blog.payne.org

Like many modern households, we’re managing a lot of moving pieces.  Three kids w/ activities, brother & family living nearby, grandparent visits, travel — it adds up to some “complexity”.

We depend on a number of technologies to make it all work.  I’m pretty technical and have been labeled a geek.  Kellie’s very comfortable with technology, but would never get that accusation!

Here’s what we use:

• Email. For virtually everything, no paper notes.  Reminders, phone messages, questions, family business (‘Please pay so-and-so‘).  We’ll exchange several emails on some days.  And, a review of the email trail has settled more than one “you never told me!” argument.

• IM.  When we’re each at the computer, we almost always have IM running.  (We’ve been known to IM within the house)  It’s great for short exchanges, and it’s a great way to stay in “light” touch when one of us is traveling.  (And we use video chat as well).

• Text messaging. We text quite a bit, but mostly computer-to-phone since message composition is tedious (no smart phones, yet).  It’s great for short messages (“pick up so-and-so on the way home“)  If Kellie knows I’m in a meeting, she will text instead of calling.  Plus, it’s a great way to stay in touch with your kids, since it’s a mode they prefer.

• Google calendar. We each have shared calendars, one calendar for each of the kids, and a “guest/vacation/family activity calendar”.

• Private wiki (access controlled). The family note card file I’ve written about before — not well formatted or organized, but all the info is in there and searchable:  “What’s our FastLane account number?“, “what’s the teacher’s email?“, “who’s the tree-trimming guy we used 2 years ago?“, etc.  Kellie was skeptical at first, but it caught on pretty quickly.  (Note: we do not store financial account numbers or passwords).

• Google Documents. For example, we keep our Christmas card list in a spreadsheet.  It’s easy to update & refer to, from anywhere.  Since it’s hosted, there’s always one master copy.

• Scan and shred. The paper problem is killing us.  We’re trying to do more scanning of important documents and getting rid of the paper.  The key here is a good scanner and simple software to scan and file.  We’re not quite there yet.

The only thing missing is the iPhone — when (if?) Apple figures it out with Verizon, we’re there.