<p>So for the past several years, I’ve bought an appointment book for the following year. Always the Week At A Glance, always dark blue. Today I was in Staples for the annual ritual and they had a turquoisey copy in stock. I made the breathtaking decision to buy it instead of the dark blue. I musn’t get dizzy from this heady adventure.</p>
<p>[TheMom still rolls her eyes about the fact that when we met, I wore Levi flares in three colors: dark blue, grey, gold. When those wore out, I got others in the same three colors. Repeat as necessary.]</p>
<p>Do you have the receipt? I’d return it and get the dark blue.</p>
<p>Then again it might bring you GOOD luck (I’d always think the opposite). I give you credit for making such a bold change…hope it works out for ya.</p>
<p>My husband also buys the exact same appointment book every year, and I would not venture to buy this for him for fear of getting the wrong thing.</p>
<p>It’s my impression that men are more likely to be creatures of habit than women. Do you agree?</p>
<p>TheMom and I have soooo much in common, as I am still rolling my eyes re the flared Levis (or reasonable facsimile thereof) with the white corded stripe that DH was wearing when first we met. Somehow, the winning smile overcame the outfit in terms of first impression. Amazingly, those jeans <em>disappeared</em> with no help from me. (I’ve always thought his secretary removed them from his suitcase when he had it sitting in his office awaiting departure for a business trip. She didn’t like looking at them either).</p>
<p>As to the turquoise day planner? Very metrosexual.</p>
<p>Fendrock,
I do think that men are creatures of habit…certainly around our place, repeatable chores are the ones my DH seems to accept…if the spouse is wise, we can even insert the chores into the “routines” without them realizing it…and before you know it, it is theirs to own!! </p>
<p>In fact, I had to go to a 2 wk training class shortly after I had our first child (now a college soph) and my hubby dealt with it admirably by going into what he called “military mode” where he had a schedule that was as tight as a glove…and I credit it with giving him confidence that he could go it alone…making it repeatable eliminated the surprises.</p>
<p>As I sit here at my desk, I am looking at my bookshelf and about 10-12 years worth of Week at a Glance appointment books, all in black. I didn’t realize they made other colors.</p>
<p>I also keep appointments in the computer, but I have to have my Week at a Glance.</p>
<p>hypothesis: women are more likely to approach small everyday tasks as occasions for creativity, men do mundane things on “automatic pilot” or by habit–they save creativity for significant projects more central to their identity. As with all gender generalizations --this is just “on average”.</p>
<p>Had to smile. My DH uses small spiral notebooks to keep up, crossing off stuff as deeds are accomplished. He has important numbers on the underside of the front cover. when he uses one up, instead of recopying those numbers onto a new notebook, he un-spirals the wire and re-spirals the same cover on a new set of pages!!! (Don’t think un-spirals is a word, but you know . . .)</p>
<p>More idle speculation about male and female tendencies – women multi-task more, which requires flexibility to do things differently at times – being a creature of habit addresses the need to feel in control of a situation, which is perhaps more a male charactertistic???</p>
<p>Both my 2005 and 2006 planners are dark blue, but I’ve had other colors over the years: gray, burgundy, etc. One year I went wild and got one with a faux-alligator skin cover.</p>
<p>On the fashion side, all my dress/office socks are the same brand and same shade of dark gray. I buy about a dozen pairs at a time. The dark gray color goes with anything, and the big advantage is they all match each other. Just throw them all into one heap in the sock draw and grab any two when getting dressed. No more anguish over any one sock disappearing in the laundry.</p>
I only wear white socks, I cannot stand black socks. The only time I ever wear dark socks is to job interviews and with my military dress uniform (where there is a regulation that states I have to.) Every other occassion I wear white socks. I wore them to my buddy’s wedding, and took a lot of crap. Dark socks make my feet itch, what can I say?</p>
<p>How is it that so many of my cyberfriends are Luddite Day Planner users? Let’s hear it for the PDA. No day planner for me since 2000 - and the PDA is smaller to boot.</p>
<p>My primary motivation for going digital with the day planner? The knot that would form in my stomach on Sunday evening when I would transfer all the “TO DO” items which <em>didn’t</em> get done last week onto the next week’s pages. Not good for the blood pressure. The PDA just holds onto that stuff without my giving it any thought. I can even hide the ones I don’t want to see, but they’re still there. (Don’t get me started on all the other wonderful features. I could be an Informercial).</p>
<p>Of course, if you routinely complete your entire To Do list right on time, well… carry on.</p>
<p>JMMom, it’s a bit irrational, I’m sure, but I’m leery of the PDA because it seems so much easier to lose and if you lose it, you lose a <em>lot</em>. It’s more like my financial calculator…I’m extremely partial to the HP 17B II…that I lost once. At least no data was lost and I was able to acquire a replacement for this no-longer-made item on eBay. </p>
<p>To Do lists are easy: I’m always being plied with notepads from Title Companies and they’re perfect. Rarely does a list make a second page and periodically I can just start a second list. And it stays by the computer at home.</p>
<p>Coureur, I split the difference on socks. I’ll have several different kinds but always several pair of identical gray socks that I can grab any two of when the light is dim. I recognize that some people probably mate their socks and roll them up immediately upon retrieving them from the dryer but, ah…I don’t.</p>
<p>The only absolutely verboten color for appointment books is that maroon, which can be taken as being too close to one of USC’s colors. Hence the blue is good. I’ve had black, I think I’ve had gray. This year there was also a bright red…I think I’d hate looking at it early in the morning.</p>
<p>I’ve never had the batteries run low or suffered a system crash and loss of all data with my planner book. I’ve seen both happen with PDAs. Also PDAs seem to be easier to lose for some reason. The day planner has always gotten me to all my appointments on time; if the system ain’t broke, don’t fix it.</p>
<p>I have a PDA- not a blueberry- but I lose scraps of paper- and it is smaller than what a notebook would be
plus bluetooth :)</p>
<p>on creatures of habit
my husband not only wears the exact kind of jeans ( levi 501- shrink to fit button fly) for all purposes essentially that he did when I met him- he wears the same size
that is really unforgiveable</p>
<p><em>what! didn’t I read the thread title? talking to these creatures of habit re a change to PDA? emeraldkity - have you noticed that it is the male of the species who are wedded here to their pen-and-paper Day Planners? Now, don’t any of you females come in here and spoil our theories.</em></p>