How To Keep Your Family's Schedule Organized

Colorful file folders and paper clips with a to-do list and pens. #officeorganization

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How To Keep Your Family’s Schedule Organized

November 11, 2016

Actionable ways to get your family's schedule organized, including easy ways to create organizational systems that keep your family on schedule!

Updated September 2022

Does it feel like keeping your family’s schedule organized is a full time job? Even notice when you get into that funk of feeling like you never have enough time to get everything done? Or when you forget something really important? Or you think you scheduled something, but really you never made the call to actually schedule it?

I feel like this a lot lately. As I bounce back back and forth between our home and our in-laws house, I feel like I am forgetting things that wouldn’t normally be forgotten.

So, to make myself feel semi-organized, I created some systems to keep me and my family organized with our schedules, appointments, and agendas.

Schedules

Trying to coordinate schedules can seem super overwhelming! With one child in school and the other has an activity at the same time, I feel the pain.

There are many ways to keep your family’s schedules organized, but it takes some prep work and planning to get a system that works for you and your family.

Color-Coding

The easiest way to keep each member of your family’s activities organized is to color-code the entire family. I give each family member a color. Then, using my colored pens, I create a reference sticky note for how I to color-code the entire family.

For us, my husband is blue, I am pink, my son is green, my daughter is purple, and our dog is orange. I drew a scribble next to each persons name to help me remember who belongs to which color, and use that sticky note as a reference sheet for my calendar and planner.

By assigning each family member a color, you won’t have to write the name of the family member along with their activities. You are able to just write their activities down in their designated color. I always recommend creating a key which says what color each family member is assigned.

Calendar

Giant calendars are perfect for allowing you to have a lot of space to write activities down. I use a giant calendar, which is located in the kitchen. I record each family member’s activities on the calendar in their assigned color.

Using the giant master calendar to keep us organized has been incredibly helpful for the entire family. The location of the calendar is also important. By keeping the calendar in a central location, everyone in the family is able to see and follow the schedule.

With the kids getting busier, I have been using Google Calendar to keep the schedules organized as well. This way my husband knows where to bring the kids or where to pick them up.

Planner

If your life is more on-the-go, a family planner might be what you need to keep things organized. By purchasing a planner that fits into your bag, you can carry it around to add dates and activities as they arise!

I have many planners because I like to keep certain things separate from one another, so I have a family planner, a work planner, and a blog planner.

Some of my planners are digital while others are paper.

For work, I use the Day Designer. For home, I use my 1Thrive system.

Below are some of my other favorite planners that I use or have used.

Individual Calendars

Another way to keep schedules organized is to create many individual calendars. Each family member can have their own calendar to write what they have going on for the week. This is helpful for families with older children as they can be responsible for their own schedule.

You can also create meal planners for each family member to help keep everyone on track with food.

Whiteboard/Chalkboard

Using a whiteboard to record different activities can be an incredibly easy way to keep your family organized.

I recommend this if your family has a pretty set schedule where not a lot of things change. You can record what activities are going on for the week and make minimal changes as needed.

Routines

The best piece of advice I can give anyone when trying to change a routine is to write it down with an action plan! Not only will it help you remember what and how you want to change, but it will keep you accountable for following all the steps you put in place.

For example, my kiddos bed times just keep getting later and later, which means my 5-minute clean-up at the end of the night needed to be moved. I wrote down my action plan:

Start to clean up the house with kids help in all rooms. (Before they would only clean up one room.)
Clean up the kitchen and start the dishwasher.
Clean up outside and cover patio furniture.
Close all blinds.
Every room will be put back together before we go upstairs.
Kids brush teeth and get into pajamas.
Read books together.
Bedtime

Then, I shared it with the entire family. I printed out a copy and hung it on the fridge with specific times everything should done.

For the first two weeks, I was incredibly strict with the times as I wanted to make this a habit. We have gotten a little looser with the times, but everything is totally cleaned up by the time the kids go upstairs at the end of the night.

By writing down the routine, you are more likely to stick with it!

Paper planner with hand-drawn planner stickers adhered inside. Using Xyron sticker maker and Derwent colored pencils, turn anything into a decorative planner sticker! #plannerstickers #planneraddict

Keep Your Family’s Schedule Organized

To keep your family’s schedule organized, you need to find one or two different ways to record all the events, activities, and appointments. Paper planners or digital are my favorites.

Then schedule in appointments by color-coding each family member.

Keep up with the schedule by doing weekly check ins or family meetings to keep everyone up-to-date on activities for the week.