Cozi Fan

It's hard enough to keep yourself organized, much less your whole family. I usually have great intentions at the start of a new year to keep an agenda and get my act together, but I must admit that it doesn't tend to last past March or so. It's really difficult for me to keep track of appointments and school functions and playgroups when everything is written on different calendars and sticky notes throughout the house. That's why I was excited when Mom Central asked me to check out Cozi, a new online destination that seeks to simplify family life.



Cozi is essentially a FREE online family calendar. It can help you track appointments and juggle busy schedules, make up personalized lists (for groceries, to-do, gift-giving, etc.), organize chores, and even create a family journal blog. Cozi's reminder and message service lets you keep in touch, even on the go: you can send instant messages to all of your family members via email or cell phone. You can even send text messages, all from your Cozi homepage. For fun, you can have Cozi automatically create screensavers from your digital photo library. And if you use Outlook at home or at work, you will be thrilled to learn that it will automatically sync with Cozi to transfer your information! I wish everything worked so seamlessly online…



If you're on the go a lot, Cozi can help you stay connected, even if you don't have mobile internet access. Simply dial their toll-free number from your cell phone and Cozi can read your lists to you or transmit your info via text message. You can even add driving directions to your lists and have that information sent to your phone while you're out and about. Super cool. Of course, if you have a fancy schmancy smart phone, Cozi has a specially-designed mobile version for iPhone and Windows Mobile. It lets you use all of your favorite Cozi features with an interface that is easier to use on teeny tiny screens.

If all of Cozi's myriad features aren't enough to entice you to sign up (remember, it's FREE!), they are running a special contest: if you sign up to try Cozi before February 4th, you're automatically entered to win a 2-day in-home organization makeover with Laura Leist, one of the country's top organization pros and author of Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize Your Home and Life.