I am a sucker for new organizational gadgets. I owned a Palm Pilot back in 2000, purchased multiple planners over the years, been certified to teach Franklin Covey’s organizational skills course, and accumulated stacks of nifty to-do note pads. If it says it will revolutionize your life, even if it is just a new type of post-it file folder tabs, it reels me in.
My favorite system was my Franklin Covey structured Outlook with my master task list, prioritized daily task list and my calendar full of my “big rocks”. It was pretty sweet, but as a stay at home mom, I don’t sit in front of a computer all day anymore.
So the last five years I have struggled with how to keep everything straight and mostly, I have spent my time carrying around a stack of sticky notes in my back pocket with all of my important information on them. I knew it had reached a tipping point when I started doing things like double booking myself…with different babysitters.
Add my love of gadgets to my desperate need to find some semblance of order in my life…and what pops out?
The iPad.
Ben actually went and waited in line to buy me one the morning that they came out, because he knew how excited I was. I think he was also excited at the prospect of seeing my teetering pile of paper cleared off the hutch…but either way, it was darn thoughtful.
Now that I have had it for a little over a month, it has exceeded my expectations. This is not just another gadget to add to my collection. It is a mobile organizational unit, kid entertainment unit, and instant information unit rolled up into one little device…the perfect thing for a busy Mom like me!
Organizationally, I have my to-do list, calendar, and e-mail in one place and I can access it…instantly. No booting up, no waiting for a signal, it is just there. I am working on getting it all synced up to my phone and laptop, and once I do…look out productivity….
For kids, it addresses learning in a very tactile way, which is perfect. I wish I was a developer, because there are so many possibilities! Parker loves his Super Why game where he has to identify the letter sounds and then trace them with his finger…how great is that!
Accessing information is just as easy, which means it sits on my counter in case I need a new pasta recipe, the phone number of The Green Well, or to show Madi how tall an elephant is.
People tend to call it a “toy” when I tell them about it, but for this organizationally challenged (and slightly obsessed) girl, it is helping me to take back control of my schedule…and de-clutter my back pockets…one touch at a time.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Hooray!!!!!!! I think that I am going to want one of those….I was sooo excited to read your review!
hmmm… I’m tempted but I’m SO afraid that I’ll get it (spend all that money) and then not get to use it for all that it offers. I have a hard time keeping these types of things to myself. if Lia is awake she’ll probably want it. Do your kids always want to play with it? Do you think if I get the itouch it would be a better organizational, easy access tool to start with?
Hey Sara…my kids kind of switch off between my iphone and ipad with games, but I’ve been trying to keep the ones on the ipad to be more “special”, so they don’t want to use it all the time.
For me, I was having a hard time entering all of my info into my iphone, so I wasn’t using it at all…so I’m entering information and using the ipad as my home base, and then syncing it to my phone to take on the road with me. My advice? Whatever device you are actually going to use is going to be the best one for you! 🙂 Good luck!