For many of us, fall means school schedules, more meetings, carpools, formalized time requirements and running helter-skelter from obligation to obligation. I would like to use this month’s article to try to help you take the mystery out of keeping tabs on all the things necessary to keep a home running smoothly.

First of all, how many calendars do you have? If you answer, “One,” I’ll be happy to hear it. We’ll deal with the thought of more than one calendar in just a minute. For now, let’s talk about the calendar you use. Depending on how much information you need to keep on the page of your calendar, you can determine whether you will need a “month at a glance,” a “week at a glance” or a “day at a glance.” Standing at an office supply calendar display and thinking through your needs will help you when it comes time to really use the calendar as it was intended.

Please think of your calendar as an extension of yourself (or your brain, if you wish). If you have many appointments during the day or on most days, you may need to have a calendar called “a day at a glance” because it gives you each hour of the day (usually from 8 or 9 am until 6 or 7 pm). It also may give you a facing page on which to record errands or notes of things to remember that day. There is no reason for you to cram many items into one little space. If you’re busy enough to have lots of commitments, please don’t force yourself to make teeny-tiny notes in little squares. Give yourself a place to write whatever needs to be written. Spreading the items out on a page will make you feel less pressured. It helps to have a little white space in a day so you know you’ll have time to breathe.

Perhaps a calendar called “a week at a glance” is enough for you. When the book is opened, the upper left side of the page will start with Monday and the lower right page will finish with Sunday. Depending on the overall size of the calendar (purse/pocket size or desk size), you need to have plenty of room for each day’s activities. This may be the year you decide to branch out from a weekly to a daily calendar in order to better fit your needs. As you know, calendars for 2006 are coming into the stores now. This could be the perfect time to buy a new one and literally “turn over a new leaf.”

I want to bring a new concept to you about calendars. How about two calendars? One calendar would be your own personal calendar which you carry with you. The other one would be a family calendar (probably “a month at a glance”) which would be in the kitchen or back hall, mounted on the front of the basement door or on a bulletin board in or near the kitchen and would be for all the family members. Put a pencil with a good eraser (not a pen) on a rubber band attached right to the calendar. There will be no excuse for not putting a soccer game or a concert on the calendar when you/they get a notice. Also, this calendar would let other family members know where their parents or siblings are and would teach responsibility for and to each other.

The big question is, how do you keep the two calendars synchronized? It takes a little more organization but the payoff is really great and it affords a good backup in case a calendar ends up doused in water or is lost. I bring this up because it happened to me, the great organized one. And it really shook me up. There was a time when I was at the height of my professional career as a Headhunter. I guess I was really trying to burn the candle at both ends. One day I was opening mail and I had a pile which was to be thrown away on one side of me, with the keepers on the other side. My calendar got mixed up in all the papers and somehow ended up in the wastebasket, which ended up in the garbage and was taken out for collection the next day. (Isn’t timing everything?) Before I realized my calendar was missing, it was gone! My saving grace was that I had the family calendar in my home as a duplicate. It so happens that I changed formats on my personal calendar as a result of that experience and I went to a calendar in a leather binder which had much more substance and which I could not misplace nearly as easily.

So, the secret to keeping two calendars (which I still do to this very day) is that my personal calendar binder has a place that also holds a small pad of paper and a pencil. If I make an appointment while I’m out of the house, I write it in my purse calendar and then I also make a note of it on the little pad of paper in the back of my calendar. When I get home, part of keeping my purse organized (you know how receipts, etc. get stuffed in your purse when you’re out doing errands) means that I sit at my desk and transfer any appointments I’ve made to the family calendar. I don’t remember ever having to change an appointment after I got home because I didn’t have it in the family calendar and there was a conflict of time. I am very devoted to my calendar and to being on time where I’m expected and I surely couldn’t keep up with my schedule if I didn’t have it written down.

I read a great article in the newspaper recently. Written by Dr. Yvonne Fournier, the subject mainly had to do with young people. A reader had written that her son only lived for a day at a time. If something was due tomorrow, he wouldn’t start working on it until today and he was always rushed at the last minute. Mom said that by the end of the school year they had had enough fights and laid down enough rules that he was finally catching on to the concept of doing things in advance. It was finally making sense to work toward a goal in the future and to be in control. She worried that all would be lost during the summer and wondered how she could keep the momentum going.

Dr. Fournier suggested that Mom use the rest of the summer to remind him of how to use a calendar. Every time a soccer game or a play date was scheduled, Mom insisted he write it on the calendar. As the skill was used, it became second nature for him to get things on the calendar. As school approached, he put onto the calendar the first day of school. He decided that he wanted to be viewed as prepared. He wanted his teachers to realize he respected school and himself. It was the beginning of a much more productive school year for both Mom and son. If you have teens in your home, now is the time to make this happen for them. You are teaching wonderful living skills.

If your student is in college, I found something that might be very helpful. It is called a College Case 101 Organizer and can be viewed at www.wishingfish.com. It contains places to record doctors’ numbers, insurance information and job references. It has pockets for credit card statements, medical records and resume information in the employment section. Everything seems to have a place; something young adults could find extremely helpful.

Will any of this work for you? I hope so. If you have any complications to what you perceive as my way of calendaring, please email me at NancyKalef@comcast.net and let’s learn together!

When you see a blank spot on your calendar, how about blessing that empty spot and then taking a couple of deep, refreshing breaths. It’s kind of like chicken soup; it couldn’t hurt! Happy Autumn.

Nancy Kalef is the retired owner of Let’s Get Organized! and formerly went to clients’ homes to organize their closets, cupboards and paperwork. She may be reached at NancyKalef@comcast.net.