I have a good tip for staying organized while you're planning your wedding. It'll help keep you focused and grounded, and it'll help you save money too if you're doing all the planning yourself. First, you'll need to get some things together.
Make sure you have my free wedding checklist (you can get from my website), a day planner, a wall calendar, and the "swap space" notebook.
I really recommend using Google Docs and Google Calendar for online sharing and storage of documents. Offline a pin-up wall calendar will be very helpful.
For the day planner, I've now started using Google docs. The reason is simple. I can share it with my bride and groom whom I am planning a wedding for. In your case if you are doing it yourself, you can share it with your groom. Set up a schedule on Google calendar so you can schedule appointments to see vendors and what not and it will show up on his calendar. This works even better if both of you have mobile phones with Google calendar capabilities. (There is an app for that). Having a pin-up wall calendar offline is also helpful because you can glance at it without booting up and logging in. And you can visually see the days and months progress.
And now for the swap space notebook tip! I got this from one of my computer-friendly friends.
Whenever a computer is doing a task, it loads all the information it needs into its memory, or RAM. While it seems like computers do a lot of things at once, in reality they do one thing at a time, even if you have a lot of programs running at the same time. Computers make this work by loading any information they're not currently using (any information not related to the one task they're doing at the moment) into what's called "virtual memory" or "swap space". That information stays in swap space until it's needed, at which point the computer loads it back into memory.
People are like computers in some ways.
Even though we may think we're multi-tasking, we're actually skipping around doing one thing at a time. Whatever we're directly focused on stays in our conscious memory, just like a computer's memory. Whatever we're not directly focused on moves to our subconscious memory, like a computer's swap space.
Yet in other ways people are not like computers.
We may be good at moving information into our swap space, but we're not so good at bringing it back to memory. Just think of the times you have a name or word on the tip of your tongue but just can't think of it. How about when you hear a song but just cannot recall the name? Then the name will come to you sometime later, but too late to help you. Humans are imperfect when it comes to recalling information from our swap space.
To avoid moments like this in your wedding planning, you need a Swap Space Notebook.
This is a simple little book that you take with you everywhere. Keep a pen with it too. Any time you think of something you have to remember for your wedding, write it down in the Notebook. Don't worry about organizing it or making it look pretty. The point is to get it down on paper so you can forget about it for the time being. You're moving your swap space from your subconscious mind to the Swap Space Notebook, and paper and pen is the fastest way to do that.
Once you're ready to focus on it, go back to the Notebook and see what's there. You'll feel better knowing that your brilliant flash of inspiration or recollection is recorded somewhere, so your brain doesn't have to keep tabs on it. You don't have to worry about forgetting, because it's in the Notebook.
Planning a wedding, you will find your brain will function in many the same way. These kinds of things are guaranteed to happen: You will all of the sudden think of the VERY BEST idea for a wedding favor. You will think all of the sudden the VERY BEST first dance song. You will think all of the sudden the MOST FUN reception game to play. You will all of the sudden remember THREE KEY QUESTIONS to ask your reception venue. And so forth. JOT IT DOWN AND DON'T FORGET IT!
And there's my tip to help you stay cool and organized. Congratulations and happy wedding planning!
Make sure you have my free wedding checklist (you can get from my website), a day planner, a wall calendar, and the "swap space" notebook.
I really recommend using Google Docs and Google Calendar for online sharing and storage of documents. Offline a pin-up wall calendar will be very helpful.
For the day planner, I've now started using Google docs. The reason is simple. I can share it with my bride and groom whom I am planning a wedding for. In your case if you are doing it yourself, you can share it with your groom. Set up a schedule on Google calendar so you can schedule appointments to see vendors and what not and it will show up on his calendar. This works even better if both of you have mobile phones with Google calendar capabilities. (There is an app for that). Having a pin-up wall calendar offline is also helpful because you can glance at it without booting up and logging in. And you can visually see the days and months progress.
And now for the swap space notebook tip! I got this from one of my computer-friendly friends.
Whenever a computer is doing a task, it loads all the information it needs into its memory, or RAM. While it seems like computers do a lot of things at once, in reality they do one thing at a time, even if you have a lot of programs running at the same time. Computers make this work by loading any information they're not currently using (any information not related to the one task they're doing at the moment) into what's called "virtual memory" or "swap space". That information stays in swap space until it's needed, at which point the computer loads it back into memory.
People are like computers in some ways.
Even though we may think we're multi-tasking, we're actually skipping around doing one thing at a time. Whatever we're directly focused on stays in our conscious memory, just like a computer's memory. Whatever we're not directly focused on moves to our subconscious memory, like a computer's swap space.
Yet in other ways people are not like computers.
We may be good at moving information into our swap space, but we're not so good at bringing it back to memory. Just think of the times you have a name or word on the tip of your tongue but just can't think of it. How about when you hear a song but just cannot recall the name? Then the name will come to you sometime later, but too late to help you. Humans are imperfect when it comes to recalling information from our swap space.
To avoid moments like this in your wedding planning, you need a Swap Space Notebook.
This is a simple little book that you take with you everywhere. Keep a pen with it too. Any time you think of something you have to remember for your wedding, write it down in the Notebook. Don't worry about organizing it or making it look pretty. The point is to get it down on paper so you can forget about it for the time being. You're moving your swap space from your subconscious mind to the Swap Space Notebook, and paper and pen is the fastest way to do that.
Once you're ready to focus on it, go back to the Notebook and see what's there. You'll feel better knowing that your brilliant flash of inspiration or recollection is recorded somewhere, so your brain doesn't have to keep tabs on it. You don't have to worry about forgetting, because it's in the Notebook.
Planning a wedding, you will find your brain will function in many the same way. These kinds of things are guaranteed to happen: You will all of the sudden think of the VERY BEST idea for a wedding favor. You will think all of the sudden the VERY BEST first dance song. You will think all of the sudden the MOST FUN reception game to play. You will all of the sudden remember THREE KEY QUESTIONS to ask your reception venue. And so forth. JOT IT DOWN AND DON'T FORGET IT!
And there's my tip to help you stay cool and organized. Congratulations and happy wedding planning!
About the Author:
Check out Kennly Yakamoto's HubPages Hubs: Inexpensive Wedding Dresses and Planning A Cheap Wedding Reception for more great wedding planning tips!
