than two months. I try, but inevitably I hit a rough patch. Typically, this happens during the few days following a really busy period—I'm so exhausted from the intensity of the preceding work that I find myself unable to even mention the word "to-do" without breaking into a cold sweat. This happens to everyone, and you can expect that periodically it will happen to you too. Don't fear these occasions, and don't let them make you feel like a failure. They're normal.
The key point is that these lapses are temporary. After a couple days of swearing off my calendar, I always find myself growing uncomfortable with the increasing number of obligations that are free floating in my mind. Before I know it, I'm back into the swing of using the system again, and no worse for wear. The same will be true for you. Once you have learned the power of feeling organized, you will have a hard time going long periods without it.
Fortunately, the system described here is adaptable to these periods of neglect. If you skip a few days, all you need to do upon restarting is to dump all the to-dos and deadlines free floating in your mind onto a sheet of paper and then push these back onto your calendar for future dates.
Case Study: A Monday with Stephen
