The first thing I use is a year planner. I like this one by Lollipop Designs.
It's colourful and fun. It took me ages to find a year planner I like, because most of them seem to have been designed for offices, and are really boring. I keep this planner on my wall in the kitchen, right next to the fridge. I use highlighter pens to mark out school holidays, overseas visitors, and birthdays and I also try to colour code appointments for each person in the house.
I also keep a diary, which lives in my handbag. You can make your own using my instructions here. I also really like this one by Mum's Office.
The thing I like most about this kind of diary, is that you can keep a detailed record of everyone's schedules.
The only problem with keeping all the schedule details in my diary (and just the main events on the wall planner), is that I'm the only person who knows what's going on. To fix this problem I use the absolutely brilliant week planner created by Jen at iheartorganizing.
You can download your own free copy here. I love this idea, but I really needed more space for the diary section, and didn't need the "thoughts" section. I ended up printing several copies of the page, then did some old-fashioned cutting and pasting (with my guillotine and sticky tape). I added in a couple of extra horizontal sections in the week days and cut off the "thoughts" section. I photocopied the finished page. This week isn't very busy because it's school holidays, but this should give you an idea of how I keep track of my week.
I keep a stack of these on a clipboard and hang them in the kitchen right above the breakfast bar. I love this method of keeping organised. It has minimised random bits of paper with shopping lists and meal plans hanging around the kitchen. It also means we have no excuses for forgetting appointments.
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