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Out of sight, out of mind

I've tried using todo lists (physical and apps) but, as soon as they're not in front of my face, I forget about them. Lately I've been putting Everything in my calendar app. I have a widget on my phone home screen that tells me what's next so I always see it and regularly tap it to see what's on the day and the rest of the week. It's not just appointments. I'm also putting tasks and reminders on there which are typically "todo" list things. Centralized, just a glance away. It's also becoming an aid for journaling? I'm putting in shit just to remind myself what I've done socially and privately throughout the week.

@lucius

Aug 1, 2024

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handwrittten calendar

I guess this is less a rec, more just what works for me. When I'm in really busy eras I have a night where I actually handmake a few months worth of calendars (like literally with a marker, and a ruler, and heavy paper). I hang them up on the wall, and I just start filling them up. When the busy-ness fades I take the months down and keep them. Also cool because you have an analog record of what you did for a while.

@chlonline

Feb 17, 2024

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planning your entire life in a google calendar

this sounds lame but hear me out. i was recently thinking about how ive been very stressed and when i am stressed i dont make time to do the things i like. like recently i haven’t been watching as many movies as i was in the summer. so i added a movie into my calendar for sunday. now i have almost guaranteed that i will watch a movie bc i love following my calendar. i was also worried that i would double book myself a lot this halloween so i was worried to say yes to things. but then i put all the parties in my calendar and now i can keep them straight in my head. i love productivity apps and organization and notion and lists.

@rerelikesunshine

Oct 23, 2024

Top Recs from @jmeridian

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SOLO TRIP

Back in April I went to the PNW for 11 days solo! This trip pushed me and taught me so much about myself. I did a bunch of hiking even though before this I wouldn’t have called myself a hiker. Driving through remote areas with poor reception forced me to trust myself. I loved the solitude and nature and who I became on this trip. I also got 2 tattoos (my first!!) and worked through my fear of needles! I’m tougher than I think.

@jmeridian

Dec 27, 2024

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ice cream is just ice cream

My grandparents owned an ice cream shop for 35 years. In the early days they sold sandwiches too, before moving to just ice cream. At one point when my dad was an adolescent, they actually lived above their shop. My grandma would dream up flavors and my grandpa would make them — he's lactose intolerant, he never really even reaped the one benefit of owning an ice cream shop. My grandparents, dad, aunt, great aunts and uncles, second cousins, and even my mom all worked fairs and festivals scooping ice cream. It was a family business, my grandma and grandpa were the core. They had to change locations twice. They "retired" at least once before actually retiring. This ice cream shop was an institution. For me though it was the place where we would have Thanksgiving. Closed for the season, the shop was the only space big enough for all of us. I had birthday parties there as a baby. It was our first stop after a five hour drive across state lines to see family. That's the place where, at my grandpa's insistence, I wrote my initials into the wet cement he had laid down for a bike rack. They are still there. When I was 16, I worked at the shop over the summer. You don't realize how tough it is. Decades of dipping had made my grandpa particular. I didn't have the wrist strength or the speed necessary when there were customers out the door, all of them hungry and agitated by the stifling heat. I was terrified of giving someone back the wrong amount of change. Becoming almost paralyzed by the responsibility of being behind the cash register — it was their livelihood after all. That was my grandma's responsibility. I was in charge of the milkshakes and malts. I decorated sundaes with hot fudge, wet walnuts, sprinkles, and cherries. I packed the shaved ice into paper cones and doused the evenly shaped mounds with syrup. I doled out the frozen lemonade into styrofoam cups. My hands became raw from all the cleaning. I'm now particular about hygiene in the kitchen and always tip. My grandparents still own the building, renting it out to a dentist and coincidentally, an ice cream shop. It's so strange now to go there. Everything is entirely different while being exactly the same. They painted the chairs a different color, but they are still those heart-shaped wrought iron, poorly cushioned chairs I know from childhood. Some of the flavors have remained. But it's not the same. Maybe they're buying their heavy cream from a different supplier. Or the high schoolers who work behind the counter aren't as precise with the measurements. I can try, skipping the artisanal flavors for the ones I grew up eating, but it will never be the same as it was. And that's alright. They're softer now, my grandparents; the anxieties and stress of those decades having melted away. These days, ice cream is just ice cream.

@jmeridian

Dec 30, 2024

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another one

“Love has never been a popular movement. And no one's ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people. Otherwise, of course, you can despair. Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you've got to remember is what you're looking at is also you. Everyone you're looking at is also you. You could be that person. You could be that monster, you could be that cop. And you have to decide, in yourself, not to be.” James Baldwin

@jmeridian

Dec 24, 2024