Right. I should send birthday cards to my friends and family but far too often, I forget. I have come up with many different strategies to try and remember. The birthdays are all in my electronic calendar, but that’s generally no good, because I don’t see them until the day itself rolls round.

So I’m trying desperate measures with IwantSandy to try and remind me. This is very much a belt and braces approach – lots and lots of reminders.

First of all, prepare a list of all the birthdays in the year. In my case, I e-mailed my super-organised mother, and she responded with all the family ones. Then I could go through my own calendar and add in my friends that she doesn’t know about.

Then I can send Sandy one humoungous email with all birthdays at once…

(NB if you’re American, you’ve probably told Sandy that Christmas is 12/25, so you will have to switch the numbers round)

remember @birthday @yearly +

* Nick Clegg 7/1
* Boss 15/1
* Mother-in-law 26/1 @family
* Best friend 15/2
* Dad 27/2 @family

… and so on all the way through the year

Then because I need a reminder before the day itself to give me a chance to buy, write and post a birthday card with any hope of it arriving in time, I have also set up an “early warning” list. It’s essentially the same list but with 4 deducted from each date

remember @birthday @yearly @earlywarning @twitter +

* Nick Clegg 3/1
* Boss 11/1
* Mother-in-law 23/1
* Best friend 11/2
* Dad 23/2

… and so on all the way through the year

Now, Sandy will email me and text me a reminder four days out for each of the birthdays.

But for a really belt and braces approach, I have also asked her to let me know on the first day of each month who’s birthday is coming up later that month

Remember January birthdays @monthlybirthdays @yearly 1st Jan

* Nick Clegg 3rd
* Boss 11th
* Mother-in-law 23rd
* Best friend early Feb

… and so on for each month.

This means that on the first day of each month, Sandy will email me with a list of everyone due to have a birthday in the next four weeks. Who knows, I might even remember to buy a whole stack of cards in advance, write them, and put them in the appropriate filing doodah in my 43 folders in my filing cabinet (43 folders still very much on @todo)

So far, each of these steps will work very well. But what do we do when appraised of a new birthday that wasn’t already in the calendar? Simple! One quick email to Sandy can update everything you need

Remember Friend’s baby (2008) 6/3 @birthday @yearly
Remember Friend’s baby (2008) 2/3 @birthday @yearly @earlywarning @twitter

Lookup March birthdays

When Sandy responds, she should tell you she’s scheduled both reminders, and give you a list of your March birthdays. To this email, you can then say

Update #3 * Friend’s baby (2008) 6th

Update #3 +* Friend’s baby (2008) 6th

NB – putting year of birth with someone’s entry can help you remember significant birthdays in the future. If they’ve only just been born, then pretty much every birthday is going to be significant for the next 21 years!

The one significant disadvantage of doing it this way is that you can get loads of rogue responses to your searches. If I now search Sandy for “Nick Clegg” he will come up on every birthday in the year because a copy of the initial email had his name along with everyone elses.