Calendar Tips from an Organizing Expert

Calendars help us organize our day, week, month and year. When kids start heading back to school, calendars help us manage busy schedules and ensure we don’t miss important events.  Calendars are a time organizing system that works whether online or on the wall. The challenge is to be consistent and work it to your full advantage.

Use your calendar to schedule school activities, sports schedules, work-related events, social engagements, birthdays, kids’ chores, holiday planning and more. Here are some tips on staying organized with calendars.

Consolidate Calendars

Use only one calendar for the household. Use a color code to identify each person’s activity. Kids can have their own in their bedrooms to keep track of homework and chores.

Make the Calendar Accessible to All

Put the calendar in your command center – where paper work is processed and in an area that is accessible to everyone in the family. It’s not so much about where it’s located as it is about easy access.

Stay Consistent

Be consistent in adding entries. Whenever an invitation or an activity from school appears, immediately add it to the calendar.

Work it

Whatever your personal preferences, use the calendar daily to stay organized. If you like an electronic calendar, use that. Some people print out daily electronic entries for easy reference. If you like paper, use that.

What kind of calendar to use depends on your preference and lifestyle. An organizing expert can help you identify the calendar that will work best. I know families who on Dec. 31st of each year ceremoniously review the year’s events through their calendar entries. At-A-Glance Academic Monthly Desk/Wall calendar includes lots of space for notes. It’s versatile as a wall or desk calendar and includes six months on the page so you can reference dates as you make entries.

For people who like to carry their calendars with them the At-A-Glance Planning Notebook is a good size at 6”x9”. It has perforated pages, a two-year calendar reference at the bottom and a Hot button area to highlight what’s most important for that day. This type of calendar is good for keeping daily appointments organized and not getting overwhelmed by lots of activities marked on a monthly calendar.

For families with young children, the stickers and fun characters appearing in Sandra Boynton’s Mom’s Family Calendar might keep them engaged with calendaring. 

No matter what type of calendar you select, thoughts to remember are accessibility, consistency, and daily use. I recommend interacting with your calendar daily to establish a good habit. Even when nothing is scheduled, take a minute to write down something you accomplished, you are grateful for, or even a wish. Using your calendar daily will keep you on track. To learn more about calendaring and other organizing systems that work, email me.