Category: Back To School / Kids

Some days, It’s All Too Much (and what to do about it)!

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We can stuff a bag only so full before it bursts.  The same goes for our schedules.

A friend emailed me last week “I ran 8 miles this morning and was thinking about blog ideas.  Could you write something about people cramming too much into their day? One of the best things I ever did was cut back on the volunteering and get back to the things that I really wanted to do. I cut out [xxxx] after way too many years, and now I finally have time to train for the marathon.”

My response:  “I can write that article, and what’s really interesting is that yesterday, a client had the same epiphany. The client was supposed to fly cross-country for a family event.  Her husband was unable to attend due to a work deadline, the kids were stressed about missing back-to-school activities, she was just stressed.  And she stopped and said ‘No, we’re not going.  It’s just too much’ and cancelled the trip.  On our coaching call, instead of strategizing about how to get everything done in a short time, we strategized how to Un-make travel plans and determined what her family could say ‘Yes!’ to, since they would be staying home.”

I may not dare something as extreme as these friends (Thanks K&K!), but I respect their awareness that “It’s All TOO MUCH!” sometimes, and how they made the tough decision to let one thing go, in order to make room for something else.  Here are some suggestions, if you, too, feel “It’s all TOO MUCH!”:

1.  A wise friend says “Don’t ‘Should’ on yourself”. Don’t let others “Should” on you, either, telling you what you should or shouldn’t do.  Don’t “should” on others. We need to be kind to ourselves and to others.

2.  Find ways to say Yes, on your own terms.  I received an email today regarding an upcoming fundraising car wash:  washing the towels afterward and returning them clean counts as volunteering!  I can’t help at the event because I’ll have houseguests, but Laundry?  Oh, yes, I can do laundry!

3.  Don’t moan over being too busy to do anything, it becomes a self fulfilling      prophecy.

4.  Say less.  Practice “No, Thank You.”  You don’t always need to give an explanation.

5.  Make a list of your responsibilities, in broad terms:  Work and professional involvements; Family responsibilities (e.g. parent, daughter of aging parents, caregiver for my niece on a school half-day); Household / Life Management Responsibilities;      and Organizations with whom you volunteer, with roles or positions held.

6.  Looking at that list, ask yourself these Questions:

  • “What can Only I Do?”  There are some things that only you can do.  Be a parent to your children, and a spouse to your partner.  I can sing and organize better than  many, so I stick with those.
  • Be honest here, “What Can Someone Else Do?”  In the past, I have let go of roles that others could do as well as me. It’s not easy, to admit that someone else could do an adequate or better job on something, but if you’re looking to pare down, this is where we begin.
  • “What will I look back on fondly?” Playing pick-up sticks with my youngest.  Driving the teenagers to activities, since we have good conversations in the car.  Travel.        Making music.  Spending time with my hubby, and having all 5 of us together.  Guess what – Those are the things I need to make time for.
  • “What will I never think of again?”  I spend a lot of time menu planning and grocery shopping because we need to eat, but I can happily forget every moment spent on those, and be fine.  So I try to do both efficiently and effectively, so I can do them less often!  (I do love to cook, though, as well as sitting down for a family meal, or with friends.)

No one else will protect you from “TOO MUCH!”  That would be lovely, but it’s not going to happen.  So you have to step up for you and your family.  I can’t tell you what to      pare down, but I can help you determine that for yourself.  I don’t have all the answers, but YOU DO!

So, if this week you feel compelled to yell “Stop!  It’s all TOO MUCH!” be assured that you are not alone, and that there are specific steps you can take to make life better – and try one out!

Organizing Bedrooms with Your Kids

This past week, my son and I did a clean sweep of his bedroom.  The room is usually clean, but periodically we all need to review our stuff and our space, so that is what we did!  We reviewed toys, books and clothes.  We kept a lot, purged some and re-allocated a bit, and it looks and feels great in there now!kid clean sweep

So, the first question is “How do we organize a bedroom?”  And the other part is the kid-specific part – “How do we organize with our kids?”

I like organizing with kids. Like all of us, they like to share details about what is important to them.  In addition, organizing with kids gives them an opportunity to share their opinions about stuff and space which gives them a sense of control and ownership in the organizing process.  They are receptive to new ideas, too!  Here’s what you do….

