Forget about the stress of keeping it all organized when a school year is about to begin. Here we are 6-7 weeks into the year…knee deep in dates to remember…and NOW is the time I decided we needed a better system for keeping it all organized. It all started last week when I forgot a few things on the calendar.
*hanging head in shame*
Happens to the best of us.
Last week, when those little snafu’s happened, I was forced to sit down and re-think it all. Not just the family calendar, but how I monitor the paper coming into the house. School papers, art work, bills, after-school activity paperwork, church commitments, deadlines, and more. The piles were making me nuts. And the dates / deadlines were being lost amongst the piles.
Tough with 3 small children in school.
While out and about shopping, I’ve been looking at new calendar that might work. I stumbled upon this weekly calendar at Target and knew it could be the answer…
The bright colors caught my attention. And I love the small post-it notes attached to the side…
As well as the clearance sticker on the back!…
For $5.87?!…this calendar was worth a chance! If you can’t find one at your local target, there’s a few versions available on Amazon – here.
It comes with 2 command adhesive strips, if you intend on hanging it…
In the same section, Target was clearing out their post-it flags…
Couldn’t wait to get home to fill in the colorful squares…
How I plan to use this calendar: I’m keeping the main calendar pad in the office – front and center on the desk…
When papers come home, they immediately go to the office. I don’t like to see paper in our living space and they are more prone to get lost when they hang around out there. Additionally, most of our teachers, coaches, and other leaders e-mail important info to us. With the calendar sitting on the desk, all I have to do is grab it to write something down…
Last night, I tore off the top sheet that has our family calendar for this week and attached it to the side of the fridge…
I WILL see this calendar daily…sometimes hourly…because the counter directly next to the fridge is where lunches, snacks and drinks are prepared. And it’s located near the phone. At the end of the day while doing my prep work for tomorrow, I quickly see our 7 (almost 8!) year old needs his library books for school tomorrow. One less thing to do in the morning…and one less thing for me to forget…
This calendar is going to be in use for the next several weeks so I’ll let you know how it’s working!
I use the calendar on my email program which is great for me… I'm always online! 🙂
Hi there!
And I think that right there is my issue – I'm not always online. So, the technology does work well but I'm not always online to check in. With my 2 year old on my leg all day, having some things written down really helps me out 🙂
I guess we need to find what works best for each of us….I was trying to make technology work for me – so hard. Haha!!!
Sam 🙂
Me too – everything goes on my work calendar. Only problem is the weekends I don't work from home.
Oh yes, those weekends can be an issue 🙂
The calendar is working very well for us this week!
Sam
I love this idea. I work much better week to week. I have a monthly binder but I need to see what is going on week by week. I use a dry erase board on the side of my fridge. The only problem with that is you have to erase and re write. after awhile, they don't erase very well. I am so going to Target tomorrow and picking one of these up! My husband use to work for 3M and I had so many post its. I guess you never realize what you have until it is gone. 🙁 I miss them. We had them in every color and for every season. Not to mention all the other products 3M makes.
Thanks for sharing this with us! Have a great week.
I'm so glad you love the idea – it has been working sooooo well this week …. And it's only Tuesday 🙂
Today I sat down at the office desk for 1 hour and ran through alllllll of the stacks of paper and got everything written on the calendar. I'm loving this! Maybe I'm a paper girl after all 🙂
Wow, what a resource that must have been for you! So sorry he doesn't work there anymore. 🙁
Sam 🙂
I love this idea! I always bounce around from calendar to phone to notebook…never knowing what is most efficient.
I just launched my own blog last week, and would love to have you check it out! Any comments and feedback are always wonderful! http://www.mymiseenplace.com
I'm bookmarking your blog!
thank you so much! i hope you are able to find this calendar – i really love it!
thank you for sharing your new blog with me too. i will definitely pop over to check it out!! 🙂
all the best,
sam 🙂
I still use a paper version of a planner for everything. I used to use BusyBodyBOoks, but she went out of business. TOok me weeks, but I found a similar planner, although it's smaller. There are times I don't have enough room to fit stuff in boxes. You mentioned Cozi. I have heard of it. Would you consider blogging a tutorial? I might consider trying it if I know a little more about it.
yes, we really like the cozi site and i will definitely add it to my list of tutorials! no problem…might take me a bit to get around to it, but i will do it. in the meantime, here is my post where i talked about using cozi…
http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com/2011/11/get-your-family-schedule-organized.html
all the best,
sam 🙂
Ok Samantha…here is what I have learned in all this. I HAVE to visit your site daily because you have the best ideas and I keep missing them!!!!! I did get Cozi set up this w/e…worked a long time on it. I LOVE the colored dots for each family member. I will go and read your post now!!! THANK YOU!!! LOVE YOUR BLOG!!!
WOO HOO!!!! My calendar was shipped today!!!!
Yay!!!