It’s Sunday night. Kendall goes back to school this week. He starts k-4 (preschool) on Tuesday. I feel like this year is a dress rehearsal for the big time next year.
I can’t be taking him to Kindergarten 5 minutes late every day. I can’t be forgetting his school events and running home to fetch money and important papers I was supposed to return that morning.
It’s a struggle for me, this staying organized thing. Somedays I do okay… most days I’m treading water.
Tonight, as I have for the last week or so, I sat down with my new momAgenda Mini-Daily and wrote out my tasks for the next 2 days. It’s just another step toward mastering this “organized-ish mom” thing that I need to have a handle on before we’re dealing with Kindergarten.
I’m loving the format of the Mini-Daily because I find it easier to write just what I need to get done in the next 48 hours down, and that helps me feel less overwhelmed. I have a Home Office Edition that I use to write out long-term goals, future events and deadlines that usually stays right by my computer on my desk. My Mini-Daily can go with me anywhere, though, and it’s usually next to my bed… or in the playroom (which may be why there’s a lovely and enormous pen mark zigged and zagged all over the front of it already, compliments of budding artist Leyna).
I know many of you are gearing up for another year of organized chaos with back-to-school looming. I’m excited to hook one of you up with a momAgenda Mini-Daily planner of your own! Just follow the instructions in the widget below.
*Disclosure- momAgenda provided the planner for me to review. All opinions and images are my own.
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157 comments
My Teuxdeux app is a lifesaver!
I would love to win! I have 3 kids in two different schools, I volunteer at both and run my own business. Life is crazy! I plan about 4am as I’m trying to wind down from each day…
My daughter starts preschool this year and I need help getting organized!
Post it notes are my best friend! I try to plan out the week on sunday.
I have been relying on my iPhone calendar which is great until I turn the volume down or leave it somewhere for a couple of hours! Maybe a pen and paper approach is the answer.
i am always making lists on random pieces of paper (which usually get lost) at my desk or in the living room at the lap top.
The kitchen counter with a little dry erase frame, but I lose any incomplete tasks each week when I redo it!
I plan for the next day on my computer using google calendar. I add new things to the calendar on my phone when I get the info… but I usually forget and rely on my memory. I think this year is going to be the death of my memory between 2nd grade and a junior running cross country.
I have a composition book that I write my to-do lists in. It stays in our home office most of the time, or on the dining room table so I can cross things off as I move around the house. My planning usually happens in the morning though, as I check email and drink my coffee.
I mostly plan in my head while laying in bed at night. Hmmm, wonder if that’s why I’m not as effective as I could be? :-/
Gosh I need one of those. Right now I just use a big bulky binder that I fill out during downtimes at work. It’s an imperfect system.
Usually a random notepad…not very helpful!
I am currently using a two inch binder approach for household planning. And I plan in all my free time (free time, as you well know is a joke). The binder is currently where I am trying to do my planning, but it is combined with my other household lists and things end up less organized this way. I have been looking for something that I can take with me more easily than the binder and actually get organized. My little family just moved, and things are hectic enough right now, without not having a good place to plan and have plans.
I was a day-planner addict pre-kids but have been living in chaos for the last couple of years. But with school starting next week I’m going to HAVE to get back on track. This would be perfect for writing out my schedule on Sunday nights.
Plan for the next day? Ummm… how ’bout for the next hour? minute? second? haha
Really, I do my “planning” the night before on the way to bed, when I set out lunches (on a good day) and clothes/diapers/etc for the morning. Everything else, I’m totally winging it.
I usually have scraps of paper scattered all over the place with lists of what needs to be accomplished, who needs to be where and when, etc. I desperately need a place to get organized!
I need something like that as Ian starts prek3
A combination of post it notes, my phone and a mini calendar are my go to organization items. Would be nice to have 1 item that does it all!
Every Sunday PM I try to plan out our week and our meals, and every morning during bfast I review the day.
However, my Agenda is a little bulky, and sometimes I don’t want to take it with me which kind of puts a damper of the whole system…
I’ve been trying to use my phone, with little success.
Great organizational tool!!
I use google calendar for events, but write the little stuff down on pieces of paper.
I need to figure this whole organization thing out before our baby arrives in October! I can never seem to keep all our appointments straight!
At my desk at work, at the start of each day.
