Using a Shared Calendar for Your Family

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As your family grows, so do the number of events, classes, and appointments. Along with this, the stress of the one one who manages it all, often the mom, also grows. In our house, I manage where everyone needs to be when they need to be there, what bills need to be paid, when we need to pay them, what we’re going to eat on each day. It can be overwhelming, and when no one else seems to be on the same page it makes it harder. If you are the one who is in charge of managing your household, using a shared calendar for your family can help you keep your sanity!

In my school, I was pretty well-known as the Google teacher. I love all things Google! Finding ways that I could make my classroom paperless became an obsession. I learned about a lot of different digital tools that I loved, but Google was by far the simplest and most versatile of them all.

If you are interested in how I use Google to make my life easier at work AND home you can read my last Google post HERE.

Shared Calendars

In this post, we’re going to talk about why using a shared calendar for your family is almost necessary! There are many reasons why using an online calendar can help you personally as well.

Recently, a friend on Facebook posted a status that they had lost ALL their appointments and events that were on their phone calendar because their phone was broken. This really surprised me because I had been using Google calendar pretty much since I first started needing to use a calendar. If my phone breaks (or when I get a new one) all I have to do is sync it and it’s ready to go!

If you want some great ideas for other ways to use Google to organize your life, make sure to subscribe!

Why using a shared calendar for your family is amazing

Sync to all devices

I can add events on my computer at work while I’m going through all the bills and sorting out my life, then view it on my phone anywhere.

Share Across Accounts

My husband and I both have Google accounts. It is extremely easy for me to share my calendar (and other Google documents, pictures, etc). Anything that my husband and I both need access to (such as the calendar) is shared with him. Now he has it on his phone as well.

Everyone can add events

Both my husband and I have gotten in the habit of putting things directly on our calendar when we make an appointment or someone invites us to something. This way, even if we forget to tell each other no one is surprised. Since the calendar is shared, if he puts something on his calendar, it pops up on mine and vice versa.

No excuses

Along those lines, there are no more “I forgot” or “I didn’t know that was supposed to be today.” Even if I DID forget to tell him about an event (I didn’t-he’s lying 😜) it’s on the calendar, and has been on the calendar since it was planned.

Everyone is on the same page

It can really be exhausting being the one who is constantly reminding the other person where they need to be or what events are coming up. When everyone is continually checking the calendar, no one in the house is the “keeper of the calendar.” This reduces the mental load tremendously.

Don’t lose events and appointments

As mentioned before. Having an online calendar means that it can’t be lost. I can log into my computer and add or edit events and it synchronizes to my phone. If I lose my phone, I still have access to my calendar. When I get my new phone, I go to the settings, set my Gmail account and EVERYTHING syncs automatically (calendar, email, Chrome bookmarks, etc).

If you want some great ideas for other ways to use Google to organize your life, make sure to subscribe!

Why Specifically Google Calendar?

There are multiple shared calendars out there. The reason Google is great is the fact that it’s packed with useful features. It also integrates with all of your other Google apps. For example, when I use GMail as my email, I can save events that I am invited to directly to my calendar. I love the ability to color code my events. I use different colors for bills, work events/deadlines, my son’s appointments and school events, my daughter, my husband’s everything, etc. This really helps me be able to find things easily on a very busy calendar.

Getting Google Calendar

Starting a Google calendar is very easy! All you have to do is create a Google account!

This will be your account for ALL things Google. You can also use it to log in to different pages without having to create a new account. This makes things a lot easier!

To create your account just go to google.com (yeah! the place you search for recipes and how-tos on). There will be a blue sign-in button in the corner. When you click on this it will take you to a login page. You will use the “create an account” button to create your account.

It takes about a minute to do this and, boom, you have a Google account that you can use for your calendar, email, youtube, drive, etc (keep an eye out for how to use some of the other great tools!-Join my email list HERE).

Now What?

Now that you have a Google account you are all set! To access your calendar on the computer, you can go to the same homepage that you used to sign in. Click on the little waffle-looking icon to find your different apps.

Syncing to your phone

Chances are, you use your phone calendar, especially if your a mom who is managing a household. Using your Google calendar on your phone is just a matter of going into your Calendar settings and putting in your newly created account.

I like to use the actual Google calendar app because I feel like it works better with all of the features that the calendar has. It is easy to download the app and sign in.

Iphone App

Android App

Now you’re all set! Now you can start using a shared calendar for your family to preserve your sanity (at least a little).

Like the idea of using Google (or other digital tools) to manage your household?

As I said before, in my workplace I am the go-to person for Google. I figured I should share my knowledge! Google has made my work life easier and my home life. If you want to learn more about how to use Google apps and digital tools to make your household management easier, make sure to follow my posts so you don’t miss any of my Google posts!

I have an email course in the works. If you are interested in receiving this, sign up below! You will receive my 100 indoor activities list right away and when my email course is complete, you will be the first to receive it!

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