Happy Wednesday!! I hope everyone is having a great week so far!! Today is one of my favorite blog link-ups to read, and I always try to participate when I can. So I'm jumping on board for the first Let's Look of 2023 about scheduling and organizing our family.
I'm excited to read everyone else's because I always love gathering fun ideas on these days! For the Riddicks, this topic is ever-changing as we are figuring out new routines these days with career shifts and a growing family.
This is the first "school year" I am not teaching and obviously the first one that we have had a little one as well, so scheduling and organizing looks different this year than it has in years past, but here are just a few things that came to mind first of things we try to do or have done recently.
This is the first "school year" I am not teaching and obviously the first one that we have had a little one as well, so scheduling and organizing looks different this year than it has in years past, but here are just a few things that came to mind first of things we try to do or have done recently.
1. Pierce and I both update and share our Apple Calendars.
This one is huge and pretty much our number one go-to when it comes to keeping ourselves organized.
Pierce and I both have calendars that are different colors and shared with each other. I get notifications when things are added or changed, and we can always see what's on the docket for that day or week. It's definitely the most efficient and simple way we stay organized and help with scheduling.
Pierce loves to add his to a little widget on his lock screen that pops up with the next thing on our calendar. I love to have mine when I slide over on my home screen. I have the clock, a fun featured photo that my phone chooses, our calendar widget and the weather. It's all easily there if I need to check anything.
2. Find a fun and inspiring planner.
Even though it's amazing to have everything on hand on our phones, I still love having a planner. Mainly, it's just fun. And I love a good fun way to see it all laid out.
I am usually a simple planner type of girl. For most of my teaching years, I used a planner from this Etsy shop, and I loved them!! They were simple, easy to carry to meetings and perfect for all of the things I needed to jot down planning wise.
But at the start of this calendar year, I knew I needed some new inspiration for our ever-growing busy days, and I have always thought these photo covers were so cute. So I took advantage of a New Years sale, uploaded some of my very favorite family pictures and am excited for a new planner coming in the mail.
It's different than most planners I've used in the past, but I wanted to have something that would be fun to reach for and update and for my picture-loving heart, I thought this would be fun to try for this year! I'll keep you updated on how I like it!
3. The Reminders app is a go-to for us.
Ahhh... The Reminders App. I used this app probably every single day when I was in college. It housed EVERYTHING from Chi O stuff to Student Teaching to-dos, lunches with friends, papers to write, projects to work on, etc. I loved it. I remember before every break, I would make a list entitled "Christmas Break" or "Thanksgiving Break" and type in everything and anything I could think of that I needed to do before break came. And then it would cause the MOST satisfaction as I saw the number of to-dos dwindling as I checked things off.
Then, I took about a seven year break 😂 and re-opened the app this past summer after I had Jane. I had so many things floating around in my mind each day, and I needed a place to categorize them. Pierce reminded me of this app, and I re-discovered my love for it. Pierce and I really use it most for our Grocery List and Meal Prep.
A new thing for the year has been we've tried is to put almost all of our meals that we love to make in the "Meal Prep," with all the ingredients listed below each meal. All of the meals are listed as "completed." And then for the week, we can go through and "uncheck" the ones that we want to have that coming week. All of the ingredients immediately are listed that we need to either make sure that we have on hand or add to our grocery list. It's been the best way to keep up with our ingredients so far, and I'll keep you updated as we continue to tweak and change things throughout the weeks.
4. The Kroger App is a game-changer.
The Kroger App. Another one of our very favorites.
We have started trying to simplify and doing more "pick-up" orders for our meals and this helps with that so much. We love our Kroger and love that they offer free grocery pick-up. It has made the world of difference on busy weeks and weekends.
Sometimes, we will even skip our Grocery List on reminders and go straight to the Kroger App - "adding to cart" anything that comes to our mind that we need throughout the day. It makes it so simple if one of us is already in Kroger to pull up the cart, but it mainly helps when we place our pick-up order. So many simple daily needs are already in the cart, which for some reason feels like it saves so much time.
5. We try to always add things right away and use Siri often.
Whether it's scheduling a pediatrician appointment, a tutoring session that got changed, a work meeting for Pierce, a fun trip planned or a simple small group dinner, we try to always add it to our calendar immediately. That way, we don't have to try to remember to "add it to a planner" when we get home.
If it's something small, but that we still need to remember it, Siri becomes our best friend. The amount of times we hold down our lock button and say, "Siri, remind me tomorrow at 9am to....." or "Siri, remember me on Tuesday to...." It's amazing and our best friend.
It is also how we keep up with prayer requests often. We just put in a reminder for a friend's interview, an exciting update, a due date, etc... Whenever a little reminder pops up on my phone, I'm always so grateful to my past-self for reminding my present-self.
And really, there you have it...just a few of the top things off the top of my head about how we keep these Riddicks over here organized... We really tried for the month of January to keep our schedule down to what was manageable with small group, tutoring sessions, dinners with friends, meetings for work for Pierce, date nights and even some scheduled and simple downtime at home. There is always an ebb and flow, but it's helpful when we can map it out and keep things organized for the month.
I LOVE how you’ve organized your Reminders app!! I’m going to have to use that!
ReplyDeleteAh thank you!! Yes!! It's a fun app to play around with and organize :) Hope you love it!!
DeleteCan you show an example of how you do your recipes in Meal Prep? I use my Reminders daily but never thought to use them this way. I use the Paprika app to hold all of my recipes.
ReplyDeleteOh that's a great idea! Yes!! I'll make a note to post that soon!! It's been so helpful for us. And I've never heard of the Paprika app - I'll have to look into that!
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