One technology item that has helped me countless times is Google calendar. But not just the calendar. It’s the daily event reminders.

Every day at 5 am, Google calendar emails me my daily schedule. And since I check email as soon as I get up – yes even before coffee – I know if I have any important meetings or deadlines that day. And for whatever reason, that works better for me than trying to remember to open a calendar program. If I have something scheduled early (which I try to avoid as much as possible), then I use an alternative. But usually the email is enough.

There are other helpful features from Google calendar (and others as well) that we can highlight as well. We’ll be sure to feature them soon.

So tell us, do you rely on reminders for events? Have you trained yourself to just check a calendar? Or maybe you use phone notifications instead? Let us know what works for you and your family.

Image: stock.xchng

If you don’t schedule in the time to do your most important tasks of the day, you might not get them done. Without that specific time slot when I need to be doing “X” it is easy to get distracted with little things. Like e-mail. Or laundry. (Not to mention Twitter and Plurk!)

Why you should calendar
The whole point of calendaring your day is to make sure you actually make time for the things you say are important (and to remember things).

Write down that phone call you need to make at 10am, that play date at 1pm, that doctor’s appointment next week. But don’t forget that project that’s coming due very soon, that you haven’t even started yet. Break it down into manageable pieces and it won’t seem so overwhelming. Make steady progress and before you know it, it’s done!

A two week experiment
Try this for the next two weeks: each day, figure out the five most important things that you need to accomplish that day. Then schedule time for them on your calendar. Schedule it around childcare and e-mail and errands. Actually block out time where you concentrate on that task.

And when that time comes, work on the task. If you only have a 1/2 hour, then see how much you can get done in a 1/2 hour. Don’t answer e-mail. Don’t pick up the phone. Just stick to your calendar.

Didn’t get your task done in the allotted time? That’s okay. Did you make progress? That’s the important part.

A new way of thinking
You don’t have to calendar yourself to death, scheduling every minute of your day. Just think of your day in chunks of time and do what you can in those chunks. If you’re not used to it, it may take some time. Allow yourself some leeway in learning a new way of doing things. And keep some flexibility. We all know how things can change on the fly when there are kids involved!

Are you the type that hates to have your day scheduled? Try just jotting down your most important tasks and refer back to it throughout the day to make sure you’re making progress.

We want you to find things that work for you – and not everything will. But you won’t know until you try it! So how do you use your calendar? Do you only list kid activities and appointments? Do you block time for projects? Is your calendar working for you? Why or why not?