From the course: Time Management Tips

Coordinating family schedules

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Coordinating family schedules

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- If you're part of a close family, coordinating schedules can be a recurring challenge. Let's talk about some ways that you can get on the same page with your family members, each week. First, have some time set aside on a regular basis to coordinate your schedules. For example, my wife and I try to sit down once a week or so, and we just make sure our schedules align when it comes to where the children need to be, or when we're going to have a date, or any unusual changes to our schedule. This consistent meeting can help you avoid a lot of confusion. Next, I recommend getting everyone who's using a calendar to use the same application. There are many wonderful calendaring tools available. Some of them, you're familiar with, and you use every day, such as Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar. Some of them are specific apps to the needs of a family, Cozi being one example. No matter what tool you choose to use, if everyone in your family is using the same tool, it can help streamline things when people have technical problems, such as syncing up their calendars with each other. That leads to the next tip, which is, making sure that everyone has access to each other's calendar. Now, if you have young children, they're probably not to the point where they're using a calendar on their smartphone. Well, maybe not. But if you have teenagers, we want to set things up in all of your calendars, so that you have the ability to see what the other person is doing, not so that you're checking up on them, but more so that you can make it easier to make appointments when you need to connect. If you need help on setting this up, search here, on the library, about your favorite calendaring tool and how to share it with others. Next, use your calendar and encourage everyone to do the same. Now, this is probably going to be harder for young adults, because they're not in the habit. Yet, getting used to using a calendar and scheduling everything in the calendar, is an important life skill. Now is a wonderful time for them to start learning. When every family member uses their calendar on a consistent basis, coordinating schedules becomes much easier. Last, and this is optional, one suggestion based on my book, The Power of Having Fun, try to find one time per week where you can all come together as a family. It's too easy in our day to feel that we're disconnected from each other, with this person going to sports practice, and another to music lessons, and someone has a deadline for a school assignment, and work is demanding you put in extra hours. If you can have just one time per week, even if it's just for half an hour, where everybody knows that we're all going to come together and spend a little time together, it creates a sense of groundedness and a connection with each other. In this way, your family can transition from just a group of people working together to a close team and a source of strength to each other.

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