  1. Clear 2-4 hours in the schedule, dependent on your schedule and your child’s age and attention span.
  2. With your child, determine destinations for the purge items and label bags accordingly.  The paper bags lined up in my son’s room are labeled “garbage”, “recycle”, “sell”, “donate – toys”, “donate – library”, clothes for “swap.com” and binsfor cousin “Joshua”.  A garage sale could be a destination, too.
  3. Start a pile of “go elsewhere in our home” items by the door, including dirty laundry, to maintain focus and avoid running items here and there during your project time.
  4. Grab a notebook to jot down ideas and to-dos as they occur to you (“buy new sneakers for school”, “return borrowed toy to xxxxx’s house”)
  5. Start small; really small.  Everyone gets overwhelmed at times.  If you are feeling overwhelmed and snarky about the bedroom project, imagine how your child must feel.  Tackle small spaces one by one instead of all together.  My son and I started with 2 storage cubes, then book case, then toy box, then closet.  And I reviewed his clothes while he made decisions about toys and books.  We tackled our project based on Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE method of organizing.
  6. Sort what you have: We sort toys and books based on type and clothes based on size and season.
  7. Purge items to your various destinations.  We purge based on condition, developmental age, size and season and / or interest level. Give yourself or your child a chant to help review items and stay focused.  For example, I worked with a young man last week who was deciding what to do with his books.  His repeated question was” Keep, sell, give to sister?  Keep, sell, sister?”  Over and over, with each book.donate books and dvds
  8. We Assign a home to and Containerize the items we keep.  Quite often, items go right back where they came from, especially clothes to the closet and dresser, or books to the bookshelf.  But tackling these projects presents a great opportunity to re-think your storage! We took this opportunity to move a toy sorter out of the closet and into the basement for use with the Legos, and moving the sorter out of the closet opened up lots of space for other things.
  9. “Equalize” is the fifth step in Morgentstern’s SPACE, and is a fancy word for maintenance.  So we equalize every time we tidy up, throw out papers, donate outgrown or beat-up clothes, etc.

Specifically, organizing with kids

  1. Let the papers go.  No, really, let them go.  The grades are complete, homework is      done.  Let the papers go.  Keep a few items from each year, but I guarantee you, your child will not care about every paper ever produced much past junior high.  Handing him or her bins full of old paper when he or she starts their own home will not be appreciated.
  2. Cultivate giving and purging from birth. My boys are used to purging old clothes, and donating used toys and clothes.  It’s a good habit to form.
  3. Provide a plastic container (sweater size, 6-12 qt size) for treasures.  But no larger than that.
  4. Grab your camera, to take pictures of large art projects so you can purge the project without losing the memory.  A picture of the catapult they made in class takes up a lot less space than the actual catapult!

So, take courage and spend some time organizing with your kids this week!  The bedroom will look better, you will learn some new things about your child, and you will both cultivate your organizing habits!

“If I Had A Nickel…” Getting Buy-In From Your Family

If I had a nickel for every time I was asked “How do I get my family to get and stay organized?” I’d be rich.  Perhaps you want to get organized, but you feel challenged with young children, your spouse, maybe even aging parents or grown-up children who are still / again living at home.

Remember, please, I am an organizer, not a parenting expert or marriage counselor (as my husband and kids will attest).

We love our family members.  No one is broken, and No one needs fixed.   Each of us has strengths and skill sets.   And sometimes, a family member’s strength is NOT organizing.  Or maintaining systems, or even seeing how their actions or inactions affect others.   BUT, we need to be able to live together in shared space.   So, here are ways to gain cooperation or “Buy-In” from family members (or co-workers, employees, etc):

Determine Your Needs.  Not Wants, but Needs.  We need clothing and shelter, we want nice clothing and a big house.  Stating “Needs” instead of “wants” creates urgency.  For example, I want things to be pretty, but I need things to be organized.  So I am willing to spend effort and money on organizing first, and “pretty” later.  And I live in a house with all men and “pretty” is not a want for them.  So I stick with needs.

Solve a Problem.  Identify specific problems in your household, and how organizing can solve each.  If the problem is “We’re always late”, organizing your time and Launch Pad better could help you be on time.  Focus on one specific challenge.  Resist trying and failing to change everything at once.

Get Clear in Your Own Vision so that you can communicate it to others.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)  Set the example.  This helps us to Speak From Experience, which lends us believability.  Be willing to step up and organize yourself if you are expecting others to get organized, too.

