VegemiteGrrl's Home for the Absent-Minded

xpost

I just have to remember to actually use this new system and to write things down, which is a whooooole other obstacle.

For those of us chained to desks: I have an Excel checklist that has four columns for each month and infinite rows for keeping track of my tasks, every month I add four more columns, merge cells if a task needs to be done biweekly or monthly, etc. There's a column at the end that is larger that I can keep report-specific notes in. Thought I'd mention this approach since it works so well for me! I even hyperlinked all the report titles so they open the various files or folders I need. First thing I open everyday and last thing I close.

Handwritten lists for me, almost always. Especially if I'm starting to feel that drowning panic of omg I'll never get everything done. But I only make lists of things that are achievable and can be crossed off relatively quickly - ie within the space of a week or two. But usually achieving the little things makes the big looming things that can't really be put on a list feel more doable. I dunno if that logic makes sense to anyone but me though

if there is an Excel-like program out there that doesn't make me hate it immediately, i would like to test-drive it for organizational purposes

iOS reminders and Evernote.

seriously i've used Excel spreadsheets for years at workplaces but i really don't know how to use Excel properly
i got pretty awesome at using Access for simple database stuff though. i think this is maybe an issue of visual (abstract?) thinking vs whatever kind of thinking Excel requires
xp

cool, i will look at those

my main form of daily organization is iphone notes lists + calendar, which works pretty well, really
but as far as individual projects go, oh, that is where things have gotten messy in the past. the file cards idea is cool. but i would like a digital version.

aww man rrobyn! Excel is my jam. I use it for everything. In this case, I just use it like a checklist - no formulas or anything intricate, just a useful and flexible series of grids. If you ever need help, Lexerators are standing by:
computer/programming/excel wizards! help an idiot!

<3 lexerators

i think i just don't like grids

I am both proud of my deep knowledge of Excel and hoping beyond hope that I never again have to excercise that knowledge in a professional context.

<3 Vegerator

It's okay if you don't like grids, r. I hope one of the other suggestions proves fruitful! I wish I had a tiny little Excel on my phone but I don't so I just use the Notes feature, poorly and absentmindedly.

I use the Google spreadsheet but for some reason, can't sort the columns anymore.

So I use my note pad and eight differently colored highlighters.

many xposts - thanks Jeff for reminding me about Evernote! I heard about it from android peeps a year or two ago but hadn't downloaded the iphone app. I'm gonna try it out.

I use Evernote all the time but just for recording ideas. And it's great for that! For me, though, any attempt at using it as an organizational tool or to keep track of legitimately important things would be a laughable failure, I'm sure.

VG, were you the one talking about getting an occasional.. tickle/twinge in your back? Because I feel like since I read that it has been happening every day! It was occasional before that but I think you cursed me. J'accuse!

Twas not me! HOW DARE U

You did this ;_;

I have two mugs on my desk, 1 contains water, the other contains frozen blueberries. As they have melted, sometimes they stick to the sides, so I've had to toss them out of the mug toward my mouth to get them unstick. A minute ago I was reading email and I went to fling some berries down my gullet and instead I got a face full of cold water. :(

i had a thing of almonds and a mug of water in a meeting, and i absent mindedly dipped my fingers into my water mug when i meant to reach for my almonds

i went to walk into the bathroom so i could watch myself eating doritos in the mirror, but then i remembered there wasnt a mirror

omg Jesse, I am dying. I wish I could have seen this happen.

xp you didn't have any Doritos either.

no they were actually supermarket own brand chips but i didnt want people to think less of me

oh Je55e. I laughed too, I actually covered my mouth and widened my eyes! Sorry babe!

