Everyone has a calendar. The real question is 'How well do you use it?

It’s Sunday night. The weekend is over. You sit down on the couch and start to plan for the upcoming week. You know that on Monday you have work, but is your son going to soccer practice or has he got tutoring? When is his assessment? How about your daughter, hasn’t she got an excursion this week?

What you really want to do is just drink a glass of wine and relax before another work week. Instead the mental juggling starts and the worry creeps in.

This is where an organised calendar can help.

Calendars have been around for thousands of years. We all know it can help you keep track of social events, appointments, meetings. The benefit of time management is obvious. What is not obvious is that calendars have the potential to help manage your stress, your wellbeing as well as your activities.

Want to know how?

Calendars have the power to keep us organised, productive and prioritised

Firstly, calendars can assist in creating a daily routine. By creating a pattern, we can reduce the number of calories consumed figuring out the next steps to our day. Think about it. You wake up at roughly the same time every day. You eat breakfast, perform daily grooming activities, make the kids lunches, drive them to school and then head to work. Once you are at work, you often fall into a pattern too. You start your computer, check your voicemails and answer your emails.

By using a calendar, you are able to allocate time slots for daily rituals. Then you can make time for more important activities. By starting your day off in the right way, you are able to manage your schedule productively.

Your calendar can literally be used to schedule your day in order of priorities on your ‘To Do List’. Typically, you can read your list of tasks, choose to complete the easy ones, procrastinate the rest and run out of time to complete things. However, with a calendar, you can ensure you don’t miss anything. By allocating time slots per task, you can prioritise the most important tasks in your calendar. You will accomplish more and feel more organised.

See everything, take a break, have time for yourself – you are worth it

We crave connections and companionship. But how many times have you reached the weekend and had to take work home with you? Or got to the end of the day and realized you have not had a moment to yourself. These pressures play a massive role in our mindset, affecting our relationships with friends and family.

This is where a calendar can help. By allocating time to complete our tasks, we can then on the flipside allocate time for ourselves to relax as well. Time to ourselves, to our families and to our friends.

It is so easy to get lost in the business of being busy and forget your needs because you are consumed with looking after everyone else, a super noble deed. This is what makes you great, but it comes at a cost.

You need to take time out. It’s that simple. Time out keeps you fresh, rejuvenated and functioning properly. It feeds your wellbeing.

By managing a calendar and a schedule, you can prioritise YOU. The very act of entering in an event for YOU, gives yourself the permission to stop, take time out and not to feel guilty!

An organised calendars also help reduce stress and stay in control at home

The older your kids get, the more they take on and the more schools send emails and app notifications. Feels like you have homework too, right?! It’s hard to stay on top of everything they have going on. Plus, the more kids you have, the harder the schedules become to manage.

This is where a calendar makes a difference. By entering all the kids activities; their different sporting events, band practices and social activities, as a parent, you will be able to stay on top of household schedules. Just the act of making an appointment helps set a date and time aside for a specific activity. It can help you reduce your mental load. It’s exhausting keeping it in your head.

At myWhānau we recognise the power of an organised calendar. We also recognise that it takes time to enter all your family’s activities, time that is in short supply.

We can help. We help by entering and staying on top of your children’s activities and tasks for you. We add to your calendar the detail you need to be in control and organized. We add the link to the original emails, along with links to forms needing completion. We make sure everything is one place and up to date.

Your time and attention are the most valuable resources you have. Don’t let them go to waste.