How to Master Assisted Living Activity Calendars [+ template]

An assisted living activity calendar is a collaborative calendar that compiles all the activities allocated for the seniors by the staff in the assisted living facility.

Well built calendars also help managers assign responsibilities and track progress to ensure activities are organized and efficient. This article will provide you with a free template and detailed instructions on how to create an assisted living calendar that works wonders for your residents. 

To continue your learning, check out our comprehensive Senior Living Operations Management Guide.

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What is an assisted living activities calendar?

An assisted living activity calendar is a vibrant tool that helps the facility to have better control over the resident’s physical and mental health.

Activities calendars allow staff to easily plan, schedule, set up and execute events that stimulate, entertain and activate residents. Having an organized and centralized home for independent living activities helps both staff and residents have consistency and transparency in their daily lives.  

Activities should be fun—but they also have an important role in keeping seniors healthy by building up their strength and helping them maintain their independence and sense of well-being.

Due to the vast span of resident physical and mental capabilities, it is important to provide an assortment of activities. This means that a good calendar has some activities focused on able bodied residents, some for later stage or memory care residents, as well as a few that are enjoyable for all residents. 

The best activities calendars are easily editable and shareable. Older means such as physical calendars and bulletin boards are not ideal for the task as they have limited reach.

Digital calendars, like the one you will build in this article, provide seamless editability and can be shared with others in a “view only” format so that the entire staff can easily know what is on the docket. Furthermore, the calendar can be put on a TV screen in the lobby, recreation room, or even resident rooms for easy communication of events. 

Why are assisted living activities calendars important?

Assisted living activity calendars set the tone of a property that is felt by both current and future residents, giving visibility into the kind of life that residents live in a community.

Assisted Living calendars are an easy way to show touring elderly that your property is well suited for their needs.

Activity calendars can help the new residents to find the activities that interest them, acting as a gateway to finding people with similar interests and making friends faster. This translates directly into your bottom line by increasing resident longevity and decreasing the likelihood of resident move-outs.

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💵 More Efficient Operations

An organized activity calendar not only gives visibility into your day but also helps the team plan for things ahead of time. Assisted living activity calendar gives control over the overall operation of the community.

📲 Easy to change and communicate 

Digital format makes planning, changing and communicating events fast and easy.

Provide staff with editable or read only versions of the calendar for mobile collaboration. Google Sheet based calendars, like the one in this guide, also provide editing history so that managers can keep track of staff contributions.

🤜🏽🤛🏽 Team Coordination

A digital activity calendar is editable and facilitates the communication of schedules to everyone concerned. From the people who organize the activities to the people who assist the elders in the activities, the activity calendars give clarity to all the users.

😄 Improved resident satisfaction

Since the activity calendars are dynamic and can be altered according to the resident's needs and abilities, they provide an opportunity to increase resident satisfaction.

Digital calendars provide transparency and consistency that residents can look forward to and rely upon. 

How do dynamic activity calendars work?

Dynamic Calendars work with pre-written code that creates experiences like drop down menus and auto-populating charts.

Users simply have to add their custom information in the settings tab, and the tool will take on the new field options.

How to download and use your free Assisted Living Activities Calendar

Building a custom, dynamic calendar takes complex knowledge of spreadsheet tools. Luckily, our team has done the hard work so that you can easily begin planning. Simply put in your name and work email for a free download! 

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We provide the calendar in two forms: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. The Excel calendar is useful for offline planning, however we recommend using the calendar in Google Sheets to  maximize shareability. 

How to Open the Assisted Living Activities Calendar in Google Sheets

After entering your information, you will be directed to a Thank You page that contains both versions of the calendar. Click “Use Google Sheet”, and your calendar will open in a new tab. The calendar will be in “View Only” mode, so you need to select “File” then “Make a Copy”. Save this copy in your Google drive and you are ready to use!

How to upload from Excel to Google Sheets for Collaboration and Sharing

If you would rather use the Excel spreadsheet version of the calendar, select “Download Calendar” from the Thank You page.

All of the built in functionality will work without the internet in the excel version, but it is harder to share and collaborate with. You can also begin using the calendar in Excel and then upload to Google Sheets when ready to share. 

Using Xenia’s Assisted Living Activities Calendar is even more impactful in Google Sheets, as you can easily invite team members to view, edit and share the calendar. 

You can upload your assisted living calendar into your drive and open it using your Google Sheets even on your mobile device. If you start using the calendar in Excel but want to begin using in Google Sheets, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Google with your work email and navigate to Google Drive. 

2. Click on the ‘New’ button to upload your calendar to Google sheets.

3. Click on the ‘File Upload’ option in the drop-down menu.

4. Select the spreadsheet you have downloaded from Xenia and upload it to your drive.

5. Click on the spreadsheet in your drive and and open it.

Your spreadsheet will open in google sheets and will be ready to use.

How to use your custom assisted living activities calendar

Xenia provides dynamic spreadsheet based calendars that are intuitive and flexible for management teams. Our calendar updates automatically from a built-in Event Planner, all customizable with a user-friendly settings tab where managers can input their activity choices, team names and time slots. 

