How to make a family planner template to coordinate busy lives.

There is no doubt that managing a family's schedule can feel like coordinating and conducting a symphony orchestra at times. There can be a lot of different moving parts, it can be hectic, and it can take a lot of coordination to make it all come together and perform harmoniously! A family planner calendar is a powerful tool that you can all use to cultivate communication, ensure details aren’t missed, and create a sense of order, and some all-important harmony at home.

Read on to learn how to create a family planner template to streamline your busy household.

What you’ll learn

• Why you need a family planner calendar
• Choosing and creating the right family planner template
• Planning collaboratively on a family planner
• Creating a shared PDF family calendar
• Managing shared PDF family planners

Why you need a family planner calendar.

Life moves fast, and so do the schedules of individual members of families in today’s world. Parents orchestrate and organize their work commitments, family life and social events. Children and teenagers juggle their school attendance, homework, sports, and leisure time.

A family organizer can serve as a central compass to guide everyone through the events of the day, week, month, and year. Family planners help everyone to stay organized, know where everyone is, and keep on top of things — especially when everyone’s heading out the door in different directions.

A digital and easily viewed and shared PDF family calendar can become a lifesaver in those hectic moments. Everyone can have a copy on their phones, you can keep one in the cloud, and it can be printed off and placed on the wall in a strategic spot in your house.

Choosing and creating the right family planner template.

The first step is to select a family planner that will suit you, your family, and your lifestyle. You could start one from scratch or download a family planner template.

You can search for both individual and family planners on Adobe Express and Adobe Stock. Using a template to start will not only save you time, but you can also then personalize your family calendar to how you and your family want it. From there, customize your family organizer to suit your family’s activities.

• Large, easy-to-read calendars with enough space for each family member’s schedules tend to work best for family planners.
• Consider adding colour coding for different activities or individuals. This will make your at-a-glance planning a breeze.

Planning collaboratively on a family calendar.

The beauty of a family planner calendar is that it helps to bring a family together collaboratively. Work together on it to identify what you are going to include.

Schedule a planning session to create your first family calendar, and then regular planning sessions for future updates. Talk about your individual and family commitments and goals, regular activities for every individual, and any upcoming events and goals to plan for.

Having each person contribute to the overall plan will help get you all on the same page and strengthen your family bond at the same time. Then repeat the process every week or month to keep everyone on track and make it a regular part of your family routine.

Creating a shared PDF family calendar.

When it comes to incorporating individual input into one PDF planner template, there are a few ways you can do this.

• Collaborate on one PDF file.
  If your family planner template is not already a PDF file, you can easily convert files to PDF online from Word, PowerPoint, Excel, image files, and more.
  
  Then use either an Adobe Acrobat application or Adobe Acrobat online to share your family planner directly with your family members.
  
  It’s simple and easy for anyone to edit a PDF and add text, highlights, drawings, sticky notes, comments, and more.

• Create and merge individual PDF files.
  If your family members want to work on their own schedules autonomously, you can simply and easily merge PDFs after everyone is finished.
  
  Similarly, when it’s time to review and plan a new week or month, simply extract PDF pages as you need to, or split a PDF into individual pages.

• Make your PDF family planner interactive.
  Use the interactive elements and features in PDFs to make your family planner fun and engaging to use and work with. Include buttons, checkboxes, links, images, and more to help everyone stay engaged and interested in the process.

Tips for managing shared PDF family planners.

Effective family planning and coordination does need everyone to communicate, collaborate and be adaptable. Find a system that works best for your family and be willing to make adjustments as you go. Some tips to help you manage your family PDF planners are —

• Celebrate achievements.
  Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool to help everyone stay committed, motivated, and keen to work together on family planning and the organization of different schedules. Recognize and acknowledge everyone’s contribution to your family planner template every step of the way.

• Synchronise digital devices.
  If your family members all use a combination of smartphones and other digital devices, encourage everyone to synchronise their calendars and family planner PDFs. That way, any updates that are made by one family member will automatically reflect in everyone’s calendar.

• Set reminders for special events.
  Set alarms on your devices to remind you of specific times or important dates. They’ll help to ensure you leave on time to pick up the kids from school and never miss an important appointment or event.

• Be prepared for changes.
  Remember, that it’s not uncommon that individual and family events change at short notice, need to be rescheduled, or are impacted by new and unexpected events and appointments that arise from time to time. Don’t stress when this happens. Review and reschedule and incorporate any new activities into your next planning session.

Related content.

A few other articles to explore about how you can use PDFs to help with family life include —

• Family Budgets and Financial Plans are Made Easy With PDFs
• PDFs for Travel Planning: Getting Ready for Your Family Holiday
• Streamline Your Home and Family Life with PDF Forms