I joked a few weeks ago about how being a PA in my previous life had prepared me for motherhood thanks to my experience of juggling diaries for numerous directors and Heads of Departments! I was wrong! I am now drowning in diary madness so I had no choice but to come up with a plan to manage my family’s schedule!
I thought I was being so clever having my girls close together, but the reality turned out to be very far removed from that ideal! It’s hard work! It’s chaos! It’s never really knowing who needs to be where for what or when! Don’t get me started on the fighting!
What’s the problem?
I am now faced with the scenario where I am trying to juggle Grade One school requirements with my husband’s work travel plans and charitable endeavors, not forgetting the fact that my four-year old deserves to have her own extra-curricular activities too, oh and not forgetting that I’m a human too (and a blogger!). The reality is that I am literally drowning in diary clashes and the conflicting needs of my family.
I know I am not alone in this so this week I decided it was time to ‘get a grip’ of my family’s diary! Here is how I am attempting to bring order to the chaos! Please note that I said “Attempting”, I’m not necessarily winning, but hopefully time will tell!
Step 1: A Blank Canvas
Get yourself a blank monthly calendar for at least the first three months of the year. You can either find these in some A4 diary planners but I just printed off one from my Office Outlook program!
Step 2: The Schedules
Decide who is most important which diary really impacts your life the most and start filling in their requirements first! Repeat for the remaining family members using different colour pens for each person.
Step 3: Conflict Management
Once your handwritten calendar looks like a spider stepped in ink and ran the length of the Comrades Marathon across your pages, get a highlighter and highlight any major conflicts that you see.
Step 4: Everything Else
Don’t forget to make a note of world events that might impact your neat plan, such as school holidays, public holidays and religious events. Note things that affect normal schedules such as public holidays, or holiday plans
Step 5: Make a call
At some point you might be forced to cut some things out that just become impossible! For instance, swimming lessons would trump art class for me, and my daughter’s birthday would trump a motorbike rally (just saying), but this is the hard part where you need to decide what is best for your family.
Step 6: Do it all again!
No, I’m not joking. Print off a new blank canvas and rewrite everything in a neat chronological order because I can guarantee that at some point the ‘Parent’s Evening at 18.00’ landed up being at the top of the box and the ‘Pack Swimming Costumes For School’ is at the bottom! That’s not ideal!
Step 7. Put It Up!
Pin it to the fridge or family notice board and then forbid everyone from adding to or deleting from the schedule without prior authorization – preferably written as otherwise you won’t have evidence when it all goes tits up! This mostly applies to husbands! Kids wouldn’t dare!
Additional Options:
1. Instead of a hand written diary you could go ‘all out’ and type one up using Excel! This allows you to colour coordinate it all and make it look all neat and orderly. However, I guarantee if you print it off and stick it on the fridge you’re gonna end up scribbling something on it at some point! #justsaying
2. Family Share Calendar function on your smart phone. I really can’t speak for any other phones but the iPhones have a Family Share option which allows a family group to share a calendar! I love it! It’s the easiest and best way for my husband and I to keep track of IMPORTANT events. He doesn’t care when swimming lessons are, and I don’t care what meetings he’s sitting in. He does need to know about Sports Events, Parents Evenings and our anniversary; I need to know what city he’s in and when I should clean the house can expect him home for dinner. I suppose it’s also useful for trying to plan date night or weekends away. It’s been a while though so I’m not really sure I remember how this works!
Obviously this is the way that I do it. It works for me and my family but I’d love to know how you keep track of your family’s commitments? Let me know if the comments below.
Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please share it. Hopefully this will help you organise your family’s schedule!
Very hectic… good luck ?
you are well organized .. keep it up
I haven’t even planned our schedule yet!!!! Pffffft going to be a disaster!!
My husband and i used the shared icalendar and its been life changing. No more of him “forgetting” any social events. Hehe
Exactly … I’m sure if more people used it the divorce rate would go down! lol
You read my mind!! This is where we are right nor in our lives – updating our calendars for the year. We have online calendars but now we need a hard copy one as it’s getting so much with my 4 year olds hectic life ?
The kids have far more hectic social lives than even I did when I was 21!!
Eish, I really need to get my butt into gear and start thinking about a schedule. It’s madness. How on earth did our lives get so busy with stuff. I love your idea of actually writing things down. I still prefer putting pen to paper (am I showing my age ;-) )but sSomehow it makes it all seem more tangible and doable.
I definitely prefer being able to visualise my week. Having it on my phone is basically the back up but the old-school ‘pin it on the fridge’ works best for me, especially with the kids.
I got a nice planner for the fridge because last year (and every year before that) was a disaster. I am reading this now realising there are many dates I’m able to pre-populate with info, vs the one item I proudly have for Feb: kids class pictures. LOL
Thanks for the reminder to really put some effort into planning. With 3 kids…..it’s a MUST!!! I understand with a travelling husband it’s insane….had same until my husband lost his job in November.
Shame has he not found a new job yet? That must be hectic for you guys. Sending lots of love!
Planning helps keep me sane. I need structure and order when it comes to everyone else. Although my stuff is a mess! lol
Got my daughters calendar yesterday so now to set and work it out, but i must say i do love structure and a big believer of planning things :)
Woah! You go girl!!
I’m great at making schedules, and I’m also great at not following them! ?
I’m going to try this, with business, things have been so crazy and hectic recently!
I like these tips, especially the blank canvas. Thank you
We recently did our google calendars so mine and hubby’s are linked and it’s still it’s choosing stuff over each other x
I’m not the best at organisation I must admit but I am trying to be better and making sure everything is on the calendar is a winner!!
We use a shared calendar over here, it makes like a bit simpler! X
I feel as though I’m constantly organising! Two in school and one in pre-school, the fun never ends ;)
Our schedule is RIDICULOUS! I now have a big white board in the hallway with everyone’s diary on it because I got so sick and tired of being the only one who’s responsibility it was to remember everything. However, remembering to update it is not my forte!
Love this! We have gone back to using a paper calendar instead of the iPhone share this year. Mostly because I completely ignore notifications on my phone, but if I see it on the calendar I will remember.