0800

This may sound too mundane, but I just bought a house two months ago, after 20+ years of apartment living, and I found I needed to set up a recurring weekly reminder to take out my garbage.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:51:09 -0800

Get piano tuned
mammogram/pap test/prostate exam
CAPS LOCK DAY / Talk Like a Pirate Day
Pet check up
Sight/hearing exam
half-birthday
clear out closet every six months
donate blood every 56 days

By: mumkin

mumkin — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:52:00 -0800

To pdb's point, I have a recurring reminder about taking out yard waste. Pickup here is an every-other-week service, so if I don't have it on my calendar, I never know which Friday morning I should be dragging stuff to the curb.

Other reminders include: paying insurance and the cat's anti-flea treatment.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:04:26 -0800

Reminder to get a new Toothbrush every 6 months
Yearly reminder for Doctors appointment
6 month reminder for Dentist appointment
Car service reminders
Apartment rental lease renewals
Haircuts
Important dates in other peoples lives that make me look cool when I remember them.
Reminders of first dates
Local elections that I need to vote in and read-up on.
Change the baking soda in the fridge
Various reminders to clean things I don't clean regularly (stove, fridge, etc).

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:06:22 -0800

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, why would I try to remember something when I can just look it up somewhere. Or better yet, be reminded automatically of it?

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:17:38 -0800

Local events I might go to on a whim. The Farmer's market, or Pub Trivia, for example.

And I really cherish the hormonal prediction. I do not just my period, but "FRISKY: LOOKOUT" and "Boo hoo hoo" days.

Mine and my partner's paydays.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:20:33 -0800

(Canadian) - GST cheques every 3 months

By: phoenixy

phoenixy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:30:04 -0800

Street sweeping (no parking on the even numbered side of the street; you will be tagged and towed)

By: anaelith

anaelith — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:36:34 -0800

Various computer cleanliness tasks...
Remove unused programs.
Remove unused extensions in specific programs (hello Firefox).
Shuffle everything off the desktop that isn't actually useful.
Clean out bookmarks, run a scan to make sure they all point somewhere that's still there.
Backup everything that isn't automatically backed up, move all old backups off to DVDs.
Update software/website subscriptions.

Move/re-evaluate any maturing CDs or investments.

Start trying to schedule an eye appointment so I can get a new prescription before I run out of contacts, same for birth control.

Check fire alarms and change batteries.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:36:48 -0800

Brilliant event? Payday. Cheers me up.

By: kidsleepy

kidsleepy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:50:29 -0800

thirding payday- nothing brings a smile first thing in the morning having an alert pop up that says "$$$$$"!

and 2nding the girly stuff- having the dates when "Aunt Flo is in town" marked can help you decide whether to go to the beach this weekend or next weekend.

By: cadge

cadge — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:02:40 -0800

@ceri richard - was the book Organizing Plain and Simple? I swear by that book. If I remember right it also had good advice on a "tickler" file reminder method like this.

By: ORthey

ORthey — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:17:04 -0800

BritaFilter!

(change your brita filter, if you have one)

By: magicbus

magicbus — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:52:58 -0800

- Rebalance investment accounts for asset allocation

By: ceri richard

ceri richard — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:11:50 -0800

Cadge, it wasn't that one but I have read her other book, Unclutter Your Home so at least something has stuck in this old brain :-)

By: scruss

scruss — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:47:02 -0800

Celebrate your 1000 day birthday (I just turned 14000 the other day).

By: enfa

enfa — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:50:11 -0800

Celebrate an anniversary of quitting an addiction.
Figure out which day you'll be 10,000 and 20,000 days old.
Monthly nudge to write something in your journal.
Pi day.
Guy Fawkes Night.
Haley's Comet.
10 years after your favorite album came out.
Birthday & Anniversary of everyone in your family, living or otherwise.

By: drew3d

drew3d — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:24:53 -0800

+ replace air filters
+ check/replace emergency batteries (e.g. spare batteries in your car trunk, your emergency flashlights, etc)
+ start working on a costume for Halloween
+ off-season or end-of-season clothes sales
+ other regular sales like Threadless ten dollar tees
+ domain name renewals
+ update offsite computer backups
+ eMusic.com account refresh

By: Dreama

Dreama — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:39:34 -0800

Changes of various and sundry online passwords (I spread 50+ account updates over the span of a month, twice a year)
A reminder for any bills that you can't pay online/automatically
A 2 week reminder of expiry dates for credit cards (in case new cards aren't sent/go missing)
Replacement dates for refrigerator water filters.
Warranty expiration dates for major purchases.
Reminders of bonus points/prepaid cellular minutes/Redbox DVD freebies or anything else that expires
Reminders to replace cosmetics, eye drops and contact lens solutions
Reminders to feed your sourdough starter/douse your Christmas cake with booze/check and rotate your homebrewed beer
Reminders to turn and feed your compost bin

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:31:52 -0800

Ask Metafilter new question time limits.

By: algreer

algreer — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:45:41 -0800

Oh my - I'm not alone!

- weekly/monthly data backup regime (music, photos, documents)
- weekly run maintenance tasks on computer
- significant dates in friend's lives (holidays, stuff like that)
- yearly update of photographic portfolios
- yearly website redesign

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:29:00 -0800

Clean out the lovely stuff in the cat's litterbox.
Backup the computer.
Backup my thumb drive.
Purchase cat food and cat litter.
Totally replace cat litter and liners.
Give the cat five minutes of pure, unadulterated attention.
Test the smoke detector.
Change my razor blade.
Clip the cat's nails.
Get two rolls of quarters from the bank.
Load the laundry into the bin.
Take the laundry to the laundromat.
Purchase new razor blades.

Also, a bit here about how much I love Remember the Milk — it has the ability to let you schedule something to repeat x days after something was checked off, instead of just every x number of days. That way, you don't have tasks stacking up ...

By: KRS

KRS — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:07:05 -0800

Wife's birthday, anniversary, nieces' and nephews' birthdays (all 10 days ahead).

Change the Combat roach baits (at least in NYC).

Time your wife's periods, so when you remind her its been a month since she gave you even a sniff, at least she won't have that excuse.

By: b33j

b33j — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:00:30 -0800

Backwards tracking.

Record what day you did things - saw the dentist for unexpected toothache, had that cold that kept me from work three days, last erratic period, fought with loved one about x, y, z (no, don't, that last one will get you divorced but you could put in, Ex was late collecting the children, asked him to be on time next time as a kind of a log)>