I have a huge wipe board calendar on the back of one of my kitchen doors. I plan there,
We have a wall calendar that I use for planning our month and I’m pretty sure I keep Post-It in business with all my daily to-do lists for my daily planning.
Usually curled up on the couch after the kids are in bed, in between commercial breaks!
after my son goes to bed, i attempt to figure out what i need to do the next day. usually i’m parked on my couch with some chocolate and/or wine.
I usually plan in bed at night
I’m in the same boat – trying to get organized!! I’ve got two in school this year and the first mass of papers came home on Friday. I spent the weekend brainstorming ways to get organized. I have yet to find a good “planner” for me to keep everything straight but this might work!
We use the wall calander. I like to see everything spread out with different colored markers for each family member. I do put reminder alarms on my phone though 🙂
I’ve got my calendar online and on my phone but I just love writing on paper. I really want to get better about organizing–including meal planning!
I just make lists on regular paper (if I’m even that organized) I could really use a momAgenda!
I try to plan the night before sitting by my computer in the few minutes I have before my youngest wakes for the first of a million times in a night!
We’re in the process of building a desk into a corner of our kitchen, as I lost a bedroom/office when my second was born (but that’s okay!). So, currently I plan, write lists, and blog from a wobbly Costco table in my kitchen. 🙂
I use an old school wall calendar, but it would be nice to add some portability to my calendar – now I can’t schedule anything away from home with any certainty!
I plan at work! 😉
great giveaway 🙂 and your blog keeps me smiling especially after a long day of working and running after a 19 month old!
Plan for the next day? What does that mean? Plan???
We definitely need to be more organized.
i plan ahead…or at least try to..appts etc months ahead..
I don’t have a regular method. Sometimes I write myself a note in the form of an unsent text on my phone, sometimes I just use a random scrap of paper, sometimes on the whiteboard on my fridge… I do have a planner, but I’m not sure where it is, and it’s too big to carry with me everywhere anyway. I need a better method!
i’m planning to switch back to a paper planner. life is so chaotic right now… i’m hoping it helps!
At night before bed I plan out the next day in my head. And when things get busy I’ll write lists on scraps of paper…this system fails me now, but with preschool about to start I have to come up with something better.
I plan at my kitchen table and use a scrap piece of paper. It’s sad, really. I tend to lose my lists often!
Unfortunately, I have notes on scraps of paper, iPhone snaps of flyers from school and no one method of harnessing it all together. Some of my best planning is during the 15min sitting in the pickup loop at the elementary.
Right now in my cozi app on my phone way too late in the evening.
Sounds great! I’d love one. I’ve got multiple places I try to keep myself organized, but usually I fall off the wagon.
I usually plan in my head while i’m tryingto fall asleep. I need somewhere to write things down!
Plan?? Ha! I’m lucky if nothing is forgotten. With a 13 month old, I should probably start on this whole “organizing” thing. I’m also looking for an easy way to budget, for some reason my head won’t wrap around it. Doesn’t help that I’m the one who handles the money (along with everything else in the house). :/
I used to use a little mini planner, started trying to use my phone…and that’s why now I’m just trying to remember and failing. Need a new planner!
Planning ahead is rare for me! I usually just grab my phone or a scrap of paper wherever I am and make a note of what needs to be done whenever I get the chance. I could definitely use this!
Trying to keep a 6 year old and 16 month old traitor is a challenge while working full time. Add the full time working dad wo can’t remember anything and it takes an act of god to keep it all straigh. Portability would be awesome!
I am a teacher so I use a calendar that my school gave to me to keep track of all that I have to do at school.
I love this! My many Pinterest- inspired DIY planner/organizer projects haven’t quite worked out 🙂
Usually my Ipod but more then likely I do have a little planner I write and doodle in but to have a special place especially for this upcoming crazy school year would be AWESOME! Thanks for the chance.
Keeping organized is a daily battle at our house. I have still not found the exact right organizer for me. I’d love to see if this is it!
I make a to do list on my phone.
I have a sewing area I like to use but typically I end up planning on the couch or sitting in bed….
I tend to just make a mental list the night before…
Even with technology, I still love paper and pen =)
I’ve tried doing lists on my phone, on a white board, so many different things to try and stay organized. But a notebook as always worked the best. Plus I tend to randomly write down things next to my lists like phone numbers and the like that I end up needing in the future and in a notebook they stay where I put them.
Right now I “plan” on a scrap piece of paper …. I am thinking this planner would really be a step up for me!
