by Beks
Did you know using a scheduling app can change your life? Yes, I’m completely serious. There are two apps I’d be completely lost without if they were to disappear off my phone (or my computer). I’ve talked at length about my budgeting app, YNAB, and the fact it’s vitally important to keep me on budget.
I haven’t talked much about the scheduling app, Cozi, despite the fact that I use it ALL THE TIME. Here’s the deal, I don’t care if you use Cozi or another app. I DO care that you use an app to organize your life.
I’m a tactile person. If I’m studying a book, I need it to be a physical copy. Sure, I know Kindle’s do highlights and can export those highlights, etc. but my brain needs to touch a book to understand it. Maybe there is something to the whole idea of learning by osmosis. I made no exception for my scheduling habits. I had a beautiful paper planner on my desk that I loved for years. I loved handwriting each appointment and color-coding it. I loved flipping through the pages to see what the future held. My garage is full of these planners from years gone by. The problem with that is unless I had my planner with me, it was a complete waste. My husband was always calling to ask if we had something planned on a specific day. If someone asked me to schedule something over a weekend, I’d frantically e-mail my work e-mail so I could write it into my planner Monday morning. It was a hot mess. A mess I loved, but a mess nonetheless.
Why did I give it up? Why did I give up my beautiful planner? And WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MONEY!?!?!
A $45 doctor appointment.
My ‘perfect’ system was terribly far from perfect. I didn’t have my phone to e-mail myself a doctor’s appointment and I missed it…and I paid $45 for a missed appointment. Ugh. Oh sure, there were a lot of missed appointments with friends, with family, with the school, but when I started getting hammered with fees, I realized ‘tactile’ me couldn’t win in this situation.
We switched to Cozi and I was angry at myself for holding out so long. Now when I sign up for one of those hiking memberships or magazine subscriptions that auto-renew, I drop in a reminder a month or so before they auto-renew so I can cancel.
My husband doesn’t have to call me while he is at the doctor’s office with the kids to schedule their next appointment, he simply pulls up the app on his phone and finds a space in our schedule. Each person has a color so we can see who has what and when. We can also automatically notify each other when we schedule something through the app. This is really a bummer when I want to claim he didn’t tell me he scheduled dinner with his parents. The app tells him I was notified. ; )
Between homeschooling, work, travel, COVID, four kids, and a million other things, it’s just really darn nice to feel like I have a tiny part of my life completely under control. This is related to your budget. Being disorganized WILL cost you money.
