Before we get started on today’s topic, I am wondering how you are doing with your morning routines? Come on fess up? I have been getting up at the time on my morning routine since Monday and it is getting easier for me. My mornings are going better so I know this is worth it. This morning I was done early!! That never happens and I even put a roast in the crockpot for French Dip sandwiches. If my mother is reading this she can personally attest to the how amazing this is, but I am caught up on my laundry! This morning I went down there and washed sheets since I didn’t have enough clothes for a load. Trust me, usually you can’t even get into my laundry room. My mom has come to stay before and always would get me caught up on laundry, but it only lasted for a week or so.This time I got caught up on my own, just by doing my morning and evening routine!
Now, on to calendars! Over the years I have tried many different things to get track of the many aspects of my life. I am very happy with my current system. I have tried to only have one calendar and that has not worked for me. I am very visual, so I need to see the month at a time.
At home, I have what I call calendar central or you might call it the side of my fridge.
I have had the same calendar on the side of the fridge for about 8 years and I LOVE IT!I am a former flybaby (follower of Flylady at Flylady.net). Every year I purchase a calendar from the Flylady shop.It is a great calendar with large boxed to write in. It is great for keeping all the family stuff on. This is the calendar that hubby and kids look at to see what is coming up. You can look at and purchase this calendar here. http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlyShop_calendar.asp
I used to try to keep my home chores and everything on my calendar as well and I no longer do that. I use Yahoo Calendars (free online at http://calendar.yahoo.com/) as I showed you in my morning routine post on Wednesday. I enter my weekly cleaning jobs as well as monthly and yearly items on my yahoo calendar and have them reoccur as needed.
I just discovered something very cool about Yahoo Calendars. This is a life saver for me. If you are familiar with the techniques of the Flylady, you know how important a timer can be. At home I use a timer to remind me that I have clothes in the washer and many other things. With Yahoo Calendars I can set up each item of my morning routine with a reminder that is texted to my cell phone –free of charge! I do have unlimited texting on my phone. I tend to get absorbed in a task and lose track of time. Now in the morning my phone texts me to say “Get out Of BED”, and then at 5 minutes before I should be switching laundry my phones texts me “Switch Laundry/Empty Trash. You might think this is obsessive, and maybe it is, but it has been so very helpful to me. I easily get sidetracked. I also use the Yahoo calendars to remind me to do things I forget. I just set a reminder for at noon each day that says “take medication”.
Ok, I might as well reveal all my geeky tendencies. I also use yahoo calendars at work. Each morning I decide what I need to get done and set them in my Yahoo calendar so I stay on track. So if I am setting aside 1 hour to respond to email, I set that into my yahoo calendars and set an alert for the next task as well. This way time does not get away from me and I only spend 1 hour on email and then I move on to my next task when my phone texts me and says to start the next task. I have been WAY more productive at work using this technique.
Work Calendar: I do keep a paper calendar that I carry with me everywhere! I use a Weekly/Monthly Planner that runs from July 2009 – June 2010. I am too busy in January to change calendars so I use an academic one. I write anywhere I have to be on this calendar. This includes work, church and personal commitments. 
My work also likes if I enter my calendar onto my outlook. They want to know where I am as I can be out of the office at appointments a lot of the time. My son convinced me that I needed a smart phone and now I wouldn’t be without it! I sync my smart phone to my outlook at the office so I know what is going on and have all my contacts with me as well. Very Handy!
What to do with the various school and soccer calendars??
I enter all the dates on the school calendar on my work calendar. My kids are in two different schools that have different schedules. I enter everything in and put the original calendar away for safe keeping, more on th
at later.
For the monthly school lunch menu and the classroom schedule for Tommy, I have that hanging on a closet door by the door so we can review it each day on our way out of the house each day.
Wow….just typing this up I am realizing how much it really takes to keep me this organized. If you wear less hats in life you might be able by with less, but I have many hats and it takes a bit to keep me on track. Oh how my mind wanders!
Please share with us your ideas to keep yourself organized. I look forward to hearing for each of you!
HOMEWORK: Find a calendar that will meet your needs and start filling in important dates for the upcoming school year. The best way to start using a calendar is to have one!! The Home School Mom has some free online planners to get you started. The website My Free Calendar Makers has all formats of calendars: yearly, monthly, weekly and daily.
Stop by on Monday for Reader’s Questions Day. You have a question and I will answer. Please leave your question in the comments of this post and I will answer your question on Monday, August 3, 2009.
Have A Great Weekend!
I love calendars, too! I have a flat one (year at a glance) stuck under my key board, I have a decorative wall calendar in the kitchen (mainly for b-days, anniversaries & reminding me of the current day of the week!!!), I have a small wall calendar in my walk in closet, . . .
. . . BUT, MY BRAIN CALENDAR is an appointment calendar by the kitchen phone. One in a leather book – a month at a glance style. Each month I re-copy doctor’s numbers (etc.) into the margins of that appointment book.
Fortunately, for me, my family is “trained” to use the appointment calendar or to use a magnet on the refrigerator to post a new appointment, until it can be written in the appointment book.
I never throw the pages of my appointment book away – I file the old years. Many times I have retrieved those pages to reconstruct what happened three years ago or the name & number of a person we dealt with years ago.
calendars
I have a calendar on the fridge at home but I really don’t use it. What I use is a homemade planner.
It is a large black 3 ring binder witha zipper. When you open it one side has 3 expandable files that I keep whatever I am working on at the time. (meal planning, budget or schedule updates)
In the rings I start with my daily planner. The top section is for MIT”S “MOST IMPORTANT THINGS” this is the 3 items I must get done today. There is also a section to break down my “TO DO LIST” by time.
The next section is for my weekly schedule. Here I list my meal plannign for the week and our schedules.I like to look at my schedule a week at a time. It is too much for me to see the whole month.
The last section is for my budget. This is a work in progress. The plan is to find a budget system that works for me and this is where I keep my attempts.
I try to carry my binder with me at all times. But if I take it out at home to work on it can be left behind, like today. You can go to my page and see pics in my photos. That is how my I love my binder I take pictures of it! LOL