Update Your Calendar with a Planning Day

Why Calendars Don’t Work (and What Actually Does)

I can remember every start of a new school year—or semester once I got to college—being sooooo excited to get a syllabus and mark all the important dates in my calendar!

Aug 4th: first day of school.
Monday Sept 5th: Labor Day.
Tuesday Sept 19th: first test in American History—oh wait, go back 4 days and mark “start studying.”
Friday Sept 22nd: French 3 paper due—oh wait, go back a week and mark “start French paper.”

Everything was color coordinated!

Once I got to college, I switched to the Apple Calendar system because it was much easier to “erase and rewrite” things over and over.

But time and time again…

All of a sudden, it was 4 weeks in and new things were never added. A Halloween party popped up the Saturday before Halloween. The homecoming game got moved because of a hurricane. A random snow day shifted all the plans for that week back one day.

SHOOT—now the calendar is WRONG!!!!

Cue crumpling the paper and throwing it away in frustration!!!

This is something I talk about with clients all the time—why calendars don’t work.

It’s not actually the calendar that’s the problem. It’s the expectation that it’s “one and done.”

What is often missing is a planning day to actually plan the calendar.

In my house, every Thursday we sit down and talk about the next week’s events. The calendar gets updated. The weather gets checked. Anything that might impact plans gets considered.

Because life changes.

Clients often find that creating a calendar once and never looking at it again doesn’t work. A calendar made in January can’t just sit untouched for the rest of the year.

What does tend to work better is building in time to revisit it—weekly or every other week—to add, adjust, and shift as needed.

The calendar isn’t meant to be perfect. It’s meant to be flexible.

And sometimes, the thing that makes a calendar finally “work” isn’t better planning…

…it’s planning to plan.

It can also be helpful to include the whole family in that planning time. Clients often find that others in the household have information that is needed to make updates. Calling it a “planning meeting” also helps everyone stay aware of changes and feel included in the process.

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a replacement for therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. If you are interested in working with me, please sign up for counseling through the New Client tab.