I try to set up my plan using the calender on my phone, but I have a tendency to forget, lost my phone, or not charge my phone, therefore any schedule I did have doesn’t get any attention. And I usually only have time to do this (when it actually occurs) after everyone else goes to bed. But lately I’ve been laying down with my son to get him to sleep and I almost always fall asleep as well, so nothing, from scheduling to cleaning gets done.
I am bad about planning out my next day; probably because I am a SAHM with only a 3 and 1 year old at the moment. But I do like planning and keeping an organized calendar. I am in love with Google Calendar. One: it can come with me anywhere I go on my phone, or I can see it on any computer; and Two: my husband can sync his Google calendar with mine so we don’t over book. 🙂
I typically use post it notes which typically get lost or forgotten so anything to help me get organized is great!
I do all of my planning on my google calendar.. when I’m up for the task of entering it in all tedious-like =P.
I am usually in the kitchen writing on the counter. We have a LONG kitchen counter (like 14 feet) so I have a mini home office on there so I can watch the boys and do other things! 🙂
I usually use my phone to plan my day, especially if it doesn’t involve a work day.
Right now I have a cheap-o planner. I’m so old school and love jotting things down with a pen & paper!!
Sundays are usually my planning days. Early bedtime because of school the next day and generally being wiped out from the weekend make it easy to get some quiet time with my thoughts (and facebook 🙂
I love MomAgenda but right now I’m writing things all over the place, pieces of paper beside the phone, things on the fridge, notes on my phone, etc. It’s a MESS! Please help me!
I’m usually at the kitchen counter. I make a old school list with boxes beside each task so I can check them off and feel accomplished. Make list – check, check off first item on list – check. Look at how productive I am! For calendar events I use a cheap “month at a glance” book.
I am list maker! I will make the same list over and over and over again just to be sure I haven’t forgotten anything!
I like to plan as much in advance as I can, right now I use a wall calendar and my phone.
Usually while holding my baby with one hand I’m sticking post it’s on my fridge with the other! I use a sharpie and neon pink post it’s so I don’t forget all of my daughter’s appts
I usually write post-it notes and leave them on my lap top for reminders or put it in the ‘notes’ part of my phone but something like this calendar would be so much more helpful and organized!
I try to get my husband’s schedule on a wall calendar at least 3 months ahead, and my son and my schedules at least a week…actually planning for the next day… things are a little chaotic! 🙂
I have been looking for a good planner. Life is getting hectic!
I go through my to do list whenever I can get my son down for a nap! Sometimes I do it at work right before I Starr for the day.
I’m usually lying in bed with all my to-do’s for the next day. I try to use the calendar on my phone and I’ve got a ton of paper lists all over……I need all the help I can get!
I love my iPhone, but I always end up making notes on scrap pieces of paper. There’s just something different about writing it down on paper and making little check boxes
I jot down to do lists on a sheet of paper. Problem is, I can never remember where I put the piece of paper 😉
I try to plan a week in advance through our google calendar. Husband follows it and adds accordingly…and I have a paper planner for back-up. I try to stay organized…TRY is the word!
I try to schedule the big things out for the month and then try to go over the next 36 hours each evening in the kitchen with my husband. It’s not foolproof, but we try to make sure nothing major is dropped!
I tend to write to-do lists on post-its which usually end up stuck somewhere that I find a few days later. Not the best system!
I typically use a wipe-off calendar on my fridge. It’s a monthly calendar, though, so only the big scheduled events make the board. I then plan the rest in my head or through a to-do list on my iPhone – although, my planning skills for domestic tasks are greatly lacking. I’m more of a reactive cleaner/picker-upper, and a “let’s invite people over so I will finally clean!” type of person (loved your playdate Mommy Truth the other day). I’d love to create household to-do lists so I can get the satisfying feeling of crossing laundry off the list!
I’m terrible about planning! A lot of the time I will have scrap notes but I usually mess those up, so it turns into ‘thinking about absolutely everything the night before while trying to fall asleep and then forgetting almost all of it by the morning’ pretty quick!
I’ve tried planners before without much success, but I hope these really are as different as everyone says!
I usually plan the day while standing in my kitchen. I will either write a list out or make a list in my phone.
sweetpeonies07 at gmail
I plan on my phone 🙂
I have a fridge weekly planner that I transfer the weeks activities too from my phone calendar. It works pretty slick.