Keep it Simple.  Keep your ideas and message simple, dispassionate and to the point.

Keep it Realistic.  Keep participant ages, skill levels, attention spans, etc. in mind when you ask for assistance.  Strive for little steps in the right direction instead of big global changes.  Also, don’t make organizing look so easy that no one will ever offer to help; or so difficult that no one will ever want to help.

Don’t Tell, Teach.   Remember Organizing is a process, and we often need to teach the process.  No one reads minds.  Lay out each person’s part of the process for them.   I learn more every day, and I do this for a living.  Understand there is a learning curve for all family members.

Use Marketing to sell the Organizing Process:

  1. Make a statement, how every one is going to try this new idea.
  2. Make it a Team Effort.  And let everyone know they are needed.
  3. Express the “Why”:  Why and how everyone will benefit.
  4. State the expectations for everyone.  (And mention that you are only human, and you, too, are feeling your way through these changes).
  5. Offer assistance and resources for your projects and to help others.

Find a Motivator.  Point to something personal, specific or tangible: More money?  Less stress?  Different stuff?   With kids, the motivators could be:

  • A better morning routine will get us out the door and on to activities sooner.
  • Purge and sell your extra toys and games and use the money for a new game system.
  • If we clean out the basement, we can gain a play / recreation room.
  • If we get more organized, we can stop driving Mom crazy. (maybe that is just me…..)
  • If we prove we are responsible in one area, we can get xx or yy privilege.
  • If we plan the menu and put stuff on the shopping list, we get foods we like, and the cabinets are full.
  • Use life transitions, like a new school year or moving from tween to teenager, to motivate change.
  • My boys are growing, as is their understanding of the world around them. We try to do things because sometimes they are just “the right thing to do”.  Recognize motivators can change as people grow.
  • Take advantage of Summer Vacation.  Plan an organizing project per week, and offer a reward upon completion.  E.g., Clean out the garage this morning, play this afternoon.  Work on a new habit or behavior for a week, with a trip to Rainbow Cone at the end.

If you can’t achieve Buy-In, create boundaries.  If a family member is unwilling to participate in the organizing efforts, allow chaos in their own room but not in common space.  And if they can’t keep common space organized, then limit access to that space (this works for kids, not so much for adults!!).

So, be specific about your organizing projects, be a good advertiser for the process, and find creative ways to get your family members involved in the process.  You will gain assistance in the short-term, and a more organized family in the future!

It’s Time to Edit Your Entryway for Spring!

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Winter accessories bag

Winter accessories bag

Have you updated your entry way – Front door, back door, mud room – for Spring yet?  Yes, it is time!

First, pull out everything in your entry way.  Sort your stuff into

categories, and purge / recycle / donate what needs to go.Coats / outerwear:

  • Review all your outerwear.  Completely purge old, ill fitting, extra or outgrown coats, sweaters, jackets, etc.
  • Wash the items you want to keep, or take them to the cleaners this week, and make a note to pick it up next week, so you don’t forget!
  • Re-hang your Keep items on sturdy hangers, and put them at the very back or end of the closet.
  • Pull to the front of the closet the outerwear you need for Spring, like rain gear and lighter jackets.

Accessories:

  • Review hats, gloves, mittens and scarves, and toss the old or unmatched items.
  • Wash and completely dry everything, then place the items you want to keep in a clear bin or 2 (approx. 12 qt size), labeled “cold weather accessories”, or in an XL Ziploc bag (check out Target in the wraps and bags aisle) with all the air squeezed out.
  • Store the bin or bag on the highest shelf.  You can still see it, but it’s out of the way.
  • Pull to the front of the closet the stuff you need for Spring, like umbrellas and baseball caps.

Shoes and boots:

  • Review and completely purge old, ill fitting, extra or outgrown shoes.
  • Clean the mud or salt off the ones you want to keep, then store them in a ventilated and lidded plastic bin.
  • Label that bin “cold weather shoes” and store it on the floor in the back of the closet, or use a few smaller bins and store those on the top shelf, too.  Just don’t store any really heavy containers up high.  Why?  First, really heavy containers can overload shelves.  Second, you will have to pull the containers out again in the Fall to use your cold weather items, and you run the risk of injuring yourself when you pull the really heavy containers down.

