How to organize a family calendar everyone actually uses

Wall calendar, family planner or app?

• A month-grid wall calendar: one square per day. Good for the big dates, but a square gets crowded when four people write hockey, piano and the dentist into it.
• A family planner: every day on its own row and a column for each person. Read across for the day, down for one person’s month.
• A shared app, like Google Calendar, Apple’s Family Sharing or a family organizer app: good for reminders and last-minute changes, but it only works for the people who open it.

Setting up a shared family calendar on your phones

1. In Google, create a family group from your Google account and invite the others. Google Calendar then shows a calendar called Family that everyone in the group can see and add to.
2. On iPhone, Family Sharing does the same: it adds a shared Family calendar to everyone’s Calendar app.
3. Put family events in that shared calendar, not your own, and turn on its notifications on each phone.

Good for: reminders and changes on the go. Less good for: younger kids without phones, and seeing the whole month at a glance.

What goes on a family calendar

• Everyone’s activities: hockey and ringette practices, swimming, music lessons, part-time shifts.
• School dates: the first day in September, PA or PD days, picture day, parent-teacher interviews, March break.
• Drop-offs and pick-ups, when they aren’t the usual.
• Appointments: doctor, dentist, the switch to winter tires and back.
• Birthdays across the family, with the age each person turns, so cards and gifts go out in time.
• Chores that come round every week: garbage and recycling day, allowance.

Making it stick

1. Hang it where everyone passes every day, usually the kitchen, at a height the kids can read.
2. Give each person a column or a colour, and keep one shared column for things that involve everyone.
3. Keep a pen right next to it.
4. Spend five minutes every Sunday going through the week ahead together, and add anything new.
5. Let older kids fill in their own column.

If you use an app as well, decide which one is the master. When the wall and the phone disagree, everyone should know which to trust.

Which size, and when to start

Each person needs a column wide enough for a few words every day. A slim planner (5.5 × 16.5 in) suits two or three people; for four or five, go for a larger one, around 11 × 16.5 in. Family life runs on the school year, so a calendar that starts in September often fits better than one that starts in January.

How our family calendar does it

Our family calendar is a family planner for the wall: a row for every day, a column for each person and first a shared “Family” column, which you can rename or leave out. Birthdays are printed in the right person’s column with the age they turn, and Canadian holidays, from Family Day and Victoria Day to Thanksgiving, are already on their day. It comes slim (5.5 × 16.5 in, up to three names) or large (11 × 16.5 in, up to five), starts in any month, and has the month’s artwork or your own photo across the top, or no picture so the rows are taller.