But Filofax makes a separate form to list birthdays and anniversaries. If you use those, you wouldn't have to recopy it every year, but you'd need a plan for looking at it frequently, perhaps moving the page from month to month.
I know someone who doesn't use any kind of organizer, but never forgets birthdays. She has a wonderful thing: a perpetual monthly calendar hung on her refrigerator. It's simply a long, 12-page book with a line for each day of the month. On the line for a person's birthday, she writes the 1st name and the 2-digit abbreviation of the birth year. You can fit more than one person on a line. And voila! All the information she needs, in a place where she sees it all the time, and it never needs to be copied over.
What's your system for remembering birthdays?
To be honest, I'm pretty good at remembering birthdays, and have never forgotten one before. However, I still dutifully copy them out every year, just to be sure.
ReplyDeleteI use the Filofax birthday and anniversary sheets, but since I make all my own cards I always make sure to put "make so-and-so's card" on my to do list a week or two before it needs to be sent!
ReplyDeleteA FFAF question: the Success website has not been updated, and their webshop seems to be out of action. Has anyone else experienced this ? The web address is www.succes.com
ReplyDeleteI'd appreciate any information.
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DeleteHi Gerard, i heard from a lady of one stationary shop here in Berlin, that Succes was in financial difficulties and therefore had been aquired by the German company time system last year or so. That would explain why they stopped up dating the web content. Though, i have no clue what time system has planned to do with it..
ReplyDeleteThank you Sylke :-)
DeleteYou are welcome :-)
DeleteI have worried for too long about how to remember birthdays and anniversaries. I had a separate list but then kept forgetting to look at it so I now do the following things:
ReplyDelete1. Birthdays/anniversaries in my diary on appropriate date.
2. A reminder a week before on my daily page to buy a card/present.
3. A fold-out list of birthdays attached to my daily dashboard/today marker.
We also have family in the US and Australia so I have to have earlier reminders for them to ensure the cards get there on time.
You might think this is overkill but I was really worried about missing someone; my list has 52 dates in it.
I'm a copier-out, every year, like Nan in a stand-out colour. My Grandma (who by virtue of age had many birthdays to remember) had a date book, into which she wrote every new addition to her exponentially-growing family. I still remember it, although I think I only saw it once. She never missed a birthday, ever, and I assume (although I was seven at the time so I didn't ask) that she referred to it either weekly or monthly. I'm off to http://www.frameofmind.biz/ this morning, I might see if they have such a thing...........
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know where I can buy a personal aston in orchid at a reasonable price? Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteI saw that model and color on the Hungarian website Laurie at plannerisms.com posted about yesterday: MyFilofax.hu.
DeleteThanks Sonia
DeleteI love the idea of the perpetual monthly calendar with everyone's birthdays! I stopped recopying birthdays years ago. Nobody expects a card from me!
ReplyDeleteI've always kept a rather unruly list on plain ruled ff paper in the back of my Filofax, marked with a Today ruler. But I've just switched off to the My Day iPhone app.
ReplyDeleteI have a master list, copy onto the day, make a note on the shopping list a week before. I only buy cards for a very select few due to cost. The rest I just shoot an e-mail or text. My grandmother has always mailed cards and never missed anyone or had a late card, she has it down to a science and the card always comes that day or the day before . I don't know how she remembers, but my father keeps them all in his head, so maybe she does too. He wakes up and asks my mom if she remembered to send a card because it is the special day. Drives my mother absolutely bonkers LOL.
ReplyDeleteMy great-aunt sent a birthday card to everyone, every year. And it was quite a long list. She picked up carda all year, but in January, she would go card shopping for any remaining people for the whole year, sign and address the cards, and put the date to mail it where the stamp went. And every week she checked her stash and mailed the appropriate card. It was genius. It was also very sweet to receive her last card, knowing she had carefully picked it prior to her passing.
ReplyDeleteI have an Indodispensable Data insert at the back of my Malden (included with the Dodo Pad diaries) with some info on & I have considered adding them to that. However, I don't use either of my binders as a diary, so birthdays are in Google calendar.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on here said "Male organizer users are becoming a tiny minority." I don't disagree with this, as it seems most organizer users' blogs/websites are awfully girly-girl, but the question is why are things so female-skewed nowadays?
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the perception is that men are more likely to use electronic means e.g. phones, tablets, laptops to store reminders and appointments. This is true of my fella though he doesn't always manage to 'sync' things and gets in a muddle.
DeleteAlthough I don't think this applies to 'men' as a unit by any means - I would say there is also the idea of the mollycoddled man, who relies on the woman (or women!) in his life to organise him and ensure he remembers special days, social engagements etc and thus it becomes a female responsibility to organise. The archetype of busy mum, alpha female etc.
I write birthdays on the year-to-view page at the front of the Dodo Pad, then as I add in Dodo Pad pages (I keep maybe 3 months at a time) I copy birthdays into the last column on the weekly pages.
ReplyDeleteI've considered investing in the Dodo Perpetual calendar for my kitchen, so that my fella can be up to date with shifts I'm working, he's working, social plans, boring stuff like which bin to put out etc
I remember the important ones on my own, no planner or writing down anything. Everyone elses birthdays I rely on facebook for :p
ReplyDeleteI have a master list in my a5 where I record birthdays, anniversaries and deaths. I still keep birthdays in my daily planner (personal or pocket) but rely heavily on FB as a reminder too, especially for friends or distant relatives whose birthdays I don't have in my master list. I don't mind rewriting them every January in my new monthly calendar...it's just part of my new year/new calendar process. Plus it's always fun to add in the new births from the previous year!
ReplyDeleteI write each birthday on my monthly, weekly and daily planner pages. I also add birthday stickers, and mark a week ahead to buy a gift and two weeks ahead to plan the birthday dinner. In our small family, birthdays are huge celebrations no matter how young or old you are.
ReplyDeleteI don't - which is why I just bought my first filofax....
ReplyDeleteI am with Cheryl. I love the idea of starting out new each year. I have been pretty successful in finding a calendar overview on a new wall calendar that I cut down to fit my mini filo. I just accordion fold it and use a highlighter to 'dot' each birthday. Then I go to my WOTP and list it there and usually try to list it early, too, in order get the gift or card. Since I do use a mini, there is not a lot of room for decoration, but I use small stickers (cake slice or cupcake) on the actual date. But, I love the idea of buying the cards at the first of the year and having them ready to send out! Still looking for folks that use mini's as their main filo.......... :)
ReplyDeleteOoh that's a great idea! I don't write any birthdays down... I rely on memory alone and maybe that's not such a great idea aha! The idea of having one set sheet definitely appeals to me though - I wouldn't like to write them up every year!
ReplyDelete