My monthly to-do list

I used to keep a monthly to-do list on an index card, with holes punched so that I'd move it from month to month in my planner.  Nowadays, because I've started making my calendar pages in LaTex, I just add this list to the front of every month.  

It seems weird to say that I remind myself to cut my toenails, but I have discovered that (a) cutting my toenails monthly has resulted in fewer holes in my socks and stockings, so apparently I didn't used to trim the toenails often enough before I wrote it down, and (b) writing down that I'm supposed to trim them means that my brain can relax a bit, not having to wonder "is it time yet?", but rather, knowing that the time will come when the list pops up again.  Likewise, ever since my husband and I suffered through a spate of bed bugs early in the pandemic, I relax a bit knowing that I'm doing monthly checks and that they keep turning up nothing.

At any rate, here's the list of things I check off my to-do list every time I transition from one month into the next:

• Trim my toenails
• Trim my hair
• Give the dog her monthly meds
• Check the beds for bedbugs 
• Check tires  [that is, check the air pressure in the car tires]
• Pull out my Tickler File

The last item -- the Tickler File -- is where I store paper reminders for things that will be relevant in a particular month.  February's file held a note for me as Associate Dean about spring break building access (I've now passed this along to the new AD), recipes for Valentine's day pizza and dessert, and a couple of birthday cards that I'll send out.  It also has the fabulous materials I pulled together one summer for Black History Month; it's fun to dust those off again.  

We're a week into February now, so this little reflection is a week late, I guess.  But even though the blog post is a tad delayed, the checklist got checked off right on time.  Fab!