With such busy lives, it’s hard enough to remember day-to-day what happened in your life. If you have aging parents, at some point you begin to step in more and more in their lives. We often get asked for an easy system to help with remembering all the details, conversations and tasks we have with our parents.
Now don’t laugh. We find this very effective – and inexpensive too. It is a simple spiral notebook. You can get one for a just a few dollars at any store that sells office supplies.
The trick is to use this solely for your parents (or your aunt or family friend you are helping out). Write the date on a new line and the time too if this is helpful to you. Then just write out your notes. You don’t even have to be neat, just get them on the page and out of your head.
Your notes can include things like:
- The name of the new medicine you picked up for them
- A decision you helped them to make
- Reminding them where to look for a piece of paper
- A funny quote they made
- A story you heard about their life, or someone else in the family
- When you visited and what you talked about
The list is endless and will be unique to you. JUST DO IT!
Yes, we write in our calendars when we scheduled meeting or calls with our parents. But we don’t record what happened when we spoke with them. These details can help us tremendously later on. They allow us to see patterns in our parents behaviors. My Dad has mid stages of Alzheimer’s and reads alot. We’re not sure if he remembers what he is reading. He was just visiting for a few weeks and I asked him the same question every week to see what the answer was. Now his response is just a faint memory in my mind. I know my memory loss is from too much going on. Wish I had written it down. I now have a spiral notebook I use for my parents.
Using a journal can also help us remember where things are located. I do have a spiral notebook for each one of my senior clients. It has saved me a ton of time when looking for things like the extra cash they hid away and are now looking for. Or even silly things like where the scotch tape is (because its in a place that means something to them and not to me). Mostly, it allows us to focus on our own lives yet still be more effective in helping our parents.
Here are a few other tips…
If you write a note on scratch piece of paper, just tape it into your spiral notebook. Be sure to label the outside of the notebook and keep it in an accessible place. Don’t use the notebook for anything else though. This is not the place to permanently write all their contacts, account numbers and medical history. Use our Life Affairs Binder for this.
We know that managing multiple households can be taxing. Use this simple, yet inexpensive tool to help you!
Good luck and let us know how it is working for you!
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