Working (Mom) Moment: A New Use for the Camera App

Despite my love of the blog and all things social media, I still maintain a pen and paper to do list at work, in a basic, spiral-bound notebook. One of the best feelings in life is being able to physically cross off a completed task (I'm a big fan of a large X through the task). I also bring the list with me to meetings, so that I can add any tasks to it right then and there, and to my boss's office as we prioritize items and add more on. At the end of the year, when writing my self evaluation, I flip through the year's worth of lists to try and remember just how I've spent my year at work. So the pen and paper works well for me.

Until I'm sitting on the train, trying to strategize about my day ahead. Or I'm unexpectedly working from home, and left my list at work. Or it's Sunday night and I'm trying to get my mind back into work mode, wondering if there's anything little I can knock off my list first thing on Monday morning.

So somewhere along the way, I decided to start taking pictures of my to do list. Since my phone is always with me, my list is always with me too. I'm not spending much time transferring the list to another device, nor am I remembering to add or delete things to more than one location. If I've made significant progress over the course of a week, I might take an updated picture even though I haven't rewritten my list yet (something I do about once a week). I even consulted my photo when rescheduling a doctor's appointment - my calendar wasn't as helpful because I don't have every task scheduled there by its due date.

It's just another way that technology has improved the juggle for me; the addition of the camera app is a tiny change that helped removed some of the burden of remembering everything no matter where I am. I hope sharing it might help one of you too!