I got a small desk calendar as advertising gift. It shows three months at once. I’m using this thing since the beginning of this year and I have to say that it turned out to be super useful. I’m happily surprised.

It sits on my desk next to my rightmost monitor. I’ve set it up so that I can see the last, current and next months. Each morning, I advance the “today window” or whatever its proper name is. This gives me a sense of what date we have today and which I will have forgotten half a minute later already. At most. However, it’s easily at hand by turning my head just a few degrees.

With the last month still showing, I had several occasions so far where a date in the past popped up in a meeting. I could easily tell when something happened, how long ago that was. Or how many days or weeks are left until we have to deliver something, etc.

In hindsight, this is absolutely no surprise at all. But I still find it fascinating. I’m now actually wondering why I never had something like that before. How could I live without that thing? Sure, I pulled up a calendar on my computer, ncal -w3 or so. But I always hated the inverted ncal output, necessary for showing week numbers, though. Having a paper calander right next to my screen at all times is sooooo much more handy.

So, do yourself a favor and think about whether such a desk calendar might be useful to you.

The only annoying thing is that the “today window” moves too easily. It slips down by its own. I reckon it wants me to regularly interact with it, so that I memorize the current date.

do you mind sharing a picture ?

I can’t find something similar here, but my wife gave this one last year, and I’ve been using it a bit. I’d say it’s useful as you’ve shared.

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We also have a shared calendar in the kitchen for family events, and it’s working great.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I have never used a paper calendar. Before I was 23-24 years old I didn’t use a calendar at all. Since I was 24, I have used pocket computer based ones, until today. I have a personal calendar, and a family shared one. So do wife, and children.

Come to think of it, I don’t use writing/scribbling paper at all!

@bender@twtxt.net Me neither 🙌

@eapl.me@eapl.me @bender@twtxt.net @prologic@twtxt.net Not including a photo was a stupid move, sorry. There you go:

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This particular one is 95mm wide and 185mm high. Fairly compact.

I can only use it figure out distances to other dates and to do some basic calendar math. I’m not able to actually schedule anything. But I grew up with a month calendar like you have there where all appointments of the entire family was recorded.

By far most of my paper use is drawing random stuff on scratch paper during meetings. :-D

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@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Ah, yes, a calendar that shows the past $x months is great! I have this as a widget in my bar:

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Before that I also used something like cal. It works, but it’s a bit cumbersome.

ah! those german calendars. Somehow I was thinking of something like mine, with spaces to write inside each day.

I worked for a german company and they gave away these calendars to our clients and team every year, but the model you can hang on the wall. Memory unlocked!