Everyday Systems

Don't know if this fits as an ES but here is an Evolving System that I use for car maintenance.

Cars are rather expensive and breakdowns can be a very bad thing so good maintenance is important.

Problem: Wife and I can't remember when to do car maint. tasks. I keep a notebook in each car for a record of when maint. and repairs are performed but we still would miss some intervals because we don't check the notebook. So here is the 5/7/10 system and it has worked well for about 2 years now.

The 5 is for the oil change interval.
I used to change oil every 3,000 miles but, between several cars, it was hard to remember when I needed to change it next. So, now I change the oil and filter every 5,000 miles on the 5,000 (ie 20k, 25k, 30k miles). Easy to remember and we just check the mileage when we fill the gas tank. The manufacturer gives a 7,500 mile interval so 5,000 should be OK.

The 7 is for clean and check.
Every 7 days I clean the car (sometimes that's just wash the windshield) and check the fluids, tire pressure, and lights. Easy.

The 10 is for tires, brakes, and major maintenance.
Every 10,000 miles on the 10,000 the tires are rotated (plus balance and alignment if needed) plus brakes checked and any other major maintenance performed per the manual. This is done by a professional.

Point is that it's easy for us to remember that something needs to happen on the even 5k and 10k mileage intervals. Recording everything in each car's notebook helps my notoriously bad memory when I go "Did I change the oil in that car????"

Of course you can adjust to fit your own style or system.

Karl

Thanks for posting this, Karl. My solution has been "let my wife worry about it" (she drives to work, I walk) but I understand that won't work for everyone. I do find that having days of the week/month for certain cyclical/repetitive tasks beats the pants off of trying to keep track of them individually.

Examples:

On the "Financial 14th" of each month I write all my checks. This was inspired by the "bword" system described by brownstudy here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=23

On "Wet Wednesdays" I water my plants.

On "Furry Fridays" I trim my beard (and my furry cats' claws).

The one I'm having trouble with is haircuts. Once a month is a little too often, once every two months not quite enough. My current policy is to go no more than one complaint from my wife or mother without going to the barber. They're very obliging. That's sort of the problem.

Reinhard

Hi,
We're the opposite. I take care of the cars and my wife handles all of the finances.

Yup, the real point in my ramble was just to find an easy to remember trigger for these car tasks or I'm likely to forget to do them. That seems to be one part of the foundation for an everyday system. I like the wordplay in your weekly memory triggers - good mnemonics.

There was only about a 6 month period in my life when I could walk to work - and I really liked it. Otherwise I'm always on the other side of the city from my job or I need the car for the job. Ugh.

Karl