And God said, “Let there be light in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years… Genesis 1:14
If you do not have a calendar you absolutely love and utilize to its fullest potential, today is the day to change that.
Quick Fix:
- Choose ONE calendar for your family and update it with all the things you currently have on scraps of paper and on varying calendars throughout your home. Add all events from church, from school, and from community events in this one place, so you are not constantly looking for papers with info that you need. Take the extra minute to add in details like addresses, and add things to shopping lists in the right time to purchase things needed for events. For example, if a birthday is coming up and you need to buy a gift, put it in there a month in advance so you have plenty of time to shop, wrap, and possibly mail it if needed.
- Have only ONE calendar that you use. If you like to use a digital plus a paper one (like I do), make sure one is the master calendar that you always keep updated with appointments and reminders. In my case, my digital calendar in my phone serves this purpose. It is great because it is portable, it is always with me. The family is all attached to is and are expected to add their events and appointments into it so that we know where everyone is. This is something they learn to do once they start working and have some independence from me.
- Your calendar should be portable. Take it with you when you go to meetings, when you go to church and want to note upcoming events, to the Doctor for scheduling follow-ups and adding in contact info.
- Train your children how to use the calendar. For example: My children are not allowed to move or write in my paper calendar unless given specific permission. All entries into the calendar (Except Birthdays and Anniversaries) are to be made in pencil if it is being added by a child.
- You can color code items if it helps (One kid’s activities in blue pencil, one in red, or sporting events in yellow and church events in green), but I have not found this helpful or necessary. It adds to my workload keeping up with all the pencils and colors. Cute, but a time waster. Some families love the colors, so make your own decision, but know you may change at any time if the colors get difficult to maintain. I did go through and highlight birthdays in bright colors to make them stand out.
- Teach the kids to look ahead at the calendar to decide what needs to be done ahead. Use this as a training time to help them learn to look ahead and plan. Plan a weekly time to review the upcoming week, then glance over the upcoming month so you can see where you need to do some prep work, arrange rides, buy or make something.
- Designate a spot/folder/drawer where everyone is to put any items related to the calendar. You may go through it weekly to add in any new entries and throw away the papers at that time. We have a bin I call my “Thursday bin” and everyone puts important papers there. They know I will go through it on Thursday so if it needs my attention prior to that, they can bring it to me. But any loose important papers anyone finds, brings home or gets out of the mailbox go straight there so we are never looking for bills, etc.
- If you do not have a regular folder where you store rosters and team info and all the other addresses and phone numbers you need, start one today.
My favorite resources:
Don Aslett How to Have a 48-Hour Day
Cozi Digital Calendars
