Remember the tulips

How to send reminders to your future self

In my part of the world, the tulips are in full bloom right now. I love to see rows of these colorful flowers. I’ve even been a tulip tourist! One of my favorite experiences ever was seeing Keukenhof Gardens and the tulip fields in the Netherlands in April. Wow. I don’t get to visit the Netherlands that often but I’ve also been to Holland Ridge Farms in New Jersey for their annual tulip festival and it is impressive too.

When we see beautiful tulips in April, it’s natural to think “I’d like some of those blooming in my yard!” But here’s the catch: tulip bulbs generally need to be planted in the fall. To have tulips blooming in April, you need to remember to buy the bulbs and dig the holes in October — when there is no obvious nudge to do that.

Notes to your future self

So how does one remember the tulips? You need a system to remind Future You to think of things. April You needs the ability to tell October You to get those bulbs planted!

I’ve found that the most straightforward way to do this is to have a designated weekly planning time when you know you will always look at your calendar and think about what you need or want to do in the upcoming week.

I tend to suggest planning on Fridays, but the actual time doesn’t matter as long as you trust that you will do this weekly ritual.

Once that ritual is a habit, then you know that if you put a note on your calendar for a future planning time, there will be a time when you see that note, and plan with it in mind.

So, for instance, if you plan on Fridays, on some April day when you see the tulips and think “hey, I’d like some tulips next year,” you can make a note on your calendar for some Friday in the fall about the tulips. Then, come that Friday, you will see the note. You will either put tulip bulb planting on your to-do list for some point in the next week, or you will push it to the next Friday to reconsider. But either way, you will remember the tulips in the fall, even though this is not the obvious time to remember the tulips.

More than tulips

This works for many things beyond tulips. For instance, I have successfully made a number of reservations for things that tend to sell out quickly. We’ve stayed at Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone, eaten at French Laundry, gotten tickets to eat breakfast with Santa at the local botanical garden, etc. When I think of these things, I put a note to myself on the calendar for the Friday ahead of the slot when the reservations open, in addition to noting the window on my calendar. Then, when I plan my upcoming week, I can build the reservation window into my model. I know not to take a phone call at 8 a.m. Tuesday if that’s when the window opens (and I care enough about the thing in question).

There aren’t that many occasions when I need to get reservations for stuff in a specific two minute time frame. But there are a lot of things in life that are worth thinking about ahead of time that aren’t particularly time specific.

Indeed, I find this ability to communicate with my future self about potential future desires to be one of the biggest, but less-well-known benefits of planning. I’ve been pondering getting holiday lights put up by professionals, but as you might imagine, when I thought of this in November last year, everyone was booked up. So now the note is in September! My future self doesn’t have to do anything with that note (really, she has a mind of her own). But at least she won’t forget until she sees the obvious nudge of other people’s Christmas lights — a pretty good sign that it’s too late.