Two Keys Ways to Increase Productivity with your Family Calendar

Let's talk productivity!  We all know it takes a lot to manage the calendars, emails and to do lists in your work life and in your personal life.  Sometimes your work life is your personal life, but that doesn't make it any easier especially if you're trying to managing them separately.  Yes, they are separate parts of your life but these are all aspects your one life so why do twice the work by managing them individually.

For those of you who are still working two calendars, and maybe even trying to keep the hard copy version updated on the laundry room wall, here are some options to consider that could reduce some of that complication and work.

USE A COMMON ONLINE CALENDAR

A good place to start is getting everyone (you, your spouse and children and possibly your work) on a common calendar platform.  Yes, that also means doing away with the one on the wall in the laundry room.  Instead, have the home page for the central computer in your house be the family calendar instead of the wall.  That way it's still in a central location where everyone can see it.  In our house we use Google's Calendar and have for years now.  It's our home page for not only the main computer but anyone who has a their own laptop also keeps the Google Calendar page as their main page.  That way it's always top of mind. With Google Calendar, and many other calendar applications can do this as well, you can set up an individual calendar for each of you and for each part of your life.  If you already use a calendar at work than you can usually subscribe to your family calendar at work so you have the option to see your whole scheduled life in one view. This will eliminate your honey saying, "But I didn't know we had conferences tonight!"

When sharing or subscribing your calendar you can also select privacy settings and edit controls.  For example, in Google Calendar I may want to share my calendar with my family who can see the details but only give my spouse and I the option to edit events.  Alternatively, my kids calendars are shared with me and I am able to edit, add and delete events as needed...which is a must for a mom. So take some time to check out what you can do with Google, Apple Calendar/MobileMe, and there are many more.  Or check out this article from About.com and see what they think the top online calendars are.  Some are free and some cost a bit, but all can add some productivity to your life.

PUT CALENDARS TO WORK WITH YOUR MOBILE PHONE!

Let's take this new found management tool up a notch and incorporate our cell phones.  (This will make you feel even better about what you spend every month on your cell phone service plan.)  So, it's safe to say that you have a cell phone and if you have anyone over the age of 13 in your house s/he may likely have one as well.  Using features in your calendar application you can make both tools work better for you and your family and ultimately do more more of the work for you.

There are many features available that may be offered but one you should look into first is notifications.  Notifications or reminders are settings you can select each time an event is entered which will remind you of an upcoming event.  You can select various ways to have notifications sent to you (e.g.  By email or text.  Days, hours or minutes prior to an event.  Number of notifications to be sent.)  We aren't in front of our computers all day and this is a handy tool to keep you on track and on task. And regarding your teen-aged children with cell phones and who have test-pertise, this is a great opportunity to have them take on more responsibility by giving them the tools to manage their own calendar via texting.  It's what they do best so let's put it work for you.  It can alleviate being the nag and give them a great sense of independence.

If you already have a smartphone take it up one more notch.  Consider syncing your calendar application with your smartphone.  I have an iPhone and I sync my Google calendar with it and I LOVE it.  I am able to see what my whole family has on the calendar and make updates too.   This portability is incredibly convenient, especially as my memory becomes less reliable.  The help section of your calendar application will typically have step-by-step instructions on how to do this.  If you are not able to locate that information, just send me an email.  I'd be happy to help find what you're looking for.