Sporting equipment / Toys:

  • Free up some entry way space, and store off-season sporting equipment in a well-labeled bin in the garage or basement.
  • If you go the same places often, you could also pre-pack a “Park” bag (sunscreen, hat, hand wipes, band aids and a small snack, for example), or a “swim lesson” bag (towel, suit, shower shoes and goggles) and leave those bags ready to grab and go.
  • If you use your front hall closet like we do, try making a “front steps” basket or bucket, for small things like side walk chalk and bubbles.  The basket comes out for play time and gets tucked away when play time is over.  I worked in a closet a couple of weeks ago, and last year’s bubble bottles and side walk chalk really wrecked the closet floor under all the winter boots and shoes.  Yuck.

Hardware / Home Improvement Items:  The Ice-Melt and snow shovels can go to the garage, thank goodness.  And out come the door wreaths and flags.  Collect small hardware items and tools into a well-labeled bin or two.

Take this opportunity to wash down walls, vacuum the floor, and add some storage.

My over-the-door coat rack

  • Every entry way needs coat storage, accessory storage, and lots of shelves and vertical storage. You may have some of this in place already, but you can always add to your storage options.
  • Hang an over-the-door shoe rack, or mount it directly to a wall.
  • I am in a lot of closets, and most have one closet rod, and one shelf right above the rod, then 2-3 feet of unclaimed storage above the one shelf and below the ceiling.  Add at least one more shelf 12-18 inches below the ceiling to maximize your storage space and give you room for off-season and rarely used items.
  • Command Hooks (by 3M) are awesome for maximizing your vertical storage.  Check out the display at your local home improvement store.  They are inexpensive, easy to install, and solve lots of storage challenges.  Use them to hang bags and accessories, brooms, baseball caps or umbrellas.  The ideas are endless!

Spend a little time this week updating your entry way for the new season, and you will thank yourself for months to come!

Breakfast Planning: Make It An Easy & Healthy Habit!

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Good morning! I worked with a coaching client last week, and we strategized ways to improve her family mornings. She is very health-conscious and creative, but does not feel creative early in the morning (who does?). So we applied some menu planning strategies to Breakfasts. It was such a great idea that I just had to write about it this week!

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. It gives our body fuel and sets the tone for the day ahead. And why do we menu plan? To eat well, save time, make healthy choices, save money. Hmmmm…, yep, all of those work for Breakfast just like dinner!

Menu planning helps us to live better, and you can take this opportunity to improve your day. We have two big challenges in our house. First, I am a stickler for a balanced breakfast, supplying good energy and focus through the day.  We all operate best with a blend of fruits or veggies, good and complex carbs, and protein, but a balanced breakfast is not always a quick breakfast. Second, our morning schedule is crazy with 5 different wake times and 5 different start times for school or work. We need to have quick and healthy options that my teenagers can make for themselves.  So here is our plan!

With any menu plan, we start with our schedule. List the days, then list the events, activities or ideas you already have for those days (this is cobbled together from my client call and my life):

  • Sunday: Bagels from a nearby bakery
  • Monday: Smoothie with fruit from Sunday’s Farmers Market
  • Tuesday: Build Your Own Breakfast
  • Wednesday: purely portable, early morning meeting
  • Thursday: Build Your Own Breakfast
  • Friday: Dad’s late morning, he’s making omelets!
  • Saturday: Pancake Morning

Build Your Own Breakfast Ideas: A few years ago I put a spreadsheet on the fridge, to help my boys make healthy choices in the morning. The idea was to take one item from each category to build a better breakfast. The categories are:

  • Fruits: grapes, apple, banana, melon, orange juice, strawberries
  • Protein / Dairy: milk, yogurt, protein shake, peanut butter, bacon, sausage, omelet, hard-boiled egg, cheese stick
  • Good Carbohydrate: toast/bread, bagel cereal, pancakes , waffle, granola bar, breakfast bar

Other Tips to Make a Better Breakfast Happen

  • My kids love staying in hotels and hotel breakfasts. Take a cue from your favorite breakfast bar. We choose foods with our senses. Present good and healthy choices, and that is what your family will choose.
  • Our freezer is stocked with pre-cooked bacon (Costco), microwaveable turkey sausage patties, mini pancakes or French toast sticks (Market Day).
  • The bread basket holds whole wheat mini bagels or raisin bread for toasting.
  • The fruit basket has apples, bananas and oranges.
  • The snack basket has granola bars and protein bars (Nature Valley) and cereal bars (Special K)
  • The fridge holds leftovers (yes, I had tuna salad every day for breakfast last week), peeled hardboiled eggs and cut up cantaloupe.
  • If I am feeling really kind, I make a breakfast egg and bread casserole, and the boys will warm up a piece.
  • I made a coffee cake this evening for a school event, and my oldest son announced he loves that coffee cake and would eat it every day. So, note to self, throw together more coffee cakes and muffins, even healthy ones, and he and his brothers will eat them!

