New month. New school year. Why not a new effort to keep your life organized?

I cannot tell you how much I value having a master calendar. I may love it as much as I love my lists. Every household needs a master calendar. The bigger the household, the more essential it is. If you have more than 2 people, you can color code each person's activities so you know that Mom is taking Liam to the library while Dad takes Siobhan to karate class.  

There are tons of calendar/scheduling apps or you can use paper. They key is to put something in place and maintain it religiously. The minute you commit to something or know that you need to do it (like you get the e-mail reminder to return your library books), it goes on the calendar. Right now, take out the school calendar and add the important dates — parent/teacher conferences, winter concerts, bake sales, etc.

But setting up the calendar is only the first step. The more important step is taking a few minutes each morning to look at the day ahead and each evening to look a few days in advance. In the morning, you'll know if you need to put the soccer equipment in the car or if you need to stop on the way home to pick up the snacks you need to take to the Brownie meeting. In the evening, you'll be able to look ahead to identify what you can do in advance.

You ca make the calendar as detailed as you like. For example, you might want to include daily and weekly chores or list each night's planned dinner menu. The key is that you include enough so that you aren't blind-sided by a majopr task but not so much that you can't review a few days in a couple of minutes.