QotD: On Top of My Game

How do you stay organized?

Pretty much, I don't.  Despite reassurances from Alton Brown that organization will set me free, I'm a lover of chaos and disorder.  Because of my current position as a mom and stuff, I have to maintain some organization to make sure that I get work done (like, for my job) in a timely manner, that everyone gets doctor and dentist appointments when they need them and shows up on time for them, that all our bills get paid in a reasonably timely manner and that we still have money left over for groceries, and so on.  But this doesn't come naturally.  I have a calendar in the kitchen by the main phone, and I use it.  I also have one list on my desk where I work of things I need to do online (paying bills, emailing people, bitching about Congress, work deadlines, etc.) and not one but two lists in the kitchen of stuff I need to do not online (some bills I pay in person, phone calls I need to make, appointments I need to make/keep) and then I have a grocery list that allows me to just check off stuff we need as we run out of it that's hanging on the refrigerator.  This one I bought from Target; it's a Real Simple product.  It's OK, but it's become clear that what we typically need at the grocery store and what the editors of Real Simple thought we would need are not well aligned.  So, when this pad runs out, I'm going to make my own list and have it copied and bound into a pad like this one at Kinko's or something.  It's a handy thing to have.

Anyway, that's pretty much it.  I have thought in the past that I should use one of the online organizers, but I'm not really online enough for them to make a difference, and I don't want to be online more than I am already.  So, old-fashioned calendars and dry-erase boards it is.