Working It Out Wednesday: Tracking Events

I forgot my son's birthday today.  OK, it technically isn't until the end of the month, but I forgot to add it to my Google calendar.  No big deal, right?  Actually, to him it was. 

Near the end of 2010 I finally sat down at the computer and began to add appointments, meetings, school events, kids sports schedules, and even bill due dates to my Google calendar.  I love the email notifications I get on my Blackberry for each event I create, thus, no late or missed events and it keeps all the information so organized and at my fingertips (gotta love the Smartphones).

However, today my son checked to see what weekday his birthday fell on, only to realize I hadn't made a notation about it on the calendar.  I'm methodical about updating it and printing it out and tacking it on our kitchen bulletin board so the whole family can track the events instead of constantly asking me what's going on.  BTW, I love adding my husband's email address to the events so he too can be updated on appointments and such.  Although, he's told me several times how annoying these emails are.  Oh well.

It got me thinking though, how others manage the 24 hours we all have each day.  On Monday I blogged about spontaneity and ignoring the to-do list, but my calendar isn't a to-do list.  It consists of appointments and scheduled events that need to be attended.  With so many Apps & online tools there's probably a zillion ways to track these events.



Our Kitchen Bulletin Board

 As I've said, I've been happy with my Google calendar but obviously, in the case of my son's birthday and my own wedding anniversary (I realized afterwards that I didn't record that either for May!), it's not perfect.  Plus, I've added a photo of our kitchen bulletin board where we still hang school schedules, school lunch menus, sports schedules, etc. for reference as well.  Yikes, Kid Clutter, you're all probably thinking (see photo) but this works for our family.  We're not late to events and my family knows where to look for the information instead of me being the gatekeeper of it all.

If you have a better suggestion, please do share, but for now I'll just update my Google calendar with my son's birthday and my wedding anniversary (and set them as "reoccurring").

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Elena