It seems that tracking schedules is a task that progresses and changes as technology and personal needs change. I grew from tracking life in a cute notebook that I designed myself in high school to my first realFranklin Covey organizer with a leather cover that made me feel officially like a grownup. With the technology age came digital organizers…unfortunately for me, after I went through a few versions to finally find the one that worked for me, they were no longer the “in” thing to have. I tried tracking my schedule through Outlook, but that wasn’t mobile enough for me and printing it off seemed like a waste. Like everyone else, I moved to tracking everything important in my cell phone. The biggest dilemma with that was talking to someone on the phone, in an attempt to schedule something, and not being able to easily look at the calendar in my phone to know if I was available.
So…what is my current magic solution for organizing the schedules of my family members? Google Calendar. It only took a few minutes to set up calendars for myself, my husband and my tween as well as cross reference them so that we can all see each other’s schedules. I also set up the administrative options so that I am able to schedule things on both my husband’s and my daughter’s calendars. Now it is easy for ALL of us to see where we need to be so that we can plan accordingly.
Another great factor of Google Calendar are the alerts. If we actually had the time (and memory) to track everywhere that our family needed to be, then we would not need the calendar. The reality is that we are human, life gets busy, and we do not always remember every activity or appointment that we have. Google Calendar allows the use to set up reminders in the form of email, pop up, or a text message. The user is able to set up the reminders at whatever time intervals they need and they are able to vary by individual appointment. I am able to also set up multiple reminders…a reminder two weeks out so that I can set up daycare as well as a reminder 2 hours in advance so that I am able to make sure everyone is ready to head out the door on time. The text messages are great for when you have a busy day or know you will be on the go. It allows my husband to get a reminder that he can’t stay late at work because he needs to make it home in time for Parent and Me Tumbling.
An option that I personally like is the daily agenda. This option allows the user to get an email at about 5a.m. with their complete schedule for that day. This may not work for everyone, but I have a morning routine of checking my emails, checking my Facebook for messages from my friends, and checking the daily news headlines before starting my day. This allows me to have my full day in one handy reminder. An extra feature to that, in which I love, the subject line tells me that I have no activities on days in which I have nothing scheduled; this allows me to save the time of actually opening the email just to find out that I have nothing scheduled.
Having things “to do” is not just having scheduled appointments. Google Calendar also has a task list section that allows me to put in my daily (or monthly) “to do” list. Since not all tasks are created equal, Google Calendar allows the user to prioritize as well as put in specific dates that a task has to be finished. Once there is a date associated with a task, it will show up on the calendar in a nice red bubble so that the task is easy to spot.
This system is only as good as the user…someone still has to input the information. It takes getting into the habit of using it. Now that I have my husband on the same page, this system is working really well for us in getting our family organized.
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