This would be perfect for me:) being in school, starting a business, husband in grad school, toddler and trying for #2 makes for a great need for organization!
I plan on a dry erase board and on my phone….and then leave sticky notes everywhere!
I attempt to use my calendar on the iPhone as well as the regular calendar hanging in the kitchen.
I’m trying to get organized! Meal planning is my short-term goal. With dinner planned, I hope to be more available and calm when my son gets home from school and has to tackle his homework!
I usually run through our upcoming week’s plans on Sunday night…then every morning I glance at the day’s agenda before getting out of bed. We use google calendar for most everything, which means I can access it from my phone, laptop, etc., which is good and bad I suppose :o).
I need to plan on paper with pen. I’m old school like that.
I had a Franklin planner that I got at work and I would write in it, but the thing was too big so I wouldn’t carry it with me; I’d end up forgetting everything I wrote down. Now in the evenings I sit in my kitchen with a scrap of paper and make a little list of things I need to remember for the next day. Then I hope that I don’t lose the paper when I put it in my purse! I’ve tried to use my phone but the act of physically crossing things off on a list makes me feel accomplished. I really need a new system though!
Getting myself organized for back to school.
I usually plan on my Google calendar, but I prefer paper – so maybe that’s why I feel like I’m going under! This would really help!
I plan on my wall calendar in the kitchen after the kiddos go to bed
I’m not sure if planning is the best way to describe what I do. I usually jot down what I need to do as it comes to mind… on the back of an envelope, post it paper, etc., but then have trouble keeping up with the random paper……
Working FT and going to school FT, I keep up with things on my phone, work Outlook and random school papers and notes. There is no one central place for everything.
i currently plan on my phone and random pieces of paper. pretty okay until i forget to sync my phone and lose everything!!
I’m the worst. I write stuff down (mostly on post its) as I remember it, and then promptly lose them.
Alternatively, I mentally recite a list of things I need to do the next day over and over and over in my head until I fall into a stressful sleep. But usually I remember in the morning. 😛
I have so any calendars but find all of them are too small to write out the enormous amount if tasks I have everyday! Which is why there are different colored post it notes all over the place! This planner seems to be just what I need to sty organized!
Sigh. People PLAN?? Ok ok…so with two kids, a blog, and a part time business I do need to plan so I bought a planner at Target and I’m just beginning to use it….my husband keeps trying to get me to “use the cloud” but I NEED to write things down!
I’m an organizer/planner addict! Totally go through it every night for the next day and the rest of the week. Would LOVE to try a momAgenda!
I write myself post it notes and then forget where I leave them. It would be AWESOME to 1. stop wasting paper 2. have it all in one place!
I am so unorganized. I use a calendar on the fridge, then the rest of the time, my head is spinning trying to remember everything!
I usually plan my day at my desk after dropping off the kids
I write my plans out monthly and they are hung on the fridge right now. Would love this and more privacy 🙂
I usually plan when I’m eating breakfast at the dining room table.
I do it all on my computer. Being organized is hard! Especially when kiddo commandeers the pens as useful coloring tools… to color all over my notebooks.
I try to plan on weekends. I keep a calendar on the fridge and lots of papers laying around the kitchen counters with lists on them.
I tend to make lists either on my phone, or random pieces of paper. I was way more organized when I was working – this full time mama gig is a little overwhelming!
There are way too many post-it notes in this house! I try to keep them in one spot (usually the fridge), but it never works out very well… great giveaway, thanks!
I’m guilty of planning & organizing my personal life during my work day at the office. Not ALL day, just here & there. 😉 That or in bed at night. Either option is all I have since I can’t very well get anything productive accomplished, like planning ahead, while my son is awake. 🙂
plan….ha, no need for that. Our lives are so seamless we don’t need to stress about it. Who needs to organize. Wait, where are my kids–oh…I forgot to pick them up from practice and my husband is mad that I missed dinner with his boss.
Awesome.
I use my Iphone right now and whenever I think of something, i plan it on there….. But I need something better to plan, like a MomAgenda!!! 🙂
I use my phone and another type of calendar and the school calendar to try to stay organized. I have never tried a Mom Agenda, I have always wanted to.
I’m always writing stuff down, just never in the same place.
I plan on my Zebra planner from Target. i make notes at work and then once completed transfer/check off on my planner. Each family member and work is color coded. Works ok, but I am in love with the mom Agenda.
