Grandma's Technology

My mother is the grandmother of teenagers. Makes sense. I have teenagers, as do my brother and sister. And my mother is an awesome grandma! The other great thing about my mom, besides her infinite patience, is her enjoyment of technology. With a little help, she has adopted an iPad, a Kindle, an android cell phone, and most recently, a smart watch.
Let me explain. My mother has a mild hearing impairment which causes her to occasionally miss phone calls unless she is carrying her cell phone in her pocket. Like a lot of ladies, she does not always choose to do this. She would rather have it tucked in her purse, or on a desk charging when need be.
As you can tell from my past posts, not only am I a planner addict, I love technology. I have adopted smart watches since the first Galaxy Gear which came with my Samsung Note. I then upgraded to the Gear Live from Samsung, an Android Wear device, a Gear S, and have since upgraded again to a Gear S2.
My other watches were sold to help finance my new purchases, but the Gear Live was still in my possession when I had an idea. I asked my mother if she would like to use the watch.
Granted, it is large and a little clumsy, a few generations from the sleek Apple Watch or the lovely Moto 360 2nd generation. But it's a great watch for an initial trial at the smartwatch world. It works well, has decent battery life, a nice bright display, and works with any Android phone.
And she likes it! When she gets a call or text, the vibration on her wrist alerts her. It also has some useful notifications for traffic and weather as well, making it a handy device to help keep her informed.
The beauty of the device is the fact that the vibration helps those who can't hear their phone. And the notification is nice and clear, even for those of us, myself included, who need glasses.
I write this as a recommendation. It doesn't matter your age. It doesn't matter that you might not be the most technologically adept person. This is a little tool that can help you stay informed and stay connected. And a second hand, early generation of these gadgets are fairly cheap and getting cheaper.
Let me know what you think!!

Planner doodles!

So I've decided that organization is my new passion. I need to figure out how to efficiently handle my life, my job, writing, family, and blog. As a delightful side benefit, I now have a real reason to doodle, to play with markers, stickers, fancy tape, and glittery things!!

It is important to divide out my days into manageable bits so that I don't get overwhelmed, and I don't forget anything. I have sectioned things out into work information, writing for novels and blog, and for normal home and family. These snow days at home have given me a little more time to refine my ideas.

So I'm still using the KITlife planner, a daily program with nice big pages and lots of room. I have added some cute little drawings to my planner as well.

See my pictures added here!

Planner Peace

As a writer, some of my favorite things are electronic. I like the lit screens, the buttons, the sounds, the click of keys, and the neatly typed words. In my computer, tablet, and phone I have a collection of documents and outlines, reams of lists and addresses. But there is something that I miss about the feel of paper against a pencil tip (yes, I like the scratch of the pencil oftentimes better than the slip of a pen).

              So my new thing has been planners. Sure, I’ve used planners for years, in high school it was a spiral bound one with Ziggy on the cover, in college it was one from the University of Kentucky, but they have always been a purely functional thing. Now I have to admit it, I’ve kept them from year to year. Why? I loved looking back to see what I did in my daily life, back then when I was in school, or staying home with three small children, or just married with only my hubby at home.

              And then a whole new world opened up. In the summer, my sister introduced me to the new planner fad. Oh, they’ve been around forever, probably since the first cave man carved a jagged line in a cave wall to indicate the passage of time, but for the first time, planners have become a creative thing. So I looked up a few infamous reviews of Erin Condren planners, and from there I was hooked.

              I chose the cheap way. I went with the Happy Planner by MAMBI. It had the same set up as the most popular Erin Condren, but was on an arc system, which means that pages can be removed, replaced, and reordered. And then I had to buy a few cute tabs, some new covers, a few extra pages and folders, and I had dropped into planner mania. Next came the stickers, the colored pens, and then the plotting as to how I was going to make this system work with my life.

              The Happy Planner is great for the day at a time, three box system. To Do lists, meal planners, events; all fit neatly in the cool little boxes. They have a home planner addition that I snapped up as well. But after using the planner for July, August, September, I realized that I was having to add a lot to make it work for my job. As a speech therapist in the schools, my day changes over the week, seemingly never the same schedule twice! The planning space just wasn’t enough for work, for my fiction writing, my social media, and my family events.

              Oh, but it was so cute. So I’ll admit, with the stickers, the washi tape, and some cut scrap paper supplies, I’ve decided that this planner is going to be a more personal record. I have even gotten my hands on a Polaroid Zinc printer and added pictures. This is my scrapbook planner, the one I’ll look back on in the future to enjoy the memories. I love it, and I can add any little paper mementoes that I want, tickets, business cards, postcards, anything that can be punched and added. Yeah, arc system.

              For serious stuff, I’m trying something new. I have the KITlife Planner, which has a page per day with space for my writing job, my therapy job, my notes, and a neat area to list call backs (and I’m adding social media). It also has a business add on in the back to keep track of expenses, mileage, and several other pages. So that’s my new thing. New year, new organization.

              How’s it going, well, I’ll let you now after a few weeks of trial and error!

              So my other planner folks out there, what are you planning, and how are you doing it?