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This week I kept my to-do list on my phone.  For the first time, I had no paper trail, just an electronic one for my week.  I have become better at typing with my thumbs, and the scheduling went better than having to flip back and forth through a day planner.  I’ve also started using the voice memo function.  That is directly thanks to Jennie Breeden.  I watched her record things on her phone, and it was new to her, too, but she did it, and it helped her keep track of ideas for comics.  I asked Jon if my phone did that, and it did.  So, this week I started putting voice memos on to remind me of things to transfer to the task list, or the calendar.  I find that a quick spoken message is twice as likely for me to do, rather than that vague, "I should write that down so I won’t forget."  It’s still not a perfect system by any means, but it’s worked better, and I have hopes that with practice it will actually be a good system, not just a better one.  I either have to use my tech better or hire a assistant just to organize Jon and myself.  I’m not sure there is enough work to hire a whole new person just for that, but Darla, who used to do more of it is more and more taken up with the fan club, merchandise, and the web site.  Mary, who was helping organize is more and more taken up with the rest of her job, as well.  Everyone here has had their job expand lately.  Jon used to be more assistant, but his job title when I introduce him now is Creative Partner, which is more accurate, but as I’ve swallowed him into the creative side of things it’s left a whole in the whole right brain organizational part of the work.  So, technology to the rescue.

One of the things that let me be brave enough to do this was e-mail.  I’ve finally understood what e-mail means to other people.  It’s the same as sitting around a table talking to your friends, but it’s electronic.  But it’s a conversation, not letters.  I really didn’t understand that until just recently.  I’m making friends that I’ve met in person, but that live too far away to see every day.  Years ago, you’d have been pen pals, or phone calls to maintain the friendship, but now you have e-mail. It’s faster than a letter, and almost as immediate as a phone call.  I have to admit that I miss phone calls, voices, inflections, but I’m getting into the spirit of things with little emotives.  Instead of dreading checking my e-mail, and seeing it only as adjunct for work, I’m seeing it as a social positive.  I look forward to checking e-mail because they’ll be things in there from friends and people that are actually about fun in my life and not just work.  So, I look forward to e-mail, and I kept my calendar for the week on my phone.  I have finally gone over to the tech-side.