An organizing intervention!

Recently, I was part of an Organizing Intervention.   It was somewhat impromptu but nonetheless the many friends who participated were clear and committed to their message that change was needed.  The thing is … I was the one who the intervention was being performed on!  I kid you not … the Design+Conquer friends took to Facebook to collectively convince me that it is time for me to up my organizational game and embrace an electronic calendar. 

          It all started about a week ago when I made what I thought was an innocent (but accurate) statement on Facebook that I was feeling overwhelmed with the spring sports schedule and wondered aloud how I was going to keep it all straight.  Well, 21 comments later from friends up and down the East Coast and now I know how I’ll keep it straight … Google Calendar.  I know, I know ... Google Calendar is nothing new and people have been using and loving it for years.  But you have to understand, I AM A PEN & PAPER GIRL.  I love writing on my calendar.  I love having it hang on my wall and I love seeing the month at a glance with everyone’s schedule all lined up. And besides, the act of physically writing the event helps me to remember it (unfortunately it does nothing for the other family members.)  The thought of having my schedule (which is essentially my life!) stored on-line where the internet gremlins could attack at any time and wreak havoc makes me anxious.

          So although I haven’t done it yet (perhaps I need to go back and read my Procrastination Blog from last October…) I do intend to give this electronic calendar thing a try.  What sealed the deal was that my husband (who had no idea this Intervention had occurred) also asked me to please get on an electronic calendar so that he could have easier access to what we are all up to rather than trying to remember to check the kitchen calendar before racing out the door or worse, trying to read my mind.  Fine. I’ll do it. But could I possibly love it more than my paper calendar?? 

          Here are some tips that our friends shared about how they use Google Calendar to keep life moving along…

•  I set up a Google acct just for kid stuff. This is the email address I register for all the school, church and other activities and which I also use for calendaring. Then I linked the acct to my smart phone and to their dad's phone, this way we both get all the emails related to the kids stuff at the same time, along with calendar reminders etc. I print the calendar (color coded by family member) for myself to have at work (and because I too like paper) and for the nanny as well. It's not perfect, but I couldn't live without it.              
•  I loath calendars. They require that you have the discipline to actually look at them and maintain them. You become a slave to the tool. Reminders are ultimately what's important anyway, right. This should be a push function. Remind me when I want to be reminded. Calendars are a necessary evil. Google calendar seems to be the best option with all of the reminder options. But don't abuse it! Some things don't belong on the calendar. My best tip is using Boomerang with Gmail to return emails to the top of your inbox. Never heard of Boomerang? Google it.                                                                                                                                            
• I love Google calendar too. My husband and I and his kids all have our own calendars and we have invited each other. The kids have managed their own calendars for several years (now they're 17 and 19). If they need a ride or if they want to use a car, the rule is it has to be in the calendar AT LEAST 24 hours in advance. If not, they can't go. If it’s not important enough for them to remember to put it in the calendar, then it must not really be that important. There are exceptions, but that is the general idea.                           
•     Google calendar is great because you can have separate calendars for different aspects of your life - work, family, personal, clubs... and view all of them merged together so it's easy to find conflicts. It can also be used as a diary to keep track of what you did each day - the data is saved in google and can be printed out and saved as a record. We know someone who did that when their mother was very ill and they tracked her condition and what the doctors said each day in their google calendar on their phone (noted it as an all day event) When anyone needed dates of certain tests or treatments she had, it was all there saved in the calendar.                                                                                                                        
•   May I add one final step? On Sunday night after dinner, one of the family members reads off the schedule for the week so all four of us know what's going on...sometimes the girls are better at alerts than Google. I think it helps us all "sync"!

Seriously, with endorsements like this how can I not try it?  Stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes…

If you would like more information about using a professional organizer, get in touch with Kristin at www.designandconquerllc.com or kristin@designandconquerllc.com and follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/designandconquerllc