Organised Mum - Calendar or Diary?

[Grockle]

I NEED an OM of somesort since my life is chaotic. Should I get the calendar or the life book? Or the pocket life book? Or what? I want them all

Can someone tell me all the things I can do with a gmail/google calendar?

I am struggling with a paper calendar on the fridge, and a paper work diary - and I keep forgetting stuff.

My mobile is a work one so no possibility of upgrading to an iphone!

My Dcs have left home now, but I used to manage for a while with a family calender. However, i also found I didn't use it for my appts.
SO- i have been my most organised lately since using my small mini-size filofax. I make sure that everything goes in there - work and personal appts. I can't cope with having different information in different places.

I have a pocket life book and its fantastic, dunno wot id do without it . DP has an iphone 4 and i cant even txt on it nevermind work the other things/aps/settings whatever lol.

I am a little ott about this subject.

I have a diary n my handbag
a diary in ds changing bag in case i dan't have my handbag with me

calendar in the kitchen

birthdays on my mobile phone so i never forget 1

I have the OM calendar (life one, not family planner as I have very young children who don't do separate activities) and the Pocket Life Book. I keep them both updated and I love them.

I think the problem with paper is that people put information in so many different places. A diary in a handbag, another one in a changing bag, calendar in the kitchen and birthdays on a mobile phone would do my head in tbh. You're writing the same information at least three times. Fine if you have the social life of a hermit but I shouldn't imagine you do!

Google calendar is probably the best online calendar. You can have different calendars for each member of the family and view them individually or all in one go (calendars are different colours). You can set up recurring appointments or events (i.e. birthdays and anniversaries) so no need to keep rewriting stuff. You can view it anyway you want (day, 2 days, 3 days, week, 2 weeks, month, etc.) and you can even add your tasks in (though I use the Remember the Milk app on my phone). Sign up for an account. I luuuurrrrvvveeee it!

DH & I use our Outlook calendar for work and home appointments. It syncs with our phones so is pretty much always up to date.

If I'm entering a school thing (e.g. parent's evening) I'll enter it as a 'meeting' and invite him to it. The header will say something like: "DS1: Parents Evening 7.30 (20 mins) - babysitter Y booked"
It will then go in his online calendar.
If it's something which requires his active participation I will often add a reminder alarm for 30 mins before etc so he has no chance of forgetting!

This system works for us, but the only problem with it is that there isn't a family calendar on the wall that the kids can look at, and sometimes I think we forget to tell them soon enough in advance what's happening...

I have the OM wall calendar and the Pocket Life Book. I just make sure I update them both from the other one each week to make sure they are in synch. Can't get the hang of iPhone diary - I like having it on paper so I can see at a glance what I have one. I also colour code things with a highligher which helps make the week/month clear at a glance - blue for birthdays, green for something which requires travel, and yellow for anything that involves alteration to routine (such as going out for dinner or having people to stay, rather than just a note that there is (e.g.) famers' market on or that recycling needs to go out. I also have pink for "romantic events" but somehow that one rarely appears...