So, pick just one or two of these tips to try this week, to Build a Better Breakfast and start your days right!

Reclaim Your Entry Way, aka Where the Shoes Are

Second installment of Ask The Organizer, from my friend Victoria, via Facebook:

“How about the “cool weather drop and go”?  Where everyone who walks in the door takes of their layers and drops them on the floor or as they walk, in little piles all over the place radiating from the doorway?  Hats, shoes, coats, bags, whatever is in their hands…etc.”  I love that image!

The regular chaos at our back door drives my husband and me crazy, too.  It is a nice space, but with everyone coming and going and dumping and loading, it clutters quickly.  If your entry way clutters quickly too, here are three key components to consider when improving the “Cool Weather Drop and Go”?

#1:  Maximize Your Vertical Storage.

Climb the walls, hang on the doors, install shelves, and use under-furniture storage.   Look around your entry way.  If there is empty wall space or door surfaces, use them!   Make the most of this high-traffic area.

Did you know? A door is not just a door. It is a willing holder for an over-the-door coat rack or shoe holder. A door right next to our back door holds both. The OTD coat rack, with the highest hooks in the room, holds the adults’ coats and bags. On the other side of the door is a plastic OTD shoe holder that holds shoes plus cleats, shin guards, volleyball knee pads and baseball caps.

There are two other coat racks mounted on walls near the back door, at varying heights for my sons’ bags and coats.  And we even use low storage:  There’s a  canvas storage bags under my couch for rarely used cold weather items like scarves and boots.  Shelves, hooks, baskets, maybe even a snazzy and sturdy shoe tree like this one we just bought (Container Store, $30 well spent).  You name it – utilize your vertical space.  Climb the walls, hang on the doors, and go low.  Get Creative!

Image

#2:  Horizontal Staging Space

Every entry way needs flat space nearby, for lining up backpacks and other items to leave, and for unpacking bags as people come home.  The last thing I do when I leave is make sure the flat space is empty.  If it’s not, someone probably forgot to take something with them.  The flat space should be empty 90% of the time, waiting for folks to come or go.  Don’t clutter it with stagnant stuff; keep things moving in and out.

#3 Habits:  Habits and Routines maintain systems.

The Habit of Entry:  We have both a front and back door to our home, but I encourage my boys to get in the habit of always using the back door.  The garage is in the back, all the storage solutions like the coat racks and shoe holders are at the back door, and for safety sake I don’t want strangers driving by to see my sons using a key to get in the front door of an empty house.

The Habit of Stop and Drop:  A client suggests a stop sign right inside the door, for the kids to pause and take care of their stuff before going any further into the home.

The Habit of Daily Maintenance:  When I call the boys to set the table for dinner, I also require them to clean up and hang up their stuff. Homework goes back into backpacks upon completion. Sports uniforms and band instruments get lined up the night before. Total number of coats or shoes at the door per person is 2 coats or 2 pair.  Any more than 2 get put away in closets.

The Habit of Regular or Seasonal Purging.  Last week, I went through hats and mittens with a client, purging all the itchy or unmatched hats and gloves.  Always purge clutter at the end of a season, and put the rest away.  Soccer season ended last week, so we put away the cleats and shin guards until next time.  And the little guy’s cleats will not live to see another year, so they are in the donate bag already.  With colder weather on its way, I also went through summer hats, purged a few and put most away, and stocked the accessory basket with hats and gloves.

So, this week, how can you use Vertical Space, Horizontal Staging Space and better Habits to make your entry way more organized and efficient?  Well, Let’s Go!

Reclaim the Top of Your Refrigerator

I was having a writer’s block last week and asked my Facebook Fans and Friends to suggest blog topics.  They really came through for me, so thanks to all for the inspiration!

Image Image

One of the first to responses was “What to do with all that [stuff] that has accumulated on the top of my refrigerator” (see above, front and side views).  I love this question because we have all probably been there, wondering the same question.  And I also love it because spending half an hour on this one little project is going to make you feel great about your kitchen.

