Countdown Tip

My home page is iGoogle, which allows me to have all these lovely little gadgets.

I love the countdown gadget the most because it lets me countdown the days to awesome things like vacations, last day of school, Deathly Hallows...

But I've also discovered a fantastic other use for it.  I'm inputting important conference registration dates and grant application dates.  For example, there's a local conference that fills up quickly in the fall, so I put in the registration date, and now I can keep track of how many days until I can start checking of registration info (still 87 days to go).  There's also a grant I want to apply for through SCBWI, but I can't submit the application til February, so I put in a countdown for that too.

And yes, I could just do this on a calendar or in a planner.  But I'm not terribly good at using either.  I try.  I use my computer every single day.  I figured this was an excellent way to keep these dates in my sphere of attention.

Anyone else struggle with keeping track of dates?