Being a parent is the busiest and most demanding job there in the entire world. Practices, recitals, school projects, play dates, birthday parties, and hundreds of other things that you need to remember each month quickly fill family calendars. Any parent can rapidly get mired in the weeds when all of the many to-dos and must-dos that appear each day are included.
Fortunately, our phones were designed for more than just checking Facebook and taking quick pictures of our kids. Parents these days can benefit greatly from family calendar apps, and choosing the best ones to organize and simplify your everyday life can make a world of difference.
Check the appropriate app store for your phone’s OS though and you’ll find there are a LOT to choose from. Some are paid, some are free. Some seem to have tons of reviews, others not so many. Some look cool but then turn out to be hard to set up and even harder to use. The task of finding a great family calendar app can then become a time waster that throws off your day.
To help you get your year off to an organized start, and calm some of that family wide chaos, I’ve rounded up some of the best apps for family organization that I have come across and listed the best of them here.
- OurHome
OurHome is a comprehensive organizer tool that lets parents reward children for completing tasks and is completely free to use. Parents may assign and plan tasks and chores, view personal progress and activities, add things to a shared grocery list, insert events into a family calendar, send messages and reminders, and stay in sync across an unlimited number of devices with the help of this app.
To-do lists can be made and edited by any family member, and tasks can be added, given deadlines, and assigned to other family members.
I love it because of its “totally configurable” features and capacity to keep large families organized.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- Picniic
Imagine an interface designed exclusively for managing your family’s schedule that essentially has all the features you find on your smart device, such as a calendar and a newsfeed. With Picniic, you can manage your family’s calendar, to-do lists, group events, grocery lists, a feature called “news” where big families can share messages and media, and parental controls so you can supervise your children’s internet use and encourage good internet habits using a safe no-track VPN.
Additionally, Picniic allows users to define times when internet access is prohibited, such as during schoolwork and bedtime. The majority of functions are available in the free edition, but you can export and import events from third-party calendars like Google, Apple, and Outlook with a paid premium subscription (beginning at $15 per month).
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Amazon.- Google Calendar
One of the most popular calendar apps for business use is Google Calendar, which is free, straightforward, and accessible across all platforms. You only need a Google email address to get started. But it’s not just great for work, it’s excellent for keeping families organized too.
The color-coding choices in Google make it simple to categorize various jobs, activities, and events so that each user can filter their view based on what is important to them. For busy families with older children who have a lot of practices and other dates to remember on a weekly basis, the ability to share calendars makes it the ideal choice. You can manage who sees what and who can add or delete events by setting permissions.
You can do a lot more with Google Calendar than just keep track of dates. For instance, Google will automatically insert a link for directions when you enter a location for any activity.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- Evernote
Evernote is a great choice if you’re searching for a simple way to make and share lists, notes, and reminders with your family. It is accessible across all platforms, provides a basic free plan that most users find sufficient, and the software can even be used without an internet connection. (A “personal” premium version is also available for $80 annually.)
Evernote stands apart from the competition thanks to a variety of capabilities besides just its list functionality. Evernote makes it simple to shoot and store photographs in its notebooks, and you can simply record and share audio notes too.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- Trello
Trello is a project management platform that has been used by many families as well as professional project managers for years. Trello, which is essentially an electronic corkboard, can be as straightforward or complex as you like.
You can make a “board” for anything, such as organizing a family vacation or a menu. Anyone can add “cards” made up of links, thoughts, dates, to-dos, and more. Family members can effortlessly drag and drop cards to move them around and leave comments on them. Additionally, you can find templates for Trello made by other families that you can download and use with your own family.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- Cozi
Many parents still use Cozi as their preferred family management tool even though it has been available for many years. It has numerous features, including to-do lists, recipe sections, shopping lists, family calendars, and even a place for a family journal.
Cozi has a lot of features, which makes some parents think it’s too complicated, yet many parents still like it. Cozi is cross-platform and absolutely worth checking out; it has more than 20 million users. The version with advertisements is free, however a version without ads is also offered as a paid upgrade.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- BusyKid
An app called BusyKid assists parents in streamlining the part of family administration related to duties and allowance. Parents can use BusyKid to set weekly chores for each child and to choose an allowance that will be given when those chores are finished. The young person logs into the app and marks a task as finished when it is finished. (Don’t worry, parents can easily override your request and refuse the allowance if the chore wasn’t accomplished as you had hoped.)
You can get age-appropriate recommendations for chores and allowance amounts from the BusyKid app. When it comes time to pay your child’s allowance, you won’t have to worry about constantly having enough cash on hand because it is tied directly into your bank account.
Your child can choose to save the money after it has been deposited, select “cash out” and ask for a specific amount, or spend it on gift cards for well-known retailers like Amazon. Older children can learn about investing with BusyKid because they have the option to purchase small shares of stocks (with your OK). For $4 per month for the entire family, the software is affordable enough for busy families with multiple kids.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.- Greenlight
The app Greenlight describes itself as “the money app for families.” Greenlight makes it simple for parents to load money onto a card that their child can use, giving them another another method to have control over how their children are spending (and saving) money. Parents can specify the locations and dollar amounts where their children can use money by modifying the settings within the app. Additionally, they can outline a basic breakdown of how their child can use their funds, such as “spend anyplace,” meals, or ATMs.
The parents receive instant notifications when their kid tries to use their card. Kids can also ask to use money in an unapproved location, and parents can instantly agree or disagree. Greenlight only $5 a month for a family, and parents of active kids who frequently travel for extracurricular activities love the control it gives them.
Download it from the Apple App Store.
Download it from Google Play.
Download it from Amazon.The Takeaway for Parents
Whichever app you choose, consistency is the key to making it work for your family. The hardest part of utilizing any shared family calendar app will be the initial setup, but stick with it. If one really isn’t doing much for you even after working with it for a few weeks, try another one.
For those families and homes that need more organization going into 2023 Just Organized by Taya can help. We offer a wide range of home, office and life organization services, in person in the Greater Houston area or virtually via video conferencing anywhere in the world. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you #getorganized!
Working with Taya and her team is easy. You can book an appointment easily on her website, or contact her directly at 832-271-7608
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