ORGANIZE WITH A CALENDAR {FOR THE CEO OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD}

This is part of an on-going series LBDDiaries and I are doing on keeping our Inner Aloha/Peaceful Life


Now that school is back in for most of us our lives have started getting busier again.  Gone are the kicked back summer days.  This doesn't mean we have to lose our "Aloha".  I refuse for it to mean this so I have been putting a lot of time into researching how to control the chaos.

One thing I have found VERY helpful is my calendar.  LOVE LOVE LOVE my calendar.  It is called "Mom's Family Desk Planner and it's by Sandra Boynton.  You can purchase them at several locations and online but I recently found them at Costco.  It's a 17 month school year planner so there is room to write things for the following school year during the current school year.  This has proven to be WONDERFUL.

Of course there is always your calender on your phone which works well and you can set alerts. I use this as well.  I like it because I almost always have my phone with me but I still love my desk planner.  I put it in my purse and that way I always have it with me.

At the beginning of the school year all the junk mail IMPORTANT papers come home and while I'm filling out what I need to fill out and send back to school I grab my calendar and I write down all the events that are on the school calendar.  "No school days", "Early release days", etc.  Then each week when the "Bulletin" comes home I again grab my calendar and write down all the dates/times of upcoming events they are announcing.

What is great about the Mom's Family Desk Planner is there is one column for MOM and one for the RUGRATS.  So I can see at a glance which column it is written in and know if it is something for me or something the rugrats are doing. 

I don't know if it is because I have my own special space and with rugrats that is hard to come by so I just get so excited (even if it is only a column on a calendar) but it's mine....all mine..... ahhhhhhhhhhh.......MINE!  Ok, sorry..

AND for the family to have an easy look they also make it in a big wall calendar.  Now this one has more columns.......everyone gets their very own column (unless you have more than a family of five, which I do but now one of my Rugrats is out on his own so I don't have to split a column between two of the children anymore) so you can record their activity in their own column and you can see at a glance who has something that day. 

At the top of the calendar there is a blank space that you can fill in your Rugrat's name and the very first column is for MOM... that's because we are the CEO of our households and we must always come first. HA....It was worth a try.....

Now remember if you do not take the time to write the appointments and events down in your calendar IT WON'T WORK.  Or if you do what I have been guilty of and you don't look at the calendar to see what you have coming up IT WON'T WORK.

I look at my calendar every night after dinner.  Why do this instead of just looking at it in the morning?  Because when I wake up and see that my calendar says "Bring 2 dozen cookies to Rugrat's class" I don't want to have CHAOS sirens going off that morning.  I want them going off the night before. 

But what I do to TRY (key word) to avoid the CHAOS even more is.......

Example:

Susie needs 2 dozen cookies taken to class on Tuesday.  On Monday's date my calendar will say "Susie needs cookies taken to class tomorrow"  AND when I find out I need to do this, along with writing on my calendar, it gets written on my grocery list (future post coming on menu planning/grocery list/budget) so when I need to make the cookies on Monday it doesn't become "A WHOLE THING" as I like to say because i don't have the ingredients to make them and now I have to make a special trip to the store, etc.  .  

Calendars are so important.  Businesses use them all the time.  Why?  Because they have to keep track off all the appointments and jobs they have going on.  Who would expect them to remember all of this information without a calendar?  Nobody would.

Well as the CEO's of our household we have a lot to keep track of and who would expect us to remember it all without a calendar?  Nobody would, EXCEPT ourselves.....

Let's give up trying to fly by the seat of our pants and then beat ourselves up when we "forget" things.  Let's take the 10 minutes to sit down and put things on our calendar's as they come in.  It will save a lot more than 10 minutes in the long run. 

***I have found a great time to fill out my calendar is when I'm sitting and waiting for my rugrats to finish guitar lessons or soccer practice or wrestling practice.  Instead of sitting and thinking I have so much to do it's a great idea to fill in your calendar or start making that to do list.

To see the previous Aloha post click here "organize & reduce stress".......For more information on our Aloha journey be sure to go visit LBDDiaries and drink up a cup of her wisdom.

Ciao Bellas~

MOMMA