To use the calendar, follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Configure your Settings

In the Settings tab, you will find menus to modify Status Options, Activity Options, Staff Members, Time Selections, Holidays and Weekends. Configure the Status Options to be able to track the stages of planning through to event completion. Customize your Activity Options to suit your property. Add your team to the Staff Member section to assign tasks.

Step 2: Create events in Event Planner

Once settings are all set, managers can use the Event Planner to easily create calendar entries using the built-in drop-down menus. This minimizes confusion and errors to ensure an easy planning process. 

Step 3: View your auto-populated Calendar

Once the Event Planner is loaded with fun activities, the Monthly Calendar automatically updates with important information on the event. It is as simple as that! With Xenia, a few clicks can produce powerful tools for your team.

Step 4: Share with your team

Everything is better when shared! Xenia's Assisted Living Activities Calendar can easily be shared for effective team collaboration. Click "Share" in the top right of the screen and input your team's emails. Choose whether that individual should have "View Only" or "Edit" privileges, add a message and click "Send". Your team will receive an email with a link to the calendar!

View our Assisted Living Activity Calendar Walkthrough Video:

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10 Assisted Living Friendly Activities for your Calendar

Elderly people need a supply of ideas when it comes to planning their activities. Apart from giving a boost to their minds, it is also important to consider their physical limitations while planning their activities. You can plan activities that would keep them on their toes but not tire them too much.

🕺🏽 Elderly Proms

Senior proms are an event for young people, but they can be just as fun for the elderly. The first steps to planning your elder prom are the same as the ones you'd take for a high school senior prom: hand out invitations, put up a song request list so everyone can contribute their requests for favorite tunes, and have the elderly residents invite their families for even more fun!

🏃 Group exercise class

Everyone needs mobility and for elders, it is of utmost importance. Having a group exercise class will not only help them move more but also helps the residents to have fun while they do their exercise routines.

🦸🏽 Costume Party

No matter what age, dressing up in costumes is fun! Encourage residents to do group costumes to better get to know each other. Host a costume contest to see who dresses up best!

🎥 Movie nights

We all love watching our favorite movies. Throw in some movie suggestions and on the draw of an option go for a movie screening with popcorn and special snacks to go along with the movie. This instantly would lighten the mood of the residents.

🎨 Art time

Getting the hands dirty and filled with colors is something that is loved by everyone. It is a very relaxing activity that helps people get their thoughts out and make an effort to create something. We wouldn’t be surprised if an artist is there inside every one of the residents!

🏮 Origami Lanterns

The ancient art of origami is one that everyone loves. It's so simple, yet the result is so striking and beautiful. With just a few folds, you can create a lantern that lights up your nights and reminds you that there is light where you need it most.

👀 Scavenger hunt

If you want to do something fun and active with your elderly residents, try planning a scavenger hunt! This activity offers physical activity as well as stretching their creativity. The simplicity of the activity means you can easily customize it to the interests and abilities of the elderly residents.

🧘🏻 Guided Meditation

Meditation is an activity suitable for all stages of the resident journey. Try organizing a guided class that helps residents to connect with their breath and body to improve happiness and peace of mind.

🃏 Cards tower / Cup stacking

Making towers and stacks using cups or cards needs a lot of patience and attention from the residents. This activity is an engaging one of the residents who are grouped for doing this.

🧩 Riddles and Puzzles

Riddles and puzzles can help residents think hard and make the activity a fun-filled one. Better yet, you can adjust the difficulty to different resident ability levels to ensure everyone is challenged and feels accomplished.

Sick of Spreadsheets? Try Xenia in your Assisted Living Community

We all know senior living facilities need nimble legs and minds, but they also need smooth operations and high maintenance standards. Xenia is an all in one maintenance and operations management software that empowers cooperation between managers and the front line. No more paper stacks, radios or issues left in the dark. With Xenia, owners and managers get a clear view of their teams and facilities on one, easy to use app. With Xenia, you get:

📲 Communication / Team Messaging

Having communications all over the place makes it a daunting and time-consuming task. With Xenia, you can now unify your messages in one place, keeping your team organized and connected. You can even set up department, team or task based channels to have targeted group communications.

📋 Checklists and SOPs

Building a checklist is not just about ticking the tasks. It is about setting standards and tracking progress. With Xenia, managers can make your custom checklists, assign and track the progress of your team's activities. Attach images or request a signature of the team member to ensure they have acknowledged the work allocation or completed the task.

Step by step procedures enables your team to refer to the material you provide and complete tasks on time without any friction.

🔧 Maintenance work orders

In a senior living environment, being proactive prevents a lot of mishaps. From time to time internal audits and inspections of the facility enable you to find out any setbacks that may have occurred. Audits and inspections help you to map out a maintenance work schedule and keep things in order at the facility. Xenia not only helps keep work orders streamlined and easy, it tracks and analyzes data to help make important business decisions.

🤖 Task Automation

Managing tasks daily is not time-consuming anymore. Easily assign work in a few clicks making daily, weekly and monthly schedules a breeze. From tagging your team members to nudging them to do the work and setting deadlines and tracking the progress of the tasks. Automating these tasks can save you a lot of time and also ensure that your team is moving the needle.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you enjoy your free Assisted Living Calendar. See below for many more tools that may help your business. If you ever want to see Xenia fully in action, request a free demo!

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