Wall Calendars Are So 1996

Boss Lady Mom Tip #1:

USE A CALENDAR – Everything starts with staying organized. For those that cringe because organization doesn’t come naturally to you and you feel more comfortable letting things flow, don’t worry! Being organized doesn’t mean you have to have every single part of your life in order, it just means having a plan or an outline that keeps your life manageable.

I’m admittedly Type A and definitely a bit OCD, so organization does come easy to me. I get it from my mom, who labeled every single item I owned with my name and left Post-it Note instructions all over the house for my dad. It was annoying when I was a child, but I totally get it now.

My Google Calendar is my holy grail. I schedule and organize everything in there – appointments, meetings, classes, events, everything. Organization is not my husband’s strong suit, so I help manage his calendar as well and "invite" him to all of our commitments. Some might think this sounds extreme, but when you’re trying to reply to an email, feed a baby, finish putting on your mascara, clean up cat puke, and tell your husband when the best time for his dentist appointment would be, it’s much easier to just say, “Honey, look at the calendar. Everything we have going on is in there.”

Most importantly, schedule appointments with yourself; time that you’re going to reserve and commit to. If you have a project to work on, don’t just let it linger in the back of your mind and tell yourself you’re going to work on it. You’ve got to set aside time to get things done, which includes scheduled time to do things like calls to make appointments, pay bills, or brush up on the latest marketing trends for your business. These types of things may seem like an obvious part of daily life, but they end up taking up a lot of time, and when you’re being a Boss Lady and a Boss Mom, you need to have an organized plan of how you’ll get things done.

If you don’t put important things on your calendar, you will drop the ball somewhere. You’ll end up double-booking yourself, not showing up to that meeting you scheduled with a vendor months ago, or forget to ask your mom if she can baby-sit. And if technology isn’t your thing, or you don’t like having a full calendar on your phone, then a good ol’ fashion planner will work. Just be careful you don’t lose it or that your toddler doesn’t accidentally hide it in the bottom of her toy bin…

And don’t forget that it’s okay if not everything on your calendar goes as planned. It’s inevitable that on the day you’ve scheduled 2 meetings and a vet appointment, your baby will come down with a fever, you’ll lock your keys in the car, and your husband’s phone will be dead for the 30 minutes you’re trying to call him for help. Life happens, and if you’re Type A it will be so easy for you to throw your entire day away if something doesn’t go as planned. Give yourself permission to be flexible. Being able to “ride the wave” (as my husband would say) is just as much of an accomplishment as sticking to the schedule.

Do you have any awesome tricks you use to stay organized? If you actively use a calendar already, what tools help you the most with managing your time? Comment below.