As a single mother of three very active kids, sometimes it’s hard to keep their schedules straight. One plays on three softball teams April through July. Another bounces between two baseball teams, football, and flag football. And the third stays active playing volleyball year-round. Because of the three hectic schedules, I’m so thankful to have a job that allows me to test and create new products that help not only myself, but other families. One of my favorite new products is the whiteboard monthly planner that sticks to my fridge.

A rare moment caught on film – the kids were getting along! *Actual photograph. No kids were harmed in the making of this memory.

Why it Wasn’t Working for Me

At home, we have a French-door style fridge. Because we’ve covered the front of our fridge with magnets from our travels over the years, I put the magnetic backed calendar on the side. At first, I was using the black waterproof 1mm marker and the click Expo marker that comes with basically every calendar we offer. As a result, the abbreviations for which kid’s event was happening at what time became too confusing.

Finding the Full Potential of My Calendar

Knowing we have Expo 4-packs of markers in the office, I snagged a package and brought it home. With colors like green, blue, and red, I could now color-code my kids! After a few weeks of testing it out, I realized, “Hey, this is pretty awesome!”

I use red for my oldest daughter – the volleyball player. Anything she has going on, including field trips, doctors, and of course volleyball, gets written in red. My middle child, the softball girl, is green. Her events still get abbreviated to track which team she needs to prepare for, but they’re much simpler. And my littlest – the baseball/football star – gets blue. Again, teams get abbreviated, but so much easier! The black is reserved for family events, or something on my schedule.

Share the Knowledge

After realizing that this is actually working for my family, it hit me that there’s probably many other families out there with similar situations. I presented the idea to my boss, and we both had a, “Why didn’t we think of this sooner?” moment. We’ve had the right products sitting around the production room for as long as I could remember, so why not offer them to our customers?

Here’s a snapshot of what my calendar looked like in April. Dates were written in black waterproof ink, and the schedules were written in red, blue, black, and green Expo markers.

Make it Work for You

Whether they have just one or two kids, or a whole flock, the color coding system really makes things easier. Families can color code based on the activity – like dance class in red and piano lessons in green – or by which parent needs to handle the activity. They can use something similar to my system – by kid – or invent their own.

And it’s not just families, too. Facilities that need to give medications or track patients’ appointments and procedures can use the whiteboard monthly planner. Teachers can track special occasions, field trips, and other events. Offices can color code their client meetings, employees schedules, and even the conference room schedule.

And it’s not Just the Whiteboard Monthly Planner

Although I have the French door whiteboard monthly planner at home and that’s what works for me, we wanted to offer the new color combinations for all of our calendars. The whiteboard calendars come with four colors of Expo fine tip markers. And the blackboard calendars come with four colors of 6mm tip Zig Illumigraph wet-wipe markers. Check out the chart below for the full lineup of combinations!

Editor’s Note: This story was written by our Office Manager Jacklynn. She often works behind the scenes, helping with product research, development, and manufacturing; web content; and customer service.

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