First I encourage you to de clutter your email. If you have a hotmail account, aol, or just a local ISP. Merge them all into ONE. My only recommendation is GMAIL. Gmail is one of Googles MANY tools to get you organized. Besides, if you have multiple email accounts you can check them all via Gmail as well as send and receive emails from a POP account.

In addition, it’s easy to organize your family life with the use of different Google applications such as Google Calender, Google Black Berry Sync, Google Contacts, Google Documents, Google Mail, and Google Voice.

Google is quick to point out to business; the value of time saved using Google to manage their business. Busy Moms rejoice because these same tools can save you time and sanity for both your busy family and yourself as well!

So how do I manage my family’s schedule with Google ?

The first step is to register for a Gmail account for each of your family members old enough to have an email account (old enough to learn how to use one.

I do not suggest creating a ‘family account’. Each user needs to have their own individual Google Account. Google will allow you to share what you want with each user.

Once you’re signed up with Gmail you can begin to coordinate the different accounts and start organizing you family life from wherever you might be whether it’s at home or on the road.

You can head over to the Google Calendar section and begin filling out your own calendar that you can then share with everyone, other individuals or specific groups of people.  You can limit some events to private settings while sharing other information with a different level of access.  You can even sync your calendar with other popular applications like Outlook or you Iphone or Blackberry.

Today’s mom planner is more then a time management tool. The Mom Agenda Desktop  runs through to December 2010 and offers monthly views at the front of the book, followed by a weekly view.

I personally am a fan of a weekly view mom day planner. The 7″x9″x1″ size is not to big, but big enough to handle a busy family’s schedule.
The planner can accommodate Mom calender needs and the busy schedule of up to four children.

For those of you needing a mom planner or mom organizer that is a bit smaller. The Mom Agenda’s Daily planner is a great option.

The planner only runs through to August (academic year) but it is already 40% off. The planner is 5″x7″x1″.

Be sure to stop by The Mom Agenda Website and grab their free printable pages as well.

Click here for free mom mom planner pages, organizational tools, and printable holiday planner.

Of course trying to balance what I need to purchase against my budget is always a juggle. This year I decided to purchase some back to school basics online. Of course I also did some local shopping. It is important to support our local merchants !

My biggest obstacle this upcoming school year will be scheduling. My oldest son is heading into Jr High so I will have two schools worth of events to keep track of.

I purchased a large ‘desk calender and plan to reorganize my ‘family control center’ next week.  I have also started moving around every-one’s bedrooms – bringing my office upstairs (right next to the family control center. Hopefully the changes when they are all done will help keep us more organized and save time.

I have to admit I am counting the days down until school starts.  No more hot cranky kids at the end of the day and I am craving the morning routines.