Juggling work, home, kids, school activities, plus the myriad of other commitments we unintentionally overbook ourselves with has become an art. Not exactly the fun kind, either.

Technology is keeping up with the pace, and pushing out handy tools designed to make that hectic lifestyle, well… just slightly less hectic. Yet it seems there is too much technology available, making it hard to separate the useful from the unnecessary.

Here are four ways technology can organize your life and the lives of your family.

Courtesy: cozi.com

Cozi for Big Picture Planning

An effective family calendar needs to be simple enough for everyone to understand but sophisticated enough to handle multiple schedules. Cozi is an example of this, as you can  color-code the calendar to easily see who’s scheduled for what, where, and when. Share grocery lists and to-do items with other members of your family, and even exchange messages in the family messaging center. The free app is available for iPhone, Android or your web browser (Chrome, Firefox or Safari) and syncs across multiple devices.

Trello for Visual Planning

Think of Trello like a virtual cork board full of sticky notes. You can arrange sticky notes however you’d like, and create ‘cards’ for checklists, tasks, and goals. Label each card as a day of the week and use it for daily and weekly planning. Map out things like student activities, family activities, chores, meals, doctor appointments, and more.

Create cards for individual family members and tasks, or use Trello to plan your next big family project. Cards are both sharable and searchable, and if you need to set reminders, you can do that too!

Pinterest for Meal Planning

This entire article could discuss pinterest ideas and tips. There are five million pins per day, plenty of those are good for meal planning inspiration.

Here you can see how weekly or daily menus can be prepared just by searching whatever is in your fridge. No more scrambling for healthy meal options throughout the week. Pair Pinterest recipe ideas with Grocery IQ to organize your virtual shopping list and coupons.

ChoreMonster for Tracking

ChoreMonster has gamified household chores and aims to keep kids engaged in the process. It teaches them responsibility and allows them to earn points and rewards. There are separate login experiences for parents and kids. Parents login to create chores with corresponding rewards. Kids login to choose which chores to complete for digital and physical rewards. This can make chore-time fun for kids as they race against each other to accomplish the most.