So, here’s what you do, if your fridge looks like this one….  Tackle the project using Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE.  Sort, Purge, Assign a Home, Containerize and Equalize.

  1. Grab a step-stool, a clean counter, and perhaps a young helper and Clear It All Off and wash it down
  2. SORT Your stuff.  In these photos, I would say Cook books, Lunch boxes, Mail and Papers, playing cards, school supplies, vitamins?  Group your items into different categories that make sense to you.
  3. PURGE your stuff.
    • You choose what stays and goes.  Some things DO belong up there, and some things DO NOT.
    • Trash old, outdated or mysterious food products, broken items (like the green bowl), and old mail.
    • What goes somewhere else in the kitchen or home?  What’s in that Target bag?
    • What can stay? Things that only the parents / tall people use; seldom used items; big single items that don’t look too cluttered.
  4. Steps 3 and 4 ASSIGN A HOME AND CONTAINERIZE are the really important steps in this project.
  5. ASSIGN A HOME  There are challenges with tall spaces like the Fridge top.  Small things get lost. It is great storage space, but lacks structure and physical boundaries.  One rough open or close of the door can send stuff flying.  I look at that bundle of mail, and imagine the whole thing hitting the floor and flying everywhere.  Gravity.  Ever have a box of cereal dump on your head?  If we store big clunky items up there, we risk pulling things down on our heads.
  6. Containerize:
  • We need to get creative when it comes to containerizing on the Fridge top.
  • Use the space well but strive for a streamlined visual presentation.
  • Our fridge is tucked under our cabinets.  I need easily moved storage solutions if I want to access those hard to reach cabinets.
  • I suggest Book Ends, Baskets and Boxes, well labeled, for fridge-top storage.
  • Use bookends for cookbooks, or for boxes of cereal or crackers.
  • Baskets offer a nice visual while covering up their contents.  These two baskets are on top of my fridge.  The left one holds our lunch bags, and the right one holds recycling items like batteries, medications, etc., until drop-off day.
  • Image
  • Boxes, like lidded photo boxes, can corral small or seldom used items like recipes, holiday cookie cutters, etc.  They can be purchased inexpensively at a craft store and can match your kitchen colors, or just choose white to make them blend in to the landscape.
  • The Fridge top is great for items that are not too big and bulky like large serving dishes or serving baskets.  I have large serving trays at the back of my fridge-top, covered with a cloth.

7.  The last step of the organizing process is to Equalize, or maintain.  Tidy up the top of your fridge when clean your kitchen, or make a date to do it once or twice a year.

So, the next time you have 30 or 60 minutes, you can complete a project just like this and improve a room and your life.  Who knew?  Friend-who-sent-me-the-pictures, I would love to see an after-picture!

P.S. A few words about:  Cookbooks.  Do you need and use the cookbooks you have?  I have some cookbooks in a cabinet, but my go-to resource that I use multiple times a week is a large white 3 inch binder.  I’ve assembled the binder over time, adding favorite recipes to different categories like “baking” or “meal ideas”, etc. I still have a few cookbooks for inspiration, but the binder is the best. I have pockets for recipes I collect that I want to try, and plastic page inserts to slide the magazine pages or papers into (plastics means I can wipe them off if I spill). When I need to read the recipe, I stand the binder up in a large plate holder.

Conquer School Papers! (from finish to start?!)

Last week, my friend Julie mentioned “the back to school paperwork is out of control”.  Since she mentioned this on her birthday, this week I am offering tools for conquering school papers, for Julie, and Nancy who shared her paper management questions and Hershey Pumpkin Spice Kisses at the soccer game.

School papers.  Ugh.  I get it, trust me.  Three boys, 3 schools, 3 team schedules, Religious Education, Boy and Cub Scouts (did I mention I am a den leader and Cubmaster this year?!), 3 choirs, 2 bands, blah, blah, blah…

But be strong, friends, you can clean up those school papers, and here’s how!  (I’m starting with the end, in case you’re in a hurry!)

