By Dana Gilgrist, CPO® 

If you’re a busy parent juggling work, errands, and endless to-dos, it’s easy to feel like your brain is running on overload. Thankfully, there are simple apps and smart technologies that can take tasks out of your head and automate the small things that slow you down.  

Below I’m sharing the tools I rely on every day to keep our home and schedule running smoothly. 

List Making and Reminder Apps 

I use a few Google products to help me stay organized.   

• Google Calendar 
  Google Calendar is the main way my husband and I stay connected about appointments & kids’ activities.  We add each other as “guests” to the appointment, and I can still mark my calendar as free for the time if I choose.  Google Calendar lets you color-tag appointments, which helps assign responsibility for the logistics of the kids’ activity, for example.  
• Google Tasks 
  Tasks, which integrates with Google Calendar, lets you create to-dos for the day without blocking your calendar. These tasks can be set up as recurring and tasks can be broken down into smaller “subtasks” that you can check off. I often create a recurring “Errands” task and use subtasks to list what I need to accomplish on the errand run.  
• Google Keep 
  My go-to for managing multiple lists in one place—restaurants to try, travel ideas, books to read, and more. All essential things I don’t want to forget but are not a priority. I love the clipboard view that gives me all my lists in one place, and labels/tags make the lists searchable & easy to find. You can share lists, too, which is great for grocery shopping or trip planning. Google Keep helps me maintain grocery lists for multiple stores (grocery store list, Costco list, etc.). 

Voice-Activated Assistants 

Voice-activated assistants like Google Home and Alexa can also help relieve the mental load of carrying the to-do list in your head by using them for reminder prompts, such as telling them to remind you to call someone at a specific time.  

With skills like Alexa’s Forget Me Not, you can set location-based reminders (e.g., when you tell Alexa I’m going X, remind me what to bring) or use the Routines feature to have Alexa say certain things at certain times, like reminding your kids of things they must do before leaving for school. Voice-activated assistants can integrate with Google Keep for shopping lists with a bit of setup work. 

Digital Display Calendars 

Get the whole family on board by effortlessly syncing your family’s busy schedule in one place with the Skylight digital calendar, which can help with meal planning, chore incentives, and converting emails or PDFs into calendar events, making family coordination smoother. While I haven’t personally used it, this calendar has received rave reviews from friends. 

Editor’s note: My family has been using Skylight for two years, and it’s been game-changing in keeping us all on the same page. With kids and small businesses, our schedule shifts frequently; being able to track those changes instantly without calling each other to ask if there’s any conflict is GOLD. I also have a client newly using Cozyla with a good first impression. 

Home Automations 

Lastly, the world of smart home technology continues to evolve and also become more affordable. Smart home technology enables the remote automation of various household functions. Things like smart switches let you turn on/off lights in your house remotely or set them to come on at certain times. Similar smart plugs can enable you to turn devices like coffee makers on and off from anywhere, schedule them to run at specific times, and even automate them based on triggers like sunrise or sunset. Always forgetting to move your clothes from the washer to the dryer? Technology like smart power monitors can alert you when a machine is finished running. 

Technology can’t slow down life, but it can make it easier. With the right mix of apps, assistants, and automations, you can  

• reduce your mental load 
• stay organized 
• keep your household running more smoothly 

While leveraging technology can be beneficial, always be mindful of the information you are sharing and how it is being used by third-party applications.   

Did you know NAPO has productivity and organizers who specialize in digital organizing? Get the judgment-free help you need by hiring a pro near you using the NAPO Find a Pro directory.  

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Meet the author, Dana Gilgrist