This week’s Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by We Are That Family, is backwards–each blog is posting a dilemma and hoping YOU can help us with the tips!
It was hard narrowing it down to one dilemma, of course, but I had to go with the one that’s causing me the most problems right now: my calendar issues. I currently keep 5+ calendars. I said “keep,” but not keep up with. Herein lies the problem…
- I have a small checkbook-sized calendar, which is where I keep most everything, except the spaces are too small, and I mean to carry it in my purse except that half the time it’s lost on my desk somewhere.
- I have a meal plan calendar on my fridge, which is just a piece of paper, but it’s handy that it’s portable because I take it with me to the grocery store.
- I just bought a dry erase calendar for the kitchen, which is still leaning up against the wall because the magnets weren’t strong enough to adhere it to the fridge. This was my attempt to consolidate calendars–I wanted one place for our day-to-day activities plus meal planning plus whatever else I could squeeze on there.
- I have a blog calendar, where I’ve fleshed out what is happening over a two month period. Yes, I know, it’s hard to tell with all the craziness here sometimes, but I did (at one point) look at the big picture.
- I have several other extraneous calendars–the MOMS Club activities, my son’s school calendar, etc. but I just take the info of those and input them onto #2.
You can see why this is a problem. I still don’t know what I’m doing every day, and it causes me to forget I’ve invited people over, be prepared for things, and other embarrassing and/or stressful consequences. So help me, please. What do you suggest? How can I make things easier, more organized, and doable?
Go see the other Backwards WFMWs at We Are That Family.
before I realized it was backwards WFMW, I had made up a post about my mom’s calendar. It’s a full spread (no picture to take up the top half) and it’s got lots of lines and spaces to write lots of activities on. I can keep up with my menu plan, music lessons, activies, etc in one place and it’s magnetic so it hangs on the fridge in the kitchen (where I am much of the day).
I would consolidate to 2. I keep a dry erase, large one in the kitchen for our work schedules, my extra teaching jobs, dr. appts, family vacations, etc… I keep a calendar on my phone for when I’m out and then transfer that info to the dry erase at home. The dry erase is the BRAIN of our house….I just need one a little bigger these days!
I have this problem, too. I have a planner for work/life. And one for home on the fridge (so my husband knows what’s going on!). And then another one for meals. And if I ever get it together (ha!), I might have a blog calendar, too! It’s too much!!
Actually, I like Sharon’s idea of having two – a large one in the kitchen and a smaller, portable one to keep in your purse. I need to try this…
Also – I LOVE the look of your blog! It is so cute and organized and the background reminds me of scrapbooking paper that I adore – and I just love it!
I use my Blackberry to schedule appointments and update every day to our home calendar (from FlyLady – the best calendar I’ve ever used). Every activity’s calendar gets copied onto our main calendar and then tossed.
I have two calendars and they are both functional eye sores
One is my meal plan that stays on the fridge. I do my shopping list after I do the MP so I don’t need to take it anywhere.
I have one of those ugly free calendars I got in the mail in our kitchen. I put everything on it and since the kitchen opens up to the whole house we are always in there. It is a community calendar so it has community events already marked which is nice.
I don’t bother with a purse calendar anymore since I SAH now.
Obviously my blog is so new that I don’t have a lot planned
I have a ratty yellow legal pad the front page has the daily things I participate in- like MPM and WFMW- and I look the day before to remember what I’m supposed to do. Inside I have a running list of ideas that come to me for articles or sites I want to look at etc..
We go low tech around here
I have an ugly but functional desk calendar that I write everything in color code according to family members.
I keep my menu plans on a different sheet so I can file them and look back for inspiration!
I use Google Calendar. I like that I can access the same calendar from both home and work. Plus, I have it shared with my husband, so he can see what’s going on and add entries. You can have Google mail you your daily agenda every day, so if you check your email in the morning, you can see what’s on the schedule for the day.
I also keep a small day planner type calendar in my work bag with phone numbers and business cards stuck in it. That way I can call on my work breaks to schedule car repairs, doctor’s appointments, etc.
I bought at Michaels (for $1) a calendar that had a single month spanning two pages, so you had big squares. And I kept it on the fridge. But then, I got my new cell phone and it’s got a calendar on it, that I can sync with my computer, so it gets my meetings at work and I can take it home with me so I have the evening things on it too (this way I don’t accidently schedule a doctor’s appointment during a big meeting at work).
My Mom ran into scheduling issues once I started working in high school and my brother started getting active in other activities. She made a white board out of white contact paper that she stuck to a heavy piece of cardboard. Then she drew squares on it with a perm. marker and we each had our own color of overhead marker (so it needed water to be erased, and didn’t get erased when someone bumped up against it). She did two one for the current month and one for the next month and put magnets on the back of them so it would stick to the fridge. IT was huge (one took up the majority of the freezer door), but it worked (as long as everyone kept up to date with it).
I would not remember anything without my big dry erase calendar (also propped on a counter in the kitchen). I also keep an online calendar (I use yahoo). I think of it as my master calendar–EVERYTHING goes on there, and I use it to check and refresh my dry erase calendar. Also, I can access the yahoo calendar on the go from my phone or from other people’s computers.
My master calendar is on the computer (I use outlook.) Each Friday or Saturday morning I look at the coming week, make updates, plan my meals and then print three … one taped to the frig, one in my purse, and one next to my desk. Any appointments that come up I write on my printed calendar or just go directly to my computer since I’m on it so much anyway. The printed calendar gives the basics while all my notes are contained on the computer if I need to refer back to them. I’m pretty sure Outlook can also be sinked with PDA’s and such but I don’t own one of those
You all had a lot of great advice! I think the two-calendar approach is good, so I can have the master calendar at home but have one in my purse. But the online calendar would be useful, too. I didn’t know Google can email you the daily agenda. That could be a big help, too.
Hmmm…for now, I’ve put up everything I could for April on the dry erase, and I’m going to try it this month and see how it goes.
Thanks for all the great comments!