I'm sorry Je55e that made me laugh til I cried

But as penance I will share that when I rinse off dirty dishes with the sink hose, 9 times out of 10 I grab it by the trigger and spray myself full pelt in the face. I CAN'T STOP IT FROM HAPPENING i DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME

Well here's the other thing: I did the exact same thing yesterday, but not as forcefully ;__;

i r dum

i went to walk into the bathroom so i could watch myself eating doritos in the mirror, but then i remembered there wasnt a mirror

??

aw yr not dumb. yr lovely, Je55e :)

Don't try to limit me, I can be both!

reach for the stars!

You should make "Dumb and Lovely" the tag line on your online dating profiles.

lol

it sounds like a low-end hair product

haha

and it does

best. thread. ever.

does anyone else get that thing where you remember all the little things you have to do ALL IN ONE GO and it stresses you out so much but you're in the middle of something else and then like literally a second later you've FORGOTTEN THEM ALL AGAIN and then half an hour later you remember them again but you're in the middle of another thing but it's compounded by the knowledge that you already remembered and then forgot and then you basically want to die

THIS, and more specifically, when I need a haircut I remember every Monday to book an appt, except that's the only day the salon is closed, so I think 'no problem, I'll call tomorrow' and then I forget until the next Monday ad infinitum

I just this morning remembered the detailed precis I'd formed in my mind last year for a play I wanted to write. Unfortunately, I only really remember the existence of the idea without many of the attendant details. Mark that one under 'arguments for maybe actually writing things the eff down now and then'.

Last night I grabbed the water jug out of the fridge instead of the milk, and poured cold water into my hot cup of coffee.

Today I brought my lunch (leftovers) and managed to leave it on my desk til lunchtime instead of putting it in the fridge when I got to work.

Someone just shoot me, srsly

I'm just having one of those days where I just keep dropping EVERYTHING. As soon as my fingers touch something, they fumble them onto the floor. Being really pregnant and having difficulty bending over, it's making me SO MAD but I can't stop.

Oh god, I sympathize with that so much...after a few fumbles in a row it makes you really paranoid, it's the worst feeling.

The lunch on the desk one reminded me of the time I brought a cup of yogurt and some carrots to work and put them in the fridge. When I went to eat them later, they were gone! I was kind of peeved that my coworker had eaten my food out of the fridge, but didn't say anything because I figured it was an honest mistake and she can be prickly about stuff. Of course, three days later as I was looking for lip balm, I came across a cup of yogurt and a bag of carrots lurking disgustingly in the dark corners of my bag. I had never put the food in the fridge in the first place.

Last night I grabbed the water jug out of the fridge instead of the milk, and poured cold water into my hot cup of coffee.

Urrrk. I sometimes do this at breakfast confusing juice to be poured in the glass with milk to be poured on the cereal, and get a bowl of juice and special k. Which is very unspecial.

my move is to pour milk into the cereal bowl before i've poured the cereal. it flies!

on wednesday i went to spray a coat of lacquer on something in the spray booth at school, all suited up with gloves and respirator, and for just a second it's like hey why is this suddenly so cumbersome OH I'M HOLDING A BOTTLE OF MOUNTAIN DEW

je55e yr mug situation could have been much worse, you could have been that chemist who mistook his container of explosive liquid for his container of water. it didn't end well.

(i can't seem to find this story anywhere, did i make it up?)

yesterday at work I tripped over a bag and walked straight into a wall

I got the giggles on the bus imagining seeing someone else accidentally throwing a mug full of water at their face instead of blueberries.

Another time I was drinking Bud bottles (longnecks) and then ordered a Red Stripe. I picked up the Red Stripe and poured it right into my lap with the bottle a few inches from my mouth because I was used to the opening being farther away than on the stubby necked Red Stripes.

identifying hard with the clumsiness stories

my speciality is, when i am running seriously late, especially if i have to catch a train or something where i can't get away with it, i grab some last-min thing off the shelf and WITHOUT FAIL manage to bring down everything else on the shelf if not the shelf itself

and wires getting tangled up

all the time

wires and cables hate me and want to strangle me. several times i have had to actually claw my headphones away from my throat in public :(