The vitally important final steps to successful School Paper Management are:

  • Put everything away.  AWAY.  File what needs filed, purge what needs purged, put the bills-to-pay with the other bills-to-pay,put academic papers in each child’s binder (past blog on binders). AWAY.       You’ll have a small pile of papers that represent actions to take or information to add to your calendar. That’s it.  Everything else goes away.
  • Make and keep a daily appointment to add info to your planner and to fully complete the action papers and send them on their way.  Complete forms and return to school; follow up on memos; send the emails, place the orders.  No, really.  Get things all the way done, and file what is left.  And then give the nice clean counter or desk a pat, turn off the light and go to bed.

Now, back to the beginning:

Pick a location to collect and process your papers.  Outfit that location with a garbage can, recycling bin and shredder.  Consider them all pets that need regular feeding, and make sure to toss, recycle and shred often!  In addition, assemble the following:

  • Your papers and mail (obviously) in Mom’s InBox (I just have a spot on the counter, but you can get a real in-box if you would like);
  • Your mom-file (Are you drowning in Kid Papers?  http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/210/)
  • Stapler, paper clips, pen;
  • Calendar or planner;
  • Check book, and an envelope of small bills.  During the school year, I always seem to send in $4 here for one little thing or $7 there for another.  We keep an envelope with $20 worth of small bills in the desk drawer to keep our tasks / sign-up sheets / permission slips / raffle tickets / etc., moving along.

Process your papers once and only once a day.  Save time and hassle, and wait until ALL the papers have arrived for the day, in the mail and backpacks.

Dedicate 10 minutes a day to process your papers, maybe 15 to start.  Sort through everything, and make decisions today, right away.  There are only a few options for your school papers:

  • Recycle, toss or shred what you can.  Ads, unsolicited mail, catalogs, notices for activities your family does not participate in (father daughter dance?  Not this house.  Martial arts classes? Been there, tried that.)
  • Actions to Take / Stuff for Mom or Dad:  permission slips, forms to complete and send back, order forms, checks to write, memos to read, etc.
  • Dates and contact information to add to your calendar / planner.  Make a habit to commit everything to your calendar / planner, so you can trust the planner when you need to make decisions.  This is the best time-saving organizing tool you can use. Keep paper schedules or memos as back up, if you feel you need to, but file them – do not put them back in your pile.
  • Homework to complete – hand this right back to your children, unless they are 6 and under!
  • Completed and graded daily assignments / homework. For goodness sake, get this out of your in-box or to-do pile.  Look at it, commend or comment with your student, and then file it for a predetermined amount of time (we purge all but the treasures after the end of every quarter).  Put one a week on the fridge if your student reallllly wants to see it.
  • Important documents (certificates, records or report cards).  File until the end of the year or longer.  We have binders for each student, with pockets in the binder for papers from each school year. (“Bind Up That Paper Monster!”  http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/bind-up-that-paper-monster/)

     And the two most important final steps to successful School Paper Management are.. oh, right, you already know those.  Now, no more dawdling, take courage and go tackle that paper.  Let some go, get some done, and put all away!

6 Lessons I Re-Learned This Week.

Over the weekend, I spent some quiet travel time on a time management consultation on …..me!

You see, I went back to high school last week.  I’m not wearing the uniform or walking the halls, which is good since it’s an all-boy’s school, but let me tell you, I am still getting an education!  My son started high school, and I am learning to navigate it as a parent.  I re-learned some life lessons this week.  We don’t always have to learn new lessons, often we need to be reminded of what we already know.  To help you conquer time management challenges at work or at home, let me share what I re-learned this week:

Ask “What are we trying to achieve with improved Time Management?”

     In our case, encouraging independence and responsibility, but also balance and stress reduction for my awesome over-achieving son (though I think I was more stressed than he was).  Let the answer to that question guide the rest of your actions.

Pare down your schedule to just essentials.  

Let me ask you:  If your schedule is insane, what habits are you willing to leave behind, to make room for the important essentials?  Less TV, shopping, Angry Birds or Where’s My Water, Facebook and surfing the web, etc?
For the teenager, TV, hanging out and reading for pleasure late into the night may just have to wait.

Get sleep and good nutrition.

This is critical to all of us, not just teenagers.  Going to bed at a regular time, and making sure your body is fueled with good food empowers us to do more with better focus.

Have the Right Stuff, and Only the right stuff.

My question to you – what do you need to get out of the way, out of your office or home to simplify your life?
Organize your stuff to streamline your time management.  My guy still stumbles over getting dressed and out the door in proper uniform.  This evening, we (he doesn’t know this yet!) are going to clean off his dresser top except for the stuff he is currently and actively using.  We all need to get back in the habit of packing sports and band bags the night before, too, to decrease the last minute scramble.

