Cozi

I live and breathe by the calendar on my electronic devices.  I have all of the kid’s schedules in one place, color coded, so I can see where everyone should be and when they need to be picked up.  But, since I’m never satisfied, I was curious to find out if there might be a better solution. I decided to check out Cozi, a family organization app, where you can house each family member’s schedule in one place.  They also offer a ton of other features, including a recipe box, shopping list, to do list, printable planner pages and a journal. All of these features are offered for free, with in app banner advertising. You can access more features and get an ad free experience for $29.99 per year.  It appears that the paid version allows for search options and more personalization.

Was it a better solution?  I can’t tell you. I never made the transition.  Honestly, I found the upfront time investment way too cumbersome for me to jump from my existing system.  I already have everyone’s schedule in one place, synced across devices. I can share reminders and notes and my kids generally respond when I text them that I need them to do something.  

One feature that I thought was really great was the recipe box.  You can search for recipes and meal plan for the entire week, plus add all of the ingredients straight into a shopping list.  This seemed very useful for someone who does such things. I think it’s been well established that I am not one of those people.  

Overall, my research into Cozi made me feel pretty confident in the system that I already have in place.  My family is on iPhones and the built in features are useful and work well together. I actually like to have my calendar, notes and reminders in separate apps, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to it.  Do you use a family organization app? Paper calendars? How do you manage the mental mom load?