This week I finally realized that the rush of activity before the newest school year fits day is similar to the feelings many of us had leading up to picking out our New Years Resolutions in December 2020.
Back to School is a time where all the disorganized or overwhelmed moms wish that they could be more on top of things. We all have good intentions but some of us pull it off better than others.
We’ve all heard stories about “unicorn” moms that explode onto the scene with their life looking completely organized and perfect. Always dressed nicely and completely prepared for whatever comes their way. But what you may not know is that every mom has the potential for this type of organized life. That is, if they leverage apps like Google Calendar the right way.
There’s lots of opportunity for success in this area – assuming you know how to do it.
I’ll let you in on a secret: Not all moms are as organized as you think they are.
Even the most put together ones those “perfect moms” did not go from “buried in chaos” to “time management guru” overnight.
Those “perfect moms” have merely defied the odds and found a way to exceed your standards and expectations of motherhood.
The question is: how can you avoid failing and emulate the organization of those “perfect moms” you long to be like?
In this post I’m going to show you how the most successful moms in the world — the ones who seem to just “get it” — use apps like Google Calendar to manage their families lives without breaking a sweat.
Like any massive success story, there are hundreds of factors that led to perfect mom’s cool exterior under pressure. But one of the most commonly is perfect mom’s approach to time management. Control of this one aspect of “perfect mom”’s life leads to smooth operation of a myriad of other areas.
How can Google Calendar help you be more like “perfect mom”?
Adding My Calendar
First things first: you need to have a google email address to set up a google calendar.
My advice is to make a business sounding email address for this since most likely you’ll be using this email address and calendar to coordinate with other business type people and having a respectable email address is a good thing.
Once you have that established there are countless services through google that you can take advantage of. The service from Google that I’ve found most helpful is the Calendar.
To find your Calendar you can search the menu at the top right of your computer screen or simply head to: https://calendar.google.com/calendar
Calendar Basics Tutorial
Instead of reinventing the wheel here is a tutorial to see how to use the basic functions of Google Calendar. This is guy covers pretty much every technical aspect of google calendar.
Adding A Calendar for my kids
There are a few ways to add a calendar beyond your default calendar that comes with your Google Calendar.
Making a calendar for each kid
Making a calendar for each kid without having it be attached to an email address of it’s own is like making a subfolder for your kids activities. You can turn these on and off and color code them to make them easier to view.
Getting each kid an email address and syncing their calendars to mine.
When both my kids got phones last Christmas I set them both up with their own emails. They also both have calendars. Sounds crazy I know, but it does make it easier if my 10 year old can tell her friends about playdates on her own when they ask. Also she knows when she has softball practices, games and practices.
My 7 year old son definitely doesn’t use his calendar as much, but I hope as he grows he’ll be able to get into the habit.
You can turn these on and off and color code them to make them easier to view.
Sharing schedules
The ability to share calendars is a great thing that parents should take advantage of. By having a shared calendar mom and dad and kid can all be on the same page as to where the kid is supposed to be and on what day. This calendar, as I have said above, can include all appointments, sport schedules and holidays to make life flow between single or multiple households.
What goes on my Google Calendar?
As a mom, you are the calendar keeper for the family activities. Even though your husband may be very organized in his business life, chances are he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on in your family life unless you give him a calendar to look at.
The School Calendar
First and foremost, every year, the moment I get the school calendar, I immediately put it into my kids’ calendars. It may seem like a daunting task to plot out 180 days of events in one sitting, but it’s impossible to keep track of their school days if I didn’t have it written down.
With the age difference of my kids they start school and end school at different times and when they get to junior high and high school I’m sure that after school activities will need to be added.
Pro Trick: Add recurring events for each day of the week. Typically most monday schedules are the same so why plot 44 of them when you can set one recurring appointment for the whole school year.
Sports Schedules
Just call me a Momager. With rising stars in both football and softball my son and daughter have overlapping practice and game schedules. The only way to handle this shuffling of time and energy is to map it out on a calendar.
Pro Trick: The best thing about Google Calendar is that you can add a location to your appointment which I never found more handy than when I was going from a 10am football game to a 12pm softball game in a different town. One click on the location and I could pull up Google Maps and get directions to my next location!
Doctors & Dentist Appointments
Nothing worse than not realizing you have to pick your kid up from school because they have a dentist appointment after the fact.
Pro Trick: I have gotten into the habit of opening my Google Calendar app at the desk of the doctors or dentists when making appointments. Not only does this help me figure out if I’m free, but it also gives me the opportunity to schedule in my appointments so that I don’t misplace the appointment card that the front office staff are always handing out.
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Never forget an important day again by putting them all into your calendar.
Pro Trick: Set a reminder for big birthdays or anniversaries to help you in shopping for your friend or child. Nothing is worse than having to detour on the way to a party to pick up a last minute gift or card.
Pro BONUS TIP: Write down on the reminder what gifts you have gotten them in the past. That way you know what not to get them this year or even ideas of how to pick their next unique gift.
Tips for better Calendar usage
- Color code things!
- Each of the people in my calendar have their own color.
- No one owns RED. That color is reserved for emergency things.
- Make sure to put alarms on all your appointments.
- Use “Time Blocking” to help you figure out what to do with all the time in your day when you don’t have appointments set.
That’s a good guess at how “perfect moms” handle their kids busy schedules without breaking a sweat. The best part about using their approach is that it’s not based on theory –it’s proven to work in the real world!
Now that you’ve seen how well the Google Calendar works, it’s time to put it into practice soon! Click to get started: https://calendar.google.com/calendar
For more helpful tips check out How A To Do List Saved My Sanity
365 MomMe 