How to (actually) get organized this fall

Welcome back to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychology professor and mom of two (soon-to-be three!) young kids.

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7 min read

The spreadsheet has 40 rows and 8 columns. There’s a daily schedule, broken down into 15- and 30-minute increments. There are indications for school and activity drop-offs, plus assignment of tasks to various caregivers. There’s a section for notes, another for tracking extracurriculars, and another for outstanding questions. There are codes in the form of colors and abbreviations, and many—too many—question marks (JN stay with baby? Date night? Need help with school pickups?)

It’s late, and my husband and I are staring silently at the sheet on his laptop, our eyes glazing over the intersecting lines.

But even if we figure this out, I start, How are we going to remember all this? Do we have to check the spreadsheet everyday? Do we transfer it all to a calendar of some sort?

We keep staring.

And how do we track all the other stuff? Like, remembering show-and-tell on Wednesdays, or to pack up his swimsuit and towel and snack before swim lessons?

We stare some more.

And what happens when there’s a change in the schedule? What about doctor appointments? What if one of us needs to work late or can’t do our usual drop-off?

We kick around various systems, solutions, and strategies, but instead of landing on an answer, we end the night with a question.

How do people do this?!

Let’s get…Organized! Organized!

I know my family is not alone in the challenges of navigating new schedules, dividing up tasks, and managing the competing demands of work, childcare, and everything else.12

Perhaps you are not married to a reformed investment banker, so your version involves a little less Excel. Or maybe you have older kids, and your version involves more extracurriculars and homework.

No matter, the question still remains: how do people do this?!

As my husband and I grew stuck, muddling through increasingly complex equations of baby naps, carpools, and babysitters, I decided to kick things up a notch:

It was time to go to the research.

What, if anything, does the evidence say about organizing family life? Are there things we can learn from the research that might actually be helpful?

To my surprise, the answer was ...