A month in review: courtesy of Cozi
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: Family Focus, Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood
Three months ago I started using a website called Cozi to organize my calendar (and my life). I LOVE IT!!!! If you don’t have a calender system that you love, you are in for a treat. Do you have an active family with mulitiple schedules? This just may be a dream come true for you. Each family member is given their own color dot allowing you to signifiy which events affect which people and easily recognize in a glance who needs to be where. Don’t want your husband to forget your Parent Teacher meeting? No problem! Simply set up an auto text reminder for his phone ( ___ minutes) before the meeting.
Not only is Cozi super intuitive and easy to use but it has some really great extra features too. One that I have started using lately is the “journal”. This is a great way to add a photo and a quick snipt about your day–think of it as an online diary. I use it for stuff that isn’t “big” enough to blog about, but that I don’t want to forget. The bonus is that you can set it up to automatically email all your journal updates to friends and family on a monthy basis (think grandparents). Or if you have someone that you want to keep updated that doesn’t have computer access (think great-grandparents) you can print your journal and pop it in the mail to them! I am also able to access my Cozi account though my phone so updating and checking my calendar (or journal) is effortless. You can also sync your journal entries to your facebook page so that all updates are automatically shared on your profile page.
Want to get a feel for the journal? Here is a peek at our August journal entries.
Perhaps you are like me and are a visual learner. You are in luck because I found out about Cozi though Carley over at Mothercraft Coaching. She has her pulse on all things helpful for moms who want to keep their lives organized and sends out a weekly newsletter with one simple actionable idea. I (heart) Carley and have started using almost EVERYTHING that she has suggested–seriously it is just sort of ridiculous. Whenever I start telling Trent about something new I am using he asks, “Did you find out about this though that lady again?” and I say “Of course I did!”
Oh dear I almost totally forgot my focus there. What I wanted to say was that Carley created a Cozi video tutorial that will quickly and easily give you the tour of Cozi and help you see how super cool it is. And when you start using it, don’t say I didn’t tell you so (oh and the best part, Cozi is free)!
Just in time for back to school–go get organized!
Please share: What method of calender organization works best for you? Do you have one?
I really like Cozi, thansk for sharing. I currently use my iphone….a pocket calender and one on the wall at home for back-up…what a mess, LOL
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mom4life Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 2:10 pm
@Crystal Loftus, You are welcome, it sure is nice to have ONE system that works for you!
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We use the Google calendar. It’s not great, but it gets the job done. My husband and I are both Gmail users, and we have iGoogle set as the homepage on each of our laptops, so, along with other applications, it will show upcoming events on the calendar. It allows me to share my calendar (the family calendar) with him because he’s a Gmail user too. Not crazy about the format though.
That Cozi looks really nice though; I can’t believe it’s free. I’m going to have to try it out. My husband won’t be thrilled about a change though; it took me a while to get him active in the Google calendaring! But I’m going to get a Droid phone next month and it would be a DREAM to have the calendar, to do lists, shopping lists, and all of that on one phone application!!
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mom4life Reply:
September 6th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
@Robyn Kirk, I hear you about switching systems (never fun). I have also used Google calendar and as you said, it works but isn’t super. I think you might really like Cozi. I am not sure off hand if it works with the Droid (I have an iphone) but it is super to have something that you can access and update from your phone!
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I signed up with Cozi some years ago, but have not used it as much as I originally meant to. I like MomAgenda products and have the All-in-One organizer – I love all the page protectors, calendar, large note pad and included pen. Cozi is really nice, though, because you can send your grocery list to your phone as a text or e-mail, and if your husband happens to be the one at the store, you can send it to his phone!
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mom4life Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
@Deanna, Thanks for your feedback. I have heard several people talk about the MomAgenda and for those that really like the pen and paper option, I bet it is a good way to go. I do like the features you mentioned in Cozi that allow you to send the grocery list to your phone, my husband and I have used that quite a few times already.
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