On a big old kitchen calendar with big boxes that the whole family can look at but doesn’t.
I have a planner but I normally do my planning for the next day on little sticky notes and then shove them in the planner. Sometimes I plan at work, sometimes at home, it’s basically whenever I think of a task I have to jot it down.
I either plan in my current planner or on a pice of paper. Unfortunately, if I need the list when I’m out and about, I tend to leave it sitting on the kitchen counter. Left to “remember”, I usually have a list going that never ends!
I like to plan my schedule out Monday morning at work.
I love my BIG mom Agenda day planner but I would love this mini to keep with me at all times. 🙂
I like to plan when I’m sitting at pick up after school or anytime I have a free moment. I love my Mom agenda but would really like to try the mini!
I’m a Post-It note queen – my desk and computer monitor are covered in them. I also have a “mom” calendar hanging beside my desk. Just looking at the clutter makes my brain all fuzzy, obviously. 🙂
I spread everything out on the dining room table and write it in my planner. I also put the things that pertain to the family (and not just me) on the wall calendar.
I love MomAgenda. I have one Desk Calendar that I buy each year. Altho I would like something to put in my purse to take with me, but I’m always using it and updating it. It’s my life line. I have two kiddos in school right now, and I just love that I have a line for each of my kids, so I always know what they are doing and don’t have to take up space on my section. 🙂
As I lay down to sleep – I need something beautiful to entice me to sit and think for a moment before I sleep.
I do my planning on whatever free paper is hanging around. I have notebooks and calendars, but they never seem to be where I need them to be at the right moment…
I have a huge calendar in my kitchen (where I spend half my day at) to tell me what’s up with hubby’s and my schedule and what is happening for the week. So far, September looks pretty sweet with hardly nothing on it. 😉
I plan on my lunch hour–at work–at my desk
Usually at the kitchen table whenever I have a spare moment!
I have used other products from MomAgenda and loved every one of them!
I have last years giraffe momagenda desktop which has been a life saver this last year. The mini would be perfect for on-the-go!
I normally take the last 10 minutes or so of my day at work and get my game plan down. Helps me from feeling overwhelmed when I’m greeted with a cranky toddler after work. I normally use my phone, but have found a pretty pink notebook from the Martha Stewart line of Avery products at Staples. I cling to that like nobody’s business right now!
i usually plan on my phone via calendar or the notes app
Basically whereever I am at the time and where there is paper ha! Hence why one of these would come in handy. It seems I am getting updates all day on things that are changing to schedules and being that I don’t have one place to write it all down I just grab whatever is near me and get to writing. If I have time I plug it into my phone calendar but not everything always makes it in there.
I like the size of this little planner. I am usually in the kitchen/dining room because our home has an open plan. This would be perfect for planning without having to add another big thing to the space.
I try to do most of my planning in my planner before I leave work – things are too hectic once I get home. However I typically have to do another run-through once I’ve looked at the papers that have come home from school that day.
I like to plan for the next day once the baby’s gone to sleep and away from him if possible.
I like to sit down Sunday morning & plan out my week’ chores, menu, & appointments all in one fell swoop. Now it’s scattered among phone calendars, a wall calendar & a white board
I like to plan with my phone but I remember things better when I write them down plus I now understand when people tell me that your memory is never the same once you have kids!
I have a stack of scrap paper in my kitchen. I’ll grab a piece after everyone else goes to bed and jot stuff down and usually forget about it by morning!
I try to update weekly on Sunday evening in a paper planner.
I prep for the next day on my couch after the kids have gone to bed.
I tried to make lists on my phone, but I’m a writer-downer at heart.
I love to plan in the late evening after the kids are in bed! I can look at the next day and feel ready for it the next morning!
I keep my daily agenda on the calendar in our kitchen but I don’t have anything in my bag to keep me reminded. Mom brain + no planner = many excuses for not being on time to places.
I have a big planner but I’m not great at using it because it stays in the kitchen. I need something I can take with me!
Umm whenever something pops in my head, wherever I am, and with whatever is in front of me. Bags…paper towels…receipts….sometimes I get lucky and there is actually paper!
I use a calendar book from the $1 store and my phone’s calendar. I normally just jot things down as they come up.
Wherever I can? Whenever I can?? Lol, generally this means naptime in the basement where my office/craft room is.
in bed before falling asleep