Dear FlyLady,

Hands down, your calendar is my favorite tool (I get both sticker kits!) I love the fact that it starts in August because my kids’ schools start in August, (as do their various band camps and school orientations.) It’s like new back-to-school supplies, only it’s for ME, lol.

Every year I have a routine w/my new calendar, and I have a list of what I need to put on it right from the start.  (That little reminder list is written in the extra “notes” space on the “August” page, so I don’t forget.)  Here are the types of things on my list:

*Transfer upcoming items I’ve jotted down on the extra months’ pages from LAST year’s calendar (SO helpful to have!!)

*Birthdays/special anniversaries transferred from last years’ calendar.

*All the zone stickers for the year.

*”Work” stickers on pay days.

*All reoccurring commitments, (which I have listed so I don’t forget one) like a community choir meeting weekly, or a service organization meeting on the 3rd Tues of each month – you get the idea.

*My husband’s schedule, etc.

When school papers start flooding in, I add all THOSE dates, and use stickers like crazy!  The stickers make it EASY

BUT our calendar is not ONLY a great planning tool, keeping us organized and preventing double-booking, it is ALSO a great record of our year.  We save them, and I enjoy a little nostalgic review of our year when I do the “big transfer” of info from the old to the shiny new one.  EVERYthing goes on the calendar!

As a result, when my husband was rear-ended on his motorcycle, an important part of the insurance settlement was because of our calendar.  The attorney asked about medical visits and missed work and events, and my husband simply brought in our old calendar.  It was all RIGHT THERE, and more!  We’d never have remembered it all.  In fact, they suggested that I had a claim too, based on things I had to do because of him being out of commission. (No thank you!) The other insurance company interviewed my husband for credibility, looked at the calendar, and then settled immediately.

Thank you!!
Brenda

FlyLady here; I keep all my calendars too. I love being able to look back on the year and see what we did and when. It is part of our history and they do not take up every much room. I have a place for them.

Just this morning I saw an email that said she had never bought a calendar because we did not have a picture of the size of the blocks. I explained to her that we did have a picture on our website and it was on the calendar page. All you have to do is be patient and scroll down to the bottom of the page. We also have all the dimensions in the text on the calendar page and a picture of the calendar on a refrigerator. If you are looking for a calendar with pretty pictures you do not want to buy ours. Our calendar is a tool to manage your family’s life. The boxes are large and there are lines. It is designed to use! Not just look at. Go check out all the pictures of our calendar. You are going to love it.

Do you have a place for your calendar? We would love to see your pictures of your calendar zone! Send them to me, FlyLady@flylady.net with CALENDAR ZONE in the subject line along with how your family uses it.

Have you gotten your calendar ordered? Get it today! Our calendar has large squares that are big enough to hold your busy family’s schedule and milestones.