Cozi: A New Way to Keep Your Family Organized

It’s long been my contention that managing a family is every bit as challenging as managing a business, but the tools are worse. In corporate America you can have a shared calendar such as MS Outlook and some form of IT support. Families have more limited choices, and in many families the paper wall calendar still reigns supreme.

The simplest thing you can do to have a shared family calendar is use Google’s calendar. The downside is you need to be online all the time in order to view it.

Not too long ago, I looked at MediaBee, but after trying to use it, I found it incredibly powerful but not very pretty.

On the prowl again, I’m looking at Cozi, which is similar in functionality to MediaBee. It has fewer options, but a friendlier, more inviting user interface.

Cozi Central is a free service with a shared, color-coded calendar tool as its centerpiece. Just download the software, add your family members to your list, and start entering their appointments. You’ll see one big, neat calendar of all of your family’s commitments. (You will be required to sign up for Microsoft.net as part of the installation process. It's 22MB of stuff that helps your deskop and online applications communicate.)

In addition to calendars for every member of the family, you can create shopping lists, to-do lists, and reminders that can be picked up from a phone or handheld PDA. Reminders can be sent via an email or directly to a family member's phone. (Dial a number to pick up messages.) Ranked amongst my favorite features is “pass the task” off to someone else.

Some of the niceties include being able to send a broadcast to everyone in your family without having to contact each one individually. “I’m running 20 minutes late,” is a great way to broadcast your status without having to make multiple individual calls. Because the calendar lives on the web, it’s constantly updated, synchronized and available from any PC. Finally, it has a photo collage that makes it a nice place to visit.

What’s the downside? Well, you can’t integrate your Outlook calendar or any other calendar you might use. If you have a business life run on another shared calendar you'll need to integrate manually. And of course, the whole family needs to commit to Cozi in order to reap the benefits. (Or, you as Mom or Dad can enter every appointment and just have the kids receive notifications via email or phone. (No IM or SMS support yet.)  And you need to enter appointments using a PC running Cozi software, so if you get asked whether you’re available for lunch next week when you run into a colleague at the market, you’ll have to remember to add it in to your calendar when you get to a PC.

Perfect? No. Simple, yes. Worth considering if you’re a busy family? Absolutely. Best for families with a CDCO (Chief Designated Calendar Officer) who wants to keep the gang in the loop. If you've used technology to keep your family organized let me know.  I'm determined to lick this problem.