What Is a Shared Family Calendar?

We all envision a world in which birthdays, soccer practices, and dentist appointments seamlessly fit into their rightful place, making sure no bit of family life slips through the cracks.

However, coordination and harmony don’t usually just happen naturally - it must be planned out. Gone are the days of verbally reminding your kids or spouse of an important appointment.

I now present to you the solution to all of your family’s planning needs: the shared family calendar. We’re going to cover what it is, why it’s preferable to other methods, and how you can use it to make your lives easier!

What Is a Shared Family Calendar? 

We’re no longer talking about those physical, “analog” calendars that you hang on the wall or that you physically scribble on. Times have changed, and while there’s certainly a time and place for paper calendars, they’re not the most efficient.

Shared family calendars are apps that can be used on electronic devices like iPads, tablets, and smartphones. Every member of the family has access to them in real-time, so everyone can see what they and the other members have going on. No more having to worry about missing a dinner or forgetting to pick someone up after school. 

If you’re trying to make plans and don’t remember whether your oldest’s piano recital was this Friday or next, you can quickly pull up your shared family calendar app and take a look. No more conflicting appointments with this digital hub!

Why Do I Need a Shared Family Calendar? 

There’s nothing easier, in my experience, than using a shared family calendar app. While there are plenty of different options out there, the Family Daily app has had a huge impact on the organization and efficiency of my family members’ lives (more on that later).

No one has to worry about accidentally forgetting or scheduling something on top of another appointment. There are also no more excuses that someone didn’t remember they had homework due, or a family outing that was already scheduled. While texts and calls can help, it these communications can still be lost in translation or confused. With a shared family calendar app, the times and activities are as clear as they can possibly be. 

Benefits of a Shared Family Calendar

If you ask me, the benefits are endless. I can tend to be a forgetful person, myself, and I personally enjoy not having to rely only on myself to write appointments down or remember things. Let’s get into the main benefits of a shared family calendar app!

Streamlining School and Extracurricular Activities

No matter what grade or age, having a kid in school can be challenging when it comes to planning. From kindergarten to high school, children are involved in all kinds of activities. First, you have their classes, on top of potential sports practices, games, rehearsals, club meetings, and performances.

A shared family calendar can help you easily track these commitments, making sure they get there on time, are picked up, and adequately prepared. If you have more than one child, it’s easy to see all tentative plans from a bird’s eye view to ensure there is no overlapping. 

Creating Quality Family Time

No matter how busy your family’s schedules are, you should always be able to carve out some quality family time.

Using a shared family calendar, you can intentionally plan out group activities, outings, vacations, or even time for a movie at home. This can help create stronger relationships and ensure everyone gets the time and attention they need with parents and siblings. 

Encouraging Responsibility

As children get older, their list of responsibilities grows. Having a shared family calendar app can be a great way to assign and track tasks like their chores, homework, extracurricular activities, goals, and family events.

By involving your kids in this process of planning and organization, you’re essentially empowering them to take ownership of their commitments, which helps create accountable, independent adults. 

Improving Communication

Using these virtual hubs can make communication a breeze! You can leave notes, reminders, send updates or alerts to other members and yourself, all to ensure nothing is left behind. It encourages open dialogue, greatly reducing the chance of miscommunication, too. 

Top Features of a Shared Family Calendar App

By now, you may be wondering how exactly one would put a shared family calendar app into practice. Each app offers a slightly different selection of features, but Family Daily includes the following (among others): 

Family Events

You can set these up to be recurring, such as regular family dinners, sports practice, etcetera. You can also add less-regular events, like a family vacation or performance.

No matter what they are, this centralized meeting place ensures everyone shows up on time and prepared. If it’s for a birthday, anniversary, or other event that may require a gift, you can even add in gift ideas or wish lists to the reminder!

Private Events

You also have the option of setting events for only yourself. That way, you aren’t moving between different apps, which can increase the chance of forgetting or creating scheduling conflicts. 

Assign Events to Individuals

You can choose to assign events to one or a couple of people, too - it doesn’t have to be for every member of the family. This is a fantastic feature for assigning chores, sports practices, and homework. 

Family Daily Shared Family Calendar App

As I’ve said a couple of times now, Family Daily is my app of preference when it comes to keeping myself and my family organized and operating smoothly. Family Daily lets you seamlessly coordinate family events, create to-do lists, send alerts, and much more. But don’t take my word for it - try it out yourself!