My Favourite Family Planners
Following on from my previous post ‘5 Back To School Organisation Tips’ I’ve had a request to share my favourite family planners.
“Hey Abbie, do you have any planner / Calendar recommendations for all the appointments / after school activities / weekly commitments for a family of 5…”
Whether you prefer digital, or love old-school pen and paper, below you should discover an option that works for you and your family!
At the very bottom I share with you what Tim and I use to try and keep our family (and our business) on track.
Physical Planners
Custom Family Planner from Bright Star Kids
With this planner you can customise it with your own name/text, plus there is a huge array of colours and designs.
- 26 personalised sheets
- Personalise your own 5 fields
- Printed on high quality 90gsm paper stock
- Easily attaches to fridge via magnet
- Glue binding
- A4 or A3 size options
Magnetic Fridge Family Planner from My Family Weekly Planner
The fact that this is a reusable, magnetic planner is a winner for me. If it were me, I would also take photos of the planner, so I had it available to me on my phone as well. There are different designs and layouts too choose from.
- Re-usable A3 Whiteboard
- Portrait orientation makes this perfect for your French Door fridge
- Soft Magnetic Surface means this wont slide off your fridge door
- Room for six Family Members plus a menu planning column means no more endless “whats for dinner” conversations
- The whiteboard surface of this day planner means the calendar is easily cleaned
- Magnetic backing ensures this attaches easily to any magnetic surface (such as the fridge) keeping the family schedule in daily view.
- Australian designed and printed
2021 Large Family Wall Calendar by Kikki-K
Ever reliable and gorgeous, this Kikki-K calendar comes in a number of different colours. Month-by-Month with room to add all the members of your family, it is easy to hang and move around from dining table to desk.
- Add appointments and activities to each month
- Wire-o binding
- Monthly tabs
- Sticker sheet
Customisable A3 Family Planner from BigW
Did you know you could arrange custom printing at BigW?! Maybe I’m just out of the loop. This is another hanging, monthly calendar, but you can customise the title and names.
- Add up to 6 family members
- Keep track of all your important dates throughout the year
- Just select the design you want, personalise with your chosen name or names
Personalised Weekly Diary by TinyMe
For those of you who prefer a diary, I am a big fan of TinyMe. Although I don’t own one of their diaries, I do have many of their personalised labels and their puzzles.
- 1 Front title page
- 1 Year at a glance page
- 1 quick reference page
- Month at a glance spreads
- 106 weekly date pages
- 3 notes pages
- A4 or A5
- Plus you can add an optional Felt Cover
- Designed to fit perfectly
- Plenty of room to keep your papers & notes
- Re-use each year. Yay!
- Handy pen loop and secure closure.
Digital Planners
Cozi Family Planner App
Cozi is one of the long-standing family planning apps. Although it isn’t one we use, I’ve had clients tell me that this it has worked really well for them.
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- Keep appointments and activities all in one place
- Track school events and the virtual class schedule
- Manage a shared grocery list
- Get the whole family to chip in on chores
Life Sorted
Life Sorted is an Australian family planner app. With Life Sorted you’ll never miss another event, you’ll always know what everyone’s schedule is.
- Shared calendar & calendar sync
- Reminders and notifications
- Private events & smart recurring events
- Tagging & individual reminders
- Share to-do lists
- Event to-dos
- Automatic birthday and special event reminders
- Printed weekly schedule so you can pop I ton the fridge
- Tablet, phone and desktop
‘Google Families
Google Families has a whole host of features which I encourage you to investigate (including using music, videos, storage and more) but for these purposes, it includes a shared Family calendar and also Google Keep. With Google Keep you can Capture and share ideas when inspiration strikes with features like reminders, shared lists, and notes in Keep that help your whole family stay in the loop. The Google Family Calendar makes it easy for your whole family to keep track of group activities like picnics, movie nights and reunions — all in one place.
What We Use
We use a combination of a shared family Outlook Calendar that syncs with our iPhones, and also a shared Shopping List in the Microsoft To-Do app (formerly Wunderlist).
Outlooks / iOs Shared Calendars
We have multiple shared Calendars for both work and for family. We use the notes sections a lot to share information and pictures that we may need. We are able to share where each other is, who is looking after the children, and when we can and can’t schedule things. As our parents look after our children for us most weeks, we also put notes in as to whether they are away, or we need to collect the children earlier.
In the image below, you can see that everything is colour coded, so you can easily see at a glance who is where, when.
Microsoft To Do
I love our shared shopping list which we have created in Microsoft To Do (we previously used Wunderlist which has not become the Microsoft app). Both of us have access to uit so we know if someone has bought something already, before we walk into the store. It makes a very distinct ‘ding’ when you tick off something, and I’ve had more than one person hear the noise and comment to me in the supermarket that they use the same thing! We also have it available on our MacBooks.
As you can see from the image below, there are many ways you can use it. I’ve also created lists for Holidays and Camping, as well as Christmas and Birthday presents.
Do you have any physical or digital planners that you would recommend? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.