I'm terribly ashamed of this secret, and I work to keep it hidden from my co-workers and friends, although sometimes it sneaks out despite my best intentions.
I am horribly disorganized.
Disgustingly.
Seriously.
If you look in my desk drawers, you'll find lovely systems of organization, folders, files, labels. They are all set up differently. Sometimes by date, sometimes by category, sometimes random, but in the end, they are all unused. I have grand plans about how I am going to keep my life organized, and in the end, it all gets thrown by the wayside because I get caught up in life.
I've tried PDAs, Blackberries, paper agendas, keeping it all in my head, keeping it all online, and none of it seems to work.
When I was pregnant, and since giving birth to Gabriel, it has become a serious feat to keep track of all our appointments and meetings and classes. This kid is a serious social butterfly!
All of this makes me nervous because I know how hard it is for me to stay organized, so when my sister in law told me about momAgenda, I jumped at the chance to try something that might actually work.
Last year, when I was in my last month of pregnancy, I purchased the momAgenda in the hopes that it might keep me organized through the last-minute classes, doctor's appointments and errands that I needed to complete before the birth. The good news is that the momAgenda is very stylish and easy to use. If anything was going to help me get organized, this was it. The agenda is set up as a calendar in the beginning, with one month set out over two pages, and then another section with space for you to write in your daily appointments and reminders. The daily pages are listed at one week over two pages.
The daily section is what really sold me on the agenda, because there is room to write out appointments, but also room below that to list out the names of your children (or husband) and what errands or reminders you might need for them.
This was extraordinarily helpful to me, because besides appointments, I also needed a section to write out the different things I needed to remember for each of Gabriel and Josh. For example, today Gabe and I have music class and a lunch date, but I also need to remember to go look at car seats for him at some point today, and Josh needs me to pick up some stuff for him at the pharmacy. Before, I would just have made a long list of everything that needed to get done, and I would have to keep reading the whole list to decide what could wait and what couldn't, and I'd have to keep rereading the list to decide how to structure the day. Sounds like it isn't a big deal, but now I see everything I have to do at a glance, all organized clearly on the page.
My other favorite feature is that at the bottom of the page there is a category for dinners for the week. I've used this feature for the last couple of months and it is so helpful, I can't believe I didn't do this before. On one of the days during the weekend, I sit down for 5 minutes and decide what we're going to eat for each day of the week, and jot it down quickly. Then on Sunday or Monday I go to the grocery store for the ingredients, and I never have to think about it again. If I list out "chicken" for Wednesday, then when I look at the agenda on Tuesday, I know I need to defrost the chicken the day before. Or if I list "salmon" for Thursday, I know that I need to stop by the grocery store to pick it up. Before using this system, I was agonizing every evening over what we would eat and fretting because we had no vegetables in the house or no rice in the house. Inevitably, I was always missing something.
The momAgenda has a few other cool features, like a section at the beginning for important phone numbers and websites. I've used this a few times for airline numbers or rental car company numbers, especially when I'm not near a computer. There are also section for party planning and vacation planning, and a phone book at the back that is removable from year to year, so you don't need to reprint everything, you can just transfer it. With the advent of cell phones, I don't use this feature much, but I have jotted down some numbers there when I meet someone and don't have my cell phone handy.
Like all systems, you have to use the momAgenda for it to work, but I've found that even for me, this agenda is incredibly easy to use. It comes in 5 colors and several different sizes and styles. My only complaint is that it is a bit heavy, but I have to admit that I chose the larger size because I prefer the bigger pages. I get around this by keeping it in the car rather than my diaper bag.
Long story short, the momAgenda is a huge help when organizing the life of a little one, and I only imagine that as Gabe gets bigger, it'll be even more helpful! The agenda runs from August to August, so I just purchased my new momAgenda (in purple!) and cracked open the binding last weekend. It is just waiting to be filled in with our exciting little life!
The daily section is what really sold me on the agenda, because there is room to write out appointments, but also room below that to list out the names of your children (or husband) and what errands or reminders you might need for them.
This was extraordinarily helpful to me, because besides appointments, I also needed a section to write out the different things I needed to remember for each of Gabriel and Josh. For example, today Gabe and I have music class and a lunch date, but I also need to remember to go look at car seats for him at some point today, and Josh needs me to pick up some stuff for him at the pharmacy. Before, I would just have made a long list of everything that needed to get done, and I would have to keep reading the whole list to decide what could wait and what couldn't, and I'd have to keep rereading the list to decide how to structure the day. Sounds like it isn't a big deal, but now I see everything I have to do at a glance, all organized clearly on the page.
My other favorite feature is that at the bottom of the page there is a category for dinners for the week. I've used this feature for the last couple of months and it is so helpful, I can't believe I didn't do this before. On one of the days during the weekend, I sit down for 5 minutes and decide what we're going to eat for each day of the week, and jot it down quickly. Then on Sunday or Monday I go to the grocery store for the ingredients, and I never have to think about it again. If I list out "chicken" for Wednesday, then when I look at the agenda on Tuesday, I know I need to defrost the chicken the day before. Or if I list "salmon" for Thursday, I know that I need to stop by the grocery store to pick it up. Before using this system, I was agonizing every evening over what we would eat and fretting because we had no vegetables in the house or no rice in the house. Inevitably, I was always missing something.
The momAgenda has a few other cool features, like a section at the beginning for important phone numbers and websites. I've used this a few times for airline numbers or rental car company numbers, especially when I'm not near a computer. There are also section for party planning and vacation planning, and a phone book at the back that is removable from year to year, so you don't need to reprint everything, you can just transfer it. With the advent of cell phones, I don't use this feature much, but I have jotted down some numbers there when I meet someone and don't have my cell phone handy.
Like all systems, you have to use the momAgenda for it to work, but I've found that even for me, this agenda is incredibly easy to use. It comes in 5 colors and several different sizes and styles. My only complaint is that it is a bit heavy, but I have to admit that I chose the larger size because I prefer the bigger pages. I get around this by keeping it in the car rather than my diaper bag.
Long story short, the momAgenda is a huge help when organizing the life of a little one, and I only imagine that as Gabe gets bigger, it'll be even more helpful! The agenda runs from August to August, so I just purchased my new momAgenda (in purple!) and cracked open the binding last weekend. It is just waiting to be filled in with our exciting little life!
