It’s back-to-school time again, and there’s no shortage of ideas out there on how to get the family calendar organized as you head into the new year.
Here are some tips I shared a few years back to make sure the system you choose works best for YOU. I hope they help!
1. Set an intention for the school year
Think about the words you’d like to use to describe your fall. Do you thrive on a burst of frenetic energy at the beginning of the year, or are you better off easing into the hustle? If you’re at home during the day, how do you want your days to go when the kids are at school? Will you participate in fundraisers? (don’t feel guilty if the answer is ‘no’.) If you want to read to your child’s classroom or visit the classroom, when will you do it? Will you exercise? Just envisioning how you’d like your fall to look can help you make plans fall into place.
2. Check in with reality
Now that you’ve thought about how you’d like the fall to go, make sure your plans are all going to fit. Check your calendar against the school year calendar, and make sure your schedule is realistic. Remember, nobody can – or should – do everything. That includes your joiner 13-year-old who wants to be in five clubs and two sports all at the same time.
3. Create a time management system that works for you, and plug in the details
No matter how cool that jumbo organizing system with eighteen different compartments, a zip-out change purse and a built-in calculator might seem, it’s utterly worthless if you won’t actually use it. Ditto that amazing new app into which you keep forgetting to plug your appointments.
It took me years to realize that I’m actually not a hopelessly disorganized, scatterbrained mess – I simply wasn’t using the right tools for my work style and personality type. After a lot of trial and error I realized a few key things about myself:
- Any planner held closed with a zipper simply never gets opened
- Ditto purse-sized calendars
- While smartphone technology is great for on-the-go scheduling, I need to write appointments and to-do lists down -with an actual pencil or pen, and sometimes more than once – for them to really “stick”
- I need one place to keep track of scheduled deadlines and appointments and a separate place for brainstorming and list-making – and it’s best when those dates and lists are hanging where I can see them many times throughout the day
I used these self-discoveries to create a planning system tailor-made to the way I work best:
- The first piece of the puzzle is my wall calendar, where I keep track of recurring deadlines and family-oriented dates – things that involve more people in the house besides just myself, or things that I really need to be reminded of with a quick glance.
- I also have two white boards – a large one that I use as a “master task list” to keep track of ideas and one-day goals rattling around in my brain, and one that offers a week’s worth of spaces for planning out the coming week.
- Then I tie all the components together with a notebook-sized month-at-a-glance calendar.
Even though it’s got a lot of moving parts, once I really figured out what I need in an organizing system, mine was a snap to create (and I had one of those “Duh, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!” moments once it was all in place.)
But that doesn’t mean you should copy my system wholesale, unless of course you totally identify with the way my brain works! Maybe you are the person who likes to keep it simple with a single planner or wall calendar. Maybe you need wall-to-wall whiteboards for doodling and brainstorming. Maybe you really are the person who can keep track of everything on a smartphone.
When it comes to organization systems, we all have unique needs. I love technology, but I’m a pen-and-paper girl at heart. I’m a “if it’s not in front of me I’ll forget” person. I’m a “the less possibility of me misplacing a calendar the better” person.
How about you? What calendar systems make the school year easier in your family?
Lead Image: Horia Varlan, via Flickr Creative Commons
I can absolutely relate to this post. I used to cringe and fill up with anxiety at the word “calendar” and “appointment system” because I was always trying to adopt someone’s method. What I realized is I already had the system in place and just needed a little tweaking. I’m just like you, 2 calendars and everything must be handwritten or it’s completely forgotten…out of sight, out of mind. I love my phone, and have downloaded every pretty calendaring app there is but they sit unused. Paper and pen it is for me!
This is totally me. I say “If it isn’t written in my book it never happened and it never will.” I use a moleskine weekly planner that has the days of the week on the left page and a blank sherry on the right. I am able to jot in appointments, birthdays, etc as well as my top daily to-do items and any billable hours worked. On the right I make my to do list for the week, record phone messages or short shopping lists that are not on my grocery list. I use my phone calendar as the backup. On the fridge we have a stick-on blank whiteboard for reminders for my husband or notes and a weekly schedule to record our regular activities, nightly chores, tv shows, and the menu plan. I also use my phone calendar to add my husband to appointments when I need him to be home to watch the kids. It updates his phone calendar.