As caregivers, we often spend quite a bit of time away from our own home and computers. Doctor appointments, therapy appointments, babysitting for grandkids , etc. can keep us on the run and very busy. Being that busy can lead to unpleasant happenings like making a follow-up doctor appointment for an aging parent at the office, then forgetting to enter it into your computer when you get home. (Can you tell that’s something I’ve done before! ) Some of us with smart phones can add the appointment directly to the phone and sync the information when we get home. The two problems with that are:

1. Entering it into a tiny cell phone as we are juggling paperwork, purses, aging parents or young grandkids , along with the smartphone can make that a bit problematic.
2. Not everyone has a smart phone.

Most of us DO have cell phones though and I have a handy little tip to help with this and a zillion other situations. Did you know you can text yourself and receive the message in your email? The nurse at our doctor’s office didn’t know so I thought some of you might not as well.

All you have to do is set up yourself as a contact in your cell phone . Be sure you put in your email address . Next time you need to remember something, just quickly jot the information into a text message , list your email as the recipient , and hit send . When you get home, you will find the info in your email inbox, all ready for you to easily and quickly add to the calendar.

I find it’s much easier and faster just typing a quick message to myself than to try to add each item to each box in my cell phone’s calendar software. Not to mention how often I’ve tried it, then accidentally hit the wrong key and lost it all! Texting is not only easier, but I have a copy of it in the send file on my cell phone and my own email as well.

If you haven’t used texting, check with your cell phone company to see how much you will be charged for each individual text.  My kids and I use it extensively and have found it very handy so I have a plan that gives me a ton of texts, more than I ever use. But even if you have to pay, say 15 cents, for the text a couple of times a month, I would think it would still be worthwhile for us as caregivers to use to make sure we don’t miss another appointment.