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Taking Care Of Business

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

Inspiration doesn't come easily or often to me, but when it arrives, it's a lollapalooza.

Several years ago, my husband and I were drowning in a sea of Post-It notes to remind us to return messages left on our answering machine. They were stuck to the kitchen cabinets and dangled from the fridge door. They lay in piles on the counter near the phone where they accumulated dust and continuously called us to duty. Sometimes we found them days later, stuck somewhere on the kitchen table or one of our chairs. Things were getting out of control! In desperation, I occasionally left them on our pillows.

Written in a slap-dash fashion, they were often difficult to decipher and challenging to return - that is, until I had an idea. Why not keep a spiral notebook in the drawer by the phone and write down the messages in the order we received them. Makes sense. Doesn't cost much. Keeps them in chronological order. We were frantic, so we tried it.

The first thing we began to do when we came into the house was to check the phone for the flashing light that indicated a message was waiting. Notebook and pen in hand, we replayed the tape, noting the date, time, name of caller and return phone number. Took only a minute, and the job was done.

The discipline continued to evolve. We began to number each day's calls and check them off in red pen once we had returned them. It felt so good to see all those red marks at the end of the day and realize we had done our duty.

So, it worked. Quality of life began to improve. The counters were clear, the cabinets were clean and the fridge door was available for more photographs.

The nagging angst that we had forgotten to return a call disappeared completely. Once it was in the notebook, it was set in concrete. We knew where to find it.

But the greatest bonus, completely unexpected when we began this experiment, was that we had a record of people's phone numbers and could call them hours, days, weeks, or even months later if we needed or wanted to talk with them. All we had to do was flip through the pages of the notebook. Our Rolodex began to feel neglected.

Now, several years later, we have two full 8.5-by-11 inch notebooks in the closet that read like a diary of our lives.

They tell the story of meetings we've been reminded to attend, clubs we've joined, people we've met, doctors we visit, victories and defeats we've celebrated and endured with family, and friendships we've nurtured for many decades.

The record reads like a disjointed novel: "Andy, new job going well." "Marvin in hospital." "Dr. B called re hip X-ray." "Paul has good news!" "Maida can visit in January." Sometimes it's fun to just leaf through the pages and remember.

I'm not sure whether it's access or control that's so exciting. Anything that brings order into my life is cherished, but these notebooks give new meaning to the words "taking care of business."

Judy Kramer can be reached by e-mail at JudyandOz@tampabay.rr.com.

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