When I was in college, the calendar on my iPhone raised some eyebrows. It perfectly color-coded and divvied up my life, from waking up and heading to the gym in the morning to getting ready for bed at night. It allowed me to make sense of all the homework, classes, work schedules, and social events that I was juggling.
After I graduated, my weekly schedule got much more predictable. I wasn’t juggling multiple jobs and classes anymore. My work schedule was the same every day, and most events in my life happened on a weekly or regular basis. So, I abandoned my color-coded calendar.
It wasn’t until the last few weeks that I brought it back. COVID-19 took away any regular routine I had for a very long time, and I was left floundering. Even now, with some of my schedule returning to normal, working from home and adapting to this pandemic way of life has taken away a lot of the external rhythms and routines that allowed me to function regularly.
So, I brought my iPhone back out and plugged my week in.
When I was heading to the gym.
When I was writing.
When I had appointments.
When I had meetings.
When I was working.
When I had church gatherings.
It all got entered back in.
And you know what? I realized that I missed having this tool in my life.
People who like flexibility may protest trying out a calendar habit like this. It may seem like it’s too rigid to allow for freedom. But having things laid out so clearly actually provides a lot more flexibility.
You can move things around as you need while still knowing that everything is accounted for and written out. You can meet a friend and know you’re not missing a meeting. You can schedule out convenient times to run errands because your calendar shows you where you’ll be and when.
I thought that when I was out of college, I wouldn’t need a calendar like this anymore. But in getting rid of it, I got rid of my favorite tool. Life is a lot better with having such a clear-cut schedule back at my fingertips, and if you don’t already do this, I would suggest you try it out.
You may just find it’s your new favorite tool.
KELVEY OLIVIA VANDER HART 
I totally agree.
I use mine (Google’s calendar) for almost the same things: writing, coding, exercising and learning Spanish. Hitherto, I used to write them down but moving them to the calendar has been much handy and helpful.
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