Our family schedule has been quite hectic lately.  Two weeks ago, our new addition to the family arrived, Baby Gabriel.  Along with changing diapers, baby bottles, doctor's appointments, and sleepless nights, we're also smack in the middle of youth soccer & football season.  With two kids in youth sports, you can imagine just how crazy our schedule gets.

This season, Brandon, my 6th grader, plays on two soccer teams, a basketball team and also does Taekwondo.  Laura, my 4th grader, plays on her school soccer team and is also on a youth cheerleading squad. 

When you add the games & practices to the birthday parties & play dates, it makes for a very busy family schedule.  Sometimes my wife and I feel like a shuttling service hauling our kids from one event to the next.

Fortunately, we've been through this many seasons before.  Over the years, we've learned to deal with this demanding schedule by coming up with a solution that has worked really well for us.  It's kept us sane in the midst of all the chaos. 

Our solution: keep a family calendar.

The Family Calendar 

As simple as it sounds, it has worked wonders for us.  Instead of burdening the Wife as the designated keeper of the family schedule, as most families do, we keep a shared family calendar that is the goto place for all events family-related.  When a friend invites us for dinner or when our kids are invited over for a play date, there's no need to hunt down the spouse to check for conflicts.  I simply check the family calendar.

We put everything related to our family onto this calendar including doctor's appointments, birthdays, anniversary, games, practices, play dates, and sleep overs.  Any family members can simply enter an event into the family schedule. If my son Brandon has a play or drama that the family needs to attend, he enters it into the family calendar. 

By keeping a single family calendar, there are no suprises.  If there is nothing on the calendar, I can rest assured knowing that there is nothing planned that i didn't know about.

Accessibility is the key

The most important aspect of a family calendar is accessibility.  This rules out traditional paper calendars because when you're at work and the calendar is at home, it's not very useful.

But with the Internet becoming so pervasive, using it as a platform to store your family calendar makes a lot of sense. It affords you the convenience of accessibility.  You can be anywhere and still be able to access your family calendar.  That's why it makes sense that an effective family calendar should be one that is available on the Internet.

An Online Planner with a Shared Family Calendar

With that in mind, I added calendar sharing to Quasitime Planner to allow my family to use a shared calendar.  In Quasitime Planner, I create a workspace with the Calendar option and add all family members to it and anyone else that needs to see the family calendar.  All family appointments & events are stored on this shared calendar.  It also has a nice printable view for me to print out hard copies too.

What's also really helpful too is that all events in this calendar shows up in my personal calendar allowing me to see if there are any conflicts.  For example, I may have an appointment that conflicts with picking up Laura from soccer practice.  By seeing the conflict early, I can let his mom know to pick him up from practice because of the conflict.

Stay Organized

It's no suprise to me when I hear other parents complaining about how crazy their schedule is and why they have a great excuse for forgetting to bring snacks.  If they kept a family calendar that works, they wouldn't always have to be looking for excuses.

Whatever calendaring program you choose, you can stay organized by using a family calendar that is online and easily accessible by your family members.  You can save your family a lot of grief by investing in a solution that works.