Category: Daily Living
I am taking a class that is about time manidgment, planning your day out and how to use a calendar so on so on to make your life easier. Everything my teacher is teaching us is for sighted people. I am doing what I can to change things so I can use the types and ideas but also wanted to know how you all keep a calendar and so forth. I use a bit of flylady and a lot of my iphone. But I would love to hear ideas and types, because I might learn something that could help a load. I also wondered how you keep your bills recets and mail organized? I have a plan that I am putting in to works this weekend but am open to a whole lot of tips. thanks
I keep a file on my computer which i write notes in organised by date. I also used to keep a desk diary which I wrote on with a brailler so that I could have a hard copy, but I don't do that any more. I have all of my bills sent online and pay them as soon as they get here so that there's less organisation needed there.
Hope this helps
FM
I pay all my bills online and pay my rent and electric threw bill pay. I am left then with internet and cel bills that I pay online myself because they are not fixed amounts. Should I keep reseets of my bills payments and the copy of the bills along with my bank statements?
I'd recommend it. Not to say that this would necessarily happen but if you did have receipts and whatnot you'd be prepared if one of these companies tried to claim you didn't pay a particular month or whatever.
Let me know how this goes, my wife and I could use some of this topic in our lives.
sure
I have very few or no bills to pay yet since I'm living with my parents. But when I do, I pay them online or with my debit card. Also, yes, I would also recommend keeping receipts as another person had mentioned, for just in case of anything. I do that, and actually I'll need to go thru mine. *smile* I just keep them all in a little drawer, but a good idea that I just thought of might be to keep them in one of those plastic accordion folders. Besides shopping receipts, that would also give you room for keeping track of the bills you already paid if you don't pay them online. For the online receipts, I just keep them in a personal folder on a thumb drive. Also, for any business-related e-mail, whether it be related to school, work, or anyone I do business with by buying from them or signing up for useful newsletters, it helps to have a separate e-mail address for that. I did that a few years ago so that I don't have to keep going past the non-business stuff to get to a newsletter or something I got from school or whatever. I know you can probably also separate your e-mail into different folders, but for me it's much easier to just give a business contact that specific e-mail address to send the mail to.
For calendar-type stuff, I have a little Braille calendar, but recently Mom and I just got a large sheet of metal to cut in half and each use as a magnet board, so I'll be keeping a to-do list and/or a monthly schedule on mine as well as a list of specific things like monthly birthdays and special days/holidays. I'll be using regular braille paper for the to-do list, and will use Braille paper or plastic for the birthdays and/or holidays page. I will also be using magnet leters and numbers to put what each month is at the top of the metal sheet and will just change the date each day, which will likely remind me to look for anything going on for or for past that day. Before we found the sheet of metal, I was thinking to keep a folder or small binder with all that information, so that may or may not help to do that. (My room is not very organized at the moment so that probably wouldn't have worked for me anyway, but it might if you're used to being organized in where you put things. *smile*)
I could use a calendar program in my computer/notetaker/phone to keep all this information, but weirdly, that just doesn't motivate me to add to or check it. If I do keep a schedule electronically, I have a document specifically for keeping a schedule, and I just delete each thing as I go, or if I need to keep track of it for whatever reason, I copy and paste it to a document called "done." I do a similar thing for my schoolwork; I have folders for each subject and a subfolder called "done", and I move my finished work to that folder. I think this new hardcopy system will be nice though, because it will mean I'll have to actively be changing each day and checking and updating my schedules/lists. Also, it is right by the door and across the room from where my PC is at, so whenever I am entering or leaving my room or if I suddenly think about what I need to do or get curious about it, I'll have to go across the room to check it, which I actually wouldn't mind. *smile* Hope any of that helps.
I pay most bills via debit card. Vorizon usually sends me an email notification to let me know my bill's been paid. With my cable/internet bill, It's a fixed amount, so I know how much to budget. I don't use a lot of calendars, cause I have a good memory. As for mail, I gotta say I'm kinda lax on that, I usually have someone sighted come over and sort it for me once a week. I'd use my scanner, but it's broke at the moment. I don't have a lot of extra mail, and the bills I get in the mail have usually already been paid. An accordion folder is a good idea, not just for bills and receipts, but also instruction manuals, birth certificates, and other important documents.
I a few times a year would have someone go threw my maill with me because I did not have a scanner to do it myself. In the mean time i would collect what I thought should be collected, but I really did not organize it much. I tried to put all ssi stuff in one folder and allbills in another, but I did not know what was what. and I also did not have anything to put all my folders in. I finially got a three ring binder and punched holes in my benilla folders and then labled each folder and also sectioned off parts of the three ring folder according to time and sutch. I have been going threw papers like crazy this weekend and I hope to get everything lable and organized by the end of the month. I am lableing each set of papers as well so I know what is what with out asking someoen about it. I rhave my birth sertificate, high school deploma, ssi card and soon my moms death sertificate in a page pertecter the I folded down the top then taped close so they woudl not slide out. I at the moment do not have a lock box for these things. I plan to get a fire prooth one to put the hole thing in to. I have so much more room now.
for bills and stuff, i too have few bills to pay and if i do i give mom the money so she can go to the at&t store to pay the internet for my iphone. I keep a calendar on my iphone and use the To do app on my iphone to keep a list of stuff. since i have my phone all the time, i use that to track everything. for receipts, i put them awan in different ziplock bags and i have this zippered bag where i put the bills i already payed and i have an accordian folder where i ut my bank statements and stuff like that. but since i recently got a braille labeler, because my counselor refused to get it for me, i have to have someone sighted go through the papers for me.
For me, I've a scanner to go through the little mail I receive. Bills are paid online, and usually automatically. Ren I take care of either online or with a cashier's check (since I absolutely hate writing checks and live four blocks from my nearest bank branch).
As for calendar and to-do, my company has an Exchange server. I use Outlook and Exchange to keep track of appointments, tasks and contacts, and the lot get synced to my phone. Also--we have a task tracking system to track software development, test and product management work ... but I expect that won't solve the more general problem.