Safeguard Your Life With a Franklin Covey Planner or Day Timer

You never really know when difficulties will arise in life, and in the midst of a stressful situation, it is extremely difficult to accurately reconstruct past events that may influence the present actions needed. One may rely on medical professionals to have accurate information, or banks, or businesses. However, mistakes happen. Missing information may be filled in incorrectly, or guessed at. Personal responsibility for keeping track of important events, treatments, and activities begins with us. A Franklin Covey Planner, or a Day Timer, can assist us, a tool for composing a record that can greatly assist us in those difficult moments.

In a computer savvy age, one might be inclined to keep good records of activities on a computer or smart phone. However, it is important to realize that when challenges or controversy arises, it is difficult to show a computer screen to an individual. Printouts are awkward, and email, though effective in professional and personal communication, is often not easy to use in communicating with busy medical professionals, bank supervisors, and other individuals we might need to share information with. Face to face is often the best means of obtaining assistance and explaining and issue. With identity theft and electronic fraud so rampant, it is less than desirable to share information by handing a smart phone over to another individual. A planner, however, is a simple way to first verify, then show and communicate, relevant dates and information. Further, a Franklin Covey Planner or Day Timer will have ample space for personal notes, medical highlights, and other information that may be relevant in your day to day activity.

 With electronic statements, payments, billing, and more, it can be difficult to keep track of all manner of financial information.  The disorganized individual may resort to scraps of paper and sticky notes.  A Franklin Covey Planner or a Day Timer can help in keeping better track of information pertaining to financial transactions.  Simply making calendar notations of due dates and amounts for bills can assist in keeping your payments on time.  Further, some of the Day Timer and Franklin Covey Binders will have space in which payment stubs or credit card bills can be placed for quick and easy access.  By simply making it a practice to write down the payment information on the due date and/or "pay by" date,  bad habits can be curbed.  Of course, it does no good if you don't use and look at the planner.  Still, this is a convenient way to visually survey one's obligations.

 Once you have made your payments, take time to record pertinent information in your planner.  Check numbers, confirmation numbers, amounts paid...record all on the date paid.  Further, at this point I cross through the notation of what was due/when, still legible, but helping myself to remember that the action is complete.

At some point down the road, I may need to verify that I have taken care of a payment or obligation.  My written record is easy to refer to, and even a year or two later, I can refresh my memory.  Using a Day Timer or Franklin Covey Planner makes for an easy to store record of activities.  Should a payment not be credited, the confirmation numbers, dates and amounts can be researched and communicated. 

Unusual spikes in utility bills often provoke frustrating telephone discussions with customer service representatives at the service in question, often followed by a session of telephone tag in which customer is transferred from one assistant to another.  Whether power or water, it can be a nuisance.  A written record of one's billing and payment history can help you to analyze any unusual activity, before making that dreaded phone call.  Many times, as a customer service representative for a utility company, I dealt with individuals who were upset about an unusually high bill.  Often, by analyzing the history, we could determine that there might be a water leak, for example.  Further assistance and advice could then be provided:  how to check for a leak, who to call, etc.  By keeping your own billing information in your Franklin Covey Planner or Day Timer, you can get a jump on the issue, looking for patterns in previous years or months.  The pages from these planners store neatly, and storage systems are available, as well.  Easy access to previous years' information can save your sanity in dealing with utility and other billing concerns.

 Another area in which planner documentation can be of extreme importance is in your medical or dental appointments and treatments.  My husband just had a crown come off, and the work had been guaranteed for a period of time.  The stress level began to rise, but looking at his planner, he was able to survey the time period of the treatments, and quickly ascertained that he was still within the period of guarantee.  Keeping notes about appointments, not just entering the date and time, but a quick follow up in your planner, can help when issues arise at some point down the road.

Medical billing issues are notoriously pesky.  Many insurances have strict time limits on submissions of claims from medical offices.  When dealing with an insurance company battle, it's wise to have a good record of your own, noting what was done, determined, ordered, prescribed.  Follow up on problems with claim denials can be lengthy and frustrating.  Not all office staff do what they promise to do in follow up, and it is important to keep track of whom you speak with and what they promise.  A Day Timer or Franklin Covey Planner provide a convenient way to record relevant information.  Make it a practice to put names, dates and times pertaining to such issues in your planner.

 In the midst of cancer related treatment over the past couple of years, a relative has had other health issues arise.  In the monitoring of these issues, it is often necessary to be able to communicate blood counts, iron levels, and more.  Further, moving from the office of one specialty to that of another, the information is not always readily for one or the other pertaining to care.  Keeping notes about blood counts and other measures are a way to be able to quickly answer questions.  In an emergency, this information may be needed, and can be more quickly accessed by the patient or relative, in order to assist health care providers.  A planner is the perfect venue for such information, whether Franklin Covey, Day Timer, or another.

In Las Vegas, there have been a couple of high profile medical malpractice issues in the last few years. The most recent related to an endoscopy clinic, which was implicated in a large number of hepatitis C cases contracted through improper disposal of materials. Re-use of the anesthesia vials used was among those areas blamed for the problem. A good record in one's personal planner is a means of verifying dates and treatments if such an incident might have personal impact.

 In simpler matters, such as giving medicines or taking temperatures, a mom can make use of a Franklin Covey planner or Day Timer.  If more than one of the children is sick, it can become overwhelming to remember whose temperature was up or down at a given time, whose medicine is due at what time.  Simple documentation in a household planner or organizer can keep Mom on track.  Further, if a more serious illness should present itself, that written information can be useful in examining patterns.  Reactions to medicines can be noted, for discussion with a doctor, though severe reactions would certainly imply more immediate contact. 

 Franklin Covey Planners, Day Timers, and other organizers and planners have long been useful to professionals and individuals for keeping appointments.  However, a planner can be a safeguard in both medical and financial aspects of your life, as you document pertinent information.  For the disorganized individual, everything in one place is a step toward keeping track and gaining control.  Regardless of your organizational style, a planner is a sensible way to keep important information accessible.