Organized Family | 7 Ways to Manage Your Family Calendar Online

Maybe you keep a fancy wall calendar in the kitchen with every family members’ important dates: work/charity meetings, husband’s travel dates, kids doctor appointments, soccer practices, etc.

And maybe you are the mom who holds the Family Calendar sacred, like it’s the heartbeat of the house and living without it would be the end of all organized comings and goings!

For my family the Family Calendar is all of that and up until now it was a complete disaster! It used to be a big communication challenge and keeping our calendars in-line with each other was a full-time job. My calendar system was okay but I had three different ones I was trying to manage and we couldn’t keep up with it all!

So one day I had it and decided it was time that I throw out my wall calendar and the paper calendars and get synched with a user friendly (and sharable) online calendar system. This was a very hard task for me to do because my life was read like a script from my day planner. Going through this transition was a little bit like giving up a bad habit (and I did secretly keep a hidden stash of paper calendars), but I finally did it! I set up an online Family Calendar. And let me tell you, it has changed my life!

The calendar system we decided to go with is based around Google Calendar. It was very easy for all of us to use. My husband and I have iPhones and we chose the calendar app CalenMob to help sync all our calendars on our phone. CalenMob is great because it syncs your regular calendar on you iPhone (which is linked up to my work Microsoft Outlook) with Google Calendar (the new Family Calendar) and it is free. Now I can see my work and family dates all together in one location. AND since the calendar syncs up to my husband’s and nanny’s cell phones we can all know where we all are supposed to be and when.

Another great thing we do is put in calendar requests to each other. So I can ask our sitter on a specific date, “Can you bbsit @ 6pm?” or my husband, “[Dad] take [daughter] to school today?”. It is just GREAT!

I think this is such a value-add for all families so I wanted to share with you some of the most popular online family calendars I researched:

1. Google Calendar (This is the one I use!)

Google Calendar is very user friendly. You do have to set up a Google account but very easy to do. It offers month, week, day views, as well as the ability to share it with others. A great feature is the ability to create several different calendars (like one for each of the kids) and merge them into one calendar if needed. You can also manage permissions with each calendar which is a bonus. It is also very easy to work with on your cell phones. Google Calendar is free.

2. Cozi Central

This calendar system was one of my favorites because of all the features they offer. Cozi offers both a web-based and downloadable calendar system. Cozi has a built in messaging system and shopping/to-do list that family members can add to or edit. The messages can go to family members from either text message or email. It syncs with Microsoft Outlook. Cozi Central is free to subscribers.

3. Family Time Planner

The Family Time Planner is a very easy to use and colorful. This one does require a subscription but you can have unlimited user ID’s for your family. Family Time Planner also syncs with Microsoft Outlook. There is also a Facebook app to link up your calendars. Family Time Planner does cost $12-16/year.

4. Yahoo Calendar

Yahoo Calendar is a part of My Yahoo and is very user friendly. The system is similar to Google Calendar where you can manage appointments and events fairly easy.  And you can share the calendar with family members and give others permissions to modify the calendar. Yahoo Calendar is free.

5.  30 Boxes

30Boxes is a very simple calendar system. It has an interactive to-do list and message center that can be shared onto Facebook and Flickr. 30Boxes is a free online service.

6. Famjama

Famjama is a great system. It is easy to use and color coded. Families can keep to-do lists, kids events and activities. It can easily accessed online or on an iPhone.

7.  Fircle

Fircle does more than just an online calendar, it will also let you create and print shopping lists that will remind you when you’re running low on specific groceries, manage children’s allowance and maintain household chore lists. There are places in Fircle to record your children’s growth and keep records of medical information. You can also store your family history, keep and share recipes easily, create personal journals, family newsletters, organize your play groups, create a poll so you can have family members vote on family decisions. Fircle does charge $39.95 per year, or if you opt for advertisement version it is free.

Hope you are inspired to get online and manage your own Family Calendar.

Do you have any tips or ideas that has helped you in keeping you family calendar organized?