FAMILY MATTERS by Jude Dobson

Last year, after much muttering to myself about the best option for organising my life in 2010, I decided to reinstate my leatherbound diary. It had been sitting on a shelf for  four years while I divided its functions between two other items - a small diary that fits in my handbag (it ended up too small for the task) and a larger book for notes (it was too big).
I  bought calendar refills and notepaper and spent a good hour before Christmas putting it all together, writing in key dates for 2010. As I happily closed the diary, I wondered why I had departed from using it as my admin mate. Plus it has a sentimental value that a functional but little diary just can't compete with. I bought it at a market in Florence  almost 20 years ago, with my then boyfriend (now husband); and just looking at it takes me back to "a happy place" which is a useful attribute for a diary when life becomes stressful.
But I did not factor in the new kid on the block - my iPhone. I've unexpectedly fallen in love with it, ever since the patient mobile mentor chap came and showed me all the wonderful stuff it did. (He still gets SOS calls from me and is so polite, saying it is all part of the service).
Anyway, my iPhone is fast becoming my "everything" tool. It is my phone, address book, camera, birthday book, internet, email,  my calendar and note-taking facility. (It is also a  useful GPS system and an entertainment tool, care of the App store, with games and movies loaded to keep the kids entertained when needed. )
So here I am, mid-February and all sentimental with the filled-in leather bound diary sitting on my desk yet I have not entered anything in it since December. Instead I have  put all calendar info into my phone, which syncs with my computer, so info is on both screens. However, while this system works well for singletons, couples, businesses etc, it is not finely tuned enough for family life, to my liking. As a visiting mum said when discussing it, they need to come up with an electronic wall calendar that you can instantly update by pointing your phone at it or some such thing. That way, everyone has the big  picture at a glance regarding who has commitments where and when, and how that dovetails in with everyone else's whereabouts.
I tried a whiteboard one year with everyone's names across the top, and a term print-out, but both were inadequate. The big kids  are good about remembering their commitments and, if they forget, they ask me (being the ultimate holder of all everyone's whereabouts). The small person operates more on a need-to-know basis. The husband receives a steady flow of "requests" in his outlook calendar from me as I "invite attendee" to swimming sports, meet the teacher, school holidays, etc. We still have the painted calendar from the small person, which takes pride of place, and the ones from friends overseas with exotic pictures  to gaze at, but they are becoming art pieces rather than functional items.
However I am not yet paperless. A sea of notices ends up on the cork board, after dates are entered in the phone, because we still need to refer to them for all the other info on them. And then there's the "to do" list. Yes, I have some things noted on Outlook and on "notes" on the iPhone but as I tap away here, random things fall out of my head "to do", and I automatically scribble them on a bit of paper inside my leather bound diary!
Hey, I am still a hybrid model.