Vicky Ewan: Why I'm boxing clever in the fine art of calendar management

I have been using a "family calendar" to help manage the day-to-day tasks of my family for quite some time now.

You might know about a wall calendar that has the months separated into pages showing each week, with a specific box for each day of the week organized into columns for multiple family members. This allows for individual scheduling of events and appointments by person, making it simple to reference - at least for me.

It makes me feel happy when there are enough spots for everyone in my family, because sometimes there aren't enough: last year there was one less spot than we needed, so my husband and I had to share a spot.

In order to prevent any misunderstandings, I made a decision to mark each event or task with initials inside brackets to indicate who it belonged to. This clarified that a majority of the responsibilities were mine or shared between my family. This may not be surprising in households with women and children.

It was a bit comforting to my delicate self-esteem that I was more in demand than my husband (Oh, how I crave attention!), and since my spouse hardly ever checked the calendar, it didn't seem to matter much.

I was happy to find out that we could get separate boxes this year. Even though my youngest suggested that I should use the extra space for Miss Pup, I ignored the idea. It's not like she can read anyways. Whenever I write "Vet" on the calendar, she doesn't even react, so who knows if she understands what it means or not.

This year's Christmas present is a calendar that I find really beautiful. It's not the first time, because other years I also liked the gifts I received. The calendar has lovely designs from a company that makes pottery that I adore.

The schedule is hanging near some wooden racks that showcase the finest pottery products. Its colourful squares, with slightly disorganized writing, add to the liveliness of the atmosphere, especially when placed near the pottery. However, this was not always the setup of the household.

Four years ago, I had a calendar just like this one and made sure to update it every Sunday or Monday to prepare for the upcoming week. It was enjoyable to keep track of my family's bustling lifestyle throughout the year, even during slower times.

The columns for January and February were full of writing, and the same was true for most of March. However, something unexpected happened. A terrible virus appeared and spread quickly, and soon we were trapped inside strict rules that prevented us from socializing. As a result, those empty calendar squares remained unfilled and became a sad reminder of our changed world.

Instead, the only valid reason to leave our otherwise healthy household for an appointment was to take a Covid test in one way or another. Nothing else was feasible.

Looking at all the white space on the pages was quite disheartening. It reminded us of how empty and dull our days were back then. Maybe someone more creative than me could have seen this as a chance to use the pages in a unique way. They could have cut them up for art projects or used them as fancy wrapping paper. Another fun idea could have been to fill each square with something silly like "doing nothing" or "changing pajamas".

At some point, I realized that I could fill in the missing blog entries afterwards. Even though I hadn't prepared anything beforehand, there might have been something noteworthy that happened which I could write about later (probably about going for a walk or seeing a cruise ship).

It was a great feeling of relief when the successive Lockdowns finally came to a definitive end, and the global community began to slowly awaken from a period of social isolation - allowing me to resume the activity of writing with pen and paper, which in turn restored my sense of normalcy (and self-confidence).

Having a lot of space in my calendar this year has a downside that I need to acknowledge. I tend to enter information in the wrong column and assign events to the wrong child, which can cause disappointment and uncomfortable situations.

One of my children almost didn't realize that they had a work shift on Saturday, from 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. This isn't suitable for an 11 year old. However, having colorful pages to remind everyone of my importance is definitely helpful, even if it would be more helpful if people actually read them.