Back To School - Post #2

Are you going just as crazy as I am trying to keep track of all the dates (Back to School, Teacher Conferences, Holidays), it's just maddening! At the beginning of the year, you are bombarded in all directions with dates to put on your calendar. And, most of it is still be distributed in paper form (my huge pet peeve, not only is not "green" but I don't need more clutter or a paper to lose!)

So, does this happen to anyone, you get the paper from your child's school,  you read it, you're like, yes, I need to keep this in a safe place. You put it in a safe place, then you can't find it and can't remember the safe place, you run through  your  email inbox, you text and call a couple of other frazzled mommies, and still can't find your info...??? Ding, Ding Ding!!! That's me!!!  .... last year... This year, I'm trying a different approach.

I've been reading a lot of articles lately on using technology to simplify... and so, here is how I am taking that approach to help me with my lost papers/ need dates issue.

Take a picture and file it!  Camera phones have come a long way and you can now use them to "scan" papers. Gone are the day you need to go through a million steps to scan a piece of paper. Now, all you do is  set the paper on a flat surface, point and shoot! That's it!

Now, I like to use the camera capability through a little program called Evernote. It allows you to take notes and catalog your pictures too. It also syncs up with an online account so you can access your files from your desktop or laptop, this is great for redundancy.  It also... wait for it... let's you share! Yes!!!  You can share all your notes and pictures with your hubby. For me, that doesn't matter, he rarely helps manage the family calendar, but if you have a hubby that does, it's a great feature!

So, as I sat in the multipurpose room of my daughter's school for Kindergarten Orientation thrown with 4 different drop-off / pick up schedules and hundreds of other dates to remember... I snapped away.

Here's what Evernote looks like:

http://evernote.com/


Let me know if you use this system or something else.  I'd love to hear your feedback!

Until Later.... !