Ask for help. 

Regardless of what challenge you have, remember you are not alone, and you don’t always have to be the expert.  I need to re-learn this lesson every week because I am terrible at asking for help, and therefore get overwhelmed when faced with a task I don’t know how to complete.  I know I am capable and smart enough to learn, but it feels like it may take FOREVER to get it done.
High school introduced many new, unfamiliar high-tech tools like on-line homework, text books, bulletin boards, etc., and they all required some set up.  My good and tech-savvy husband, the expert in this case, and the teenager spent most of an afternoon getting everything set up all at once, so now we’re good to go.  We just needed to ask the expert.
What is your challenge, and who can be your expert?

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

For the sake of time management, if you need to get something done and someone else is involved in the process, you have to communicate well to get things done.  We’ve had a couple of communication snafus over the last 10 days.  I had a piece of paper he needed, he forgot to tell us about a team event parents were expected to attend, etc.
I was reminded in an article this morning that good leaders use multiple means of communication, all the tools available, really, to get their message across.  So, if you want to increase communications with an individual or group to get things done effectively, find methods they already like and use.
In my son’s case, those methods are texting and using his student planner.  I suggested that my son text me as he remembers something I need to know, or jot it down in his planner if it’s during school hours.  And I admitted to him that I have to write stuff down all the time because I just don’t remember stuff unless I write it down.

  Learn from my experience!  And tell me, what lessons do you find yourself re-learning?  Please share, I would like to know!  You could be in my next blog?

3 Reasons We All Should Love Back-To-School

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I love Back-To-School time, and not just because my sons sometimes drive me buggy during the summer months. Whether in school or not, this time of year always feels like an opportunity to start fresh, get back to a new and improved routine, find all sorts of cool gadgets in the stores, and learn something new. It’s like New Year’s without the snow, winter misery or credit card bills. So use Back-to-School time as an opportunity to embrace new ideas and gadgets, and improve yourself and broaden your mind, not because you have to but because the world is full of new things to learn every day.

Start fresh, get back to a routine:

I love the lazy days of summer, but as a mother of three busy boys, a small business owner and recovering insomniac, I recognize that a routine is vitally important to everyone’s well-being.  We all benefit from having a Routine, a reasonable yet necessary set of tasks and expectations for certain times of each day.  August brings regular bed- and wake-up times, routine chore completion and basic hygiene without nagging, regular office hours for my clients and regular sleep patterns for all.  Sit down with family members and think about what needs to happen before leaving the house every morning or going to bed every night, and incorporate those tasks into your morning or bed-time routine now.

Cool new stuff and gadgets:

Book lights for in-bed reading; post-it notes for every imaginable application; 5-subject notebooks to keep track of your lists for all your projects in one central location; a new Websters Dictionary because it is a good thing to have (and yes, Ginormous is now a real word); comfy new ergonomic back packs or messenger bags for toting your stuff; colored index cards for anything you can think of (like making checklists and laminating them or assigning household tasks by person or room):  the stores are bursting with problem-solving gadgets and back-to-school stuff.  My all time favorite tool is a dry erase marker – Leave messages for family members on the bathroom mirror, whether “Pick up the kids at soccer practice” or “Comb your hair!”.  Wipes right off, and the kids use it, too!

Learn something new:

Education is important.  Learning new things keeps us sharp.  Knowledge is power.

There are so many wondrous things in the world, and now is a great time to commit to learning something new. Two goals for me for the Fall are learning how to knit and how to meditate (though certainly not at the same time), plus 5 books recommended to me by people I respect.  Goals are only dreams until you put them into action, though, so to make my goals happen, I have found out when a local knitting shop has drop-in lessons, and I’ve tracked down a book that offers a 30 day approach to learning to meditate and one of the recommended books.  The ideas are limitless, and you don’t have to sign up for a class – your local library and the Internet have information on everything under the sun (and I know a really nice organizer who offers classes all over the South Side if you want to learn about organizing!). So pick a topic and get to work!

Embrace Back-To-School time whether you are going back or not.  Determine the 5 or 10 simple tasks you need to do morning and evening to make your life run smoothly, and make those tasks Routine by doing them every day.  Check the stores and on-line for problem-solving devices.  And get out there and learn something new!