Life can get pretty hectic. You could miss paying important bills. You could forget to call your mother on her birthday. Or you could accidentally skip that dentist appointment.

You don’t want to kick yourself because you forgot something. Covering your refrigerator in post-it notes is one way to go. But a better solution is staring you in the face.

Several programs can help you keep your schedule straight.

This is an add-on for the Firefox browser. Your reminders will be right at hand while surfing the Web. Double-click the ReminderFox icon to add reminders and to-do items. Then, hold your pointer over the icon to see what’s coming up.

This is a small calendar program that sits on your desktop. Double-click on any day of the month to add an event. Events can be assigned icons. And they are shown right on the calendar. Upcoming events are displayed in an events pane. Or just roll over a day to see its events. You can set alarms for upcoming events.

Sunbird