Maven Says: Organize me

I want to be organized, really I do. My Blackberry goes a long way but I just can't seem to keep everything in there. It's great for keeping track of meetings with the big cheese. I've even resorted to sending appointments to Gman for most of the things that I have going on in the evenings but somehow, someway things fall through the cracks. Maybe it has something to do with the serious paper problem that we have in our house--WAY, WAY too much of it and no good way to organize it.

Could that be prince charming riding in a white horse to save me in the form of the new Family Matters line from Day Runner?

Door reminders: These are by far my favorite of the Day Runner Family Matters products. The cute little "reminder men" hang right on the door handle and virtually whisper in my ear as I try to escape the house in the morning. I have them hanging on the front and garage doors so that I don't leave things behind. They are so clever and easy to use--if only they would yell at me, "make sure she has her lunch" on the way out they'd be perfect!

Undated wall planner: I am the queen of dry erase, I use a similar calendar in my office to keep everything straight. I take great joy in actually erasing things. This version has both a traditional calendar as well as a version with days of the month down one side with a column for each person in the family. I can't find a convenient place to hang it in the kitchen/family room which is (dis)organization central at our house. I've decided it does have great potential as a chore keeper-tracker for my girls. I think it will be perfect on the closet door in their room.

Weekly/monthly family planner: I love the idea of this weekly/monthly calendar book with colors and columns assigned to everyone in the family. It also gives you places to note things you need to buy and an address book. Alas, that part of my life I have a pretty good handle on in the electronic world. The book is relatively big and if I can't stuff it in my purse I'm afraid I won't get everything in there. I am notorious for stealing a few minutes in the preschool parking lot at drop off and pick up trying to get things on the calendar!

Coordinating folders and storage bins: These have great potential. Unfortunately we are so far gone in the keeping track of paper department that I haven't quite gotten to getting things in here yet. I love the idea, having sports, school, church folders for the kids in their own storage bin and getting rid of the basket of paper doom really appeals to me. I need the services of that professional organizer I bought at the silent auction three years ago...if only I could find her card!

I love the idea of the Family Matters Day Runner products. I think I've proven to myself yet again that you've got to use things consistently to be organized and somehow, I just can't find the time to get the process established, let alone follow it consistently. For those of you a bit less organizationally challenged, this may be the organizational system you are looking for! For more perspectives, check out what the other parents have to say over at Parent Bloggers.

Maven Says: Cozi is Cool

When I heard about Cozi Central my first thought was that's nice but not for me, I use Outlook. I decided to go ahead and give it a try to see what advantages it could bring to organizing our lives outside of work mode. Gman and I run our lives by the Outlook calendar, we are both hooked in at work, he has Outlook set-up at home, and I am a card carrying Crackberry addict. When I found out that Cozi had the ability to sync up with Outlook I thought all of my organizational prayers had been answered! I had dreams of everything I needed to know right there on my Blackberry at my side all the time. And serious bonus, FREE. Unfortunately despite some of its great features I didn't reach the organizational nirvana I had imagined.

The Cozi Central web site is visually appealing and easy to use. To personalize it you can add your own pictures and make picture collages. The homepage displays three days on the calendar, the current time in big readable numbers, the shopping list du jour, and any messages you receive at the bottom of the screen. A great overview of what you need, where you are spending your time and what the rest of the family wants you to know right there at your fingertips. You can assign each person in the house a color and the calendar is then color coded so at a glance you know who has to be where and when. A definite improvement over my black and white calendar that requires actual reading.

Okay, back to my Outlook/Blackberry love affair. I downloaded the Cozi toolbar for Outlook and all seemed well. The instructions were easy and the toolbar showed up as expected. Unfortunately I could never make the two sync that I could tell. I did have some appointments show up with a Cozi ID listed when I printed them out. Unfortunately every time I tried to sync Outlook hung up and I ended up having to shut everything down and re-boot my machine. Not totally unexpected for a beta version of a tool for Microsoft or for me, the Tech Support nightmare. Given the issues I've had with my Outlook account in the past and the critical nature of my work calendar being pristine I had to abandon ship on the Outlook/Cozi synchronization. Hopefully when the release is out of beta testing I can take advantage of the great features.

I do love the list feature, go in any time and type in your grocery and warehouse store lists. Then you can e-mail them, print them or access them via phone. My collection of post-it notes don't allow for accessible storage or remote retrieval!

Cozi Central is a great concept for busy households. If it weren't for my work dependence on Outlook I'd use it to run my household in a heartbeat. Given my current technological challenges there are features that I'll take advantage of the opportunity to look at the sweet faces of my kids, keep a running grocery list and retrieve it remotely. Again, its a great FREE service so go check it out and see how it can help you better manage your household activities. I'd love to hear from someone who has been successful in integrating it with and Outlook Exchange account to learn the tricks of the trade.

You can see what other bloggers had to say about Cozi Central by checking in with the Parent Blogger Network campaign.