In my last post, I focused on what makes being organized such an important part of success. In this post, I will give you examples of how you can make being organized work for you. Whether you make better use of the organizational methods your teachers have assigned, take some of my suggestions, come up with your own ideas, or do a combination of things, just remember that whatever you do to become more organized will pay off as long as you stick with it. It may be hard to be consistent at first, and you may need to change or add methods. That’s okay, as long as you remember not to give up until you discover what works best for you. As I have stated before, that is the most important thing you can do to improve all of your study skills, which will allow you in turn to be more successful.
The first step to becoming more organized is to make better use of the organizational methods your teachers have assigned. As I said in my last post, you can’t simply refuse to use them. In addition to adversely affecting your grades, it can give your teachers a bad impression – they might see it as a sign of disrespect, or as a sign that you are unwilling to make the effort to improve the skills they are trying to teach. If neither of these things is the case and you really are just overwhelmed by what you are being asked to do, here are some tips to make it more manageable. The first thing to remember is that part of what makes many tasks seem overwhelming, both in school and out, is that we often make the mistake of thinking so much about how overwhelmed we feel that we don’t stop to think of how we might change it. Once you’ve realized this, then you can start to change your approach, and there are several ways to do it. One is to break down the task into smaller steps- instead of feeling overwhelmed by having to keep your assignment book up-to-date, for example, focus on filling in your homework assignments one class at a time. Another is to remind yourself of these smaller steps by any means necessary – putting your completed assignments into a designated folder, turning them in at the start of the next class, or submitting them online, for example, might require you to very specifically tell yourself, again and again, that this is what you must do. Maybe this involves specifically writing that you must turn in your work in your assignment book, or on the direction sheet for an assignment, or on a big sign you keep in your workspace, or on a sticky note that you attach to your tablet case, your binder, your folder, your mirror…I could go on, but the point is that reminding yourself to be more organized is one of the best ways to become more organized. In addition to finding ways to remind yourself to be more organized, you should also find ways to take the time to do it, as well as to double-check your work, the same as you would do in any academic subject. For example, you can check online to make sure you’ve written everything you need to into your assignment book, or you can check your backpack, tablet case, or virtual school workspace to make sure you have everything you need. These are just some of the ways to make better use of assigned organizational tasks, and they are just the beginning of what you can do to improve your organizational skills.
If you find that assigned organizational tasks remain overwhelming despite doing everything you can to make them more manageable, then the next step is to consider some of my suggestions of how you might change expectations to suit your needs. This will be easier to do if teachers’ organizational methods are suggested rather than required, but even required expectations can be tweaked. You can simply add what you need to do to what your teachers require, or you can ask permission to change what is required, as long as you do so respectfully and with an actual plan in mind that shows that you understand that being organized is a process that must be honored. You can ask, for example, to type your assignments on your tablet instead of writing them into an assignment book, or vice versa, but you can’t simply say that you don’t need to write your assignments down at all. You can ask to keep all homework that must be turned in in a single designated folder rather than subject-specific ones, but that means you must commit to having that folder with you for every class so that the work gets turned in, and it also means you should still keep the subject-specific folders so you can keep your returned work organized instead of letting it overwhelm your single assignment folder. You can also use highlighters, text color, underlining, pictures, stars, or whatever you’d like in addition to writing reminders to yourself as stated above, and you should be able to do most of this without changing required methods. Just take the time to consider, and reconsider, whatever you decide to do. If you realize before you do something that your teachers might have an issue with it, ask if they will allow it, or if they might have a way to make what you’d like to do more acceptable to them. If you think what you decide to do won’t change what your teachers want enough to bother them, but find out that it does, try not to let that frustrate or discourage you. Instead, explain to them that you need more help with your organizational skills, and see what they suggest you do. Just as they are with the subjects they teach, so too with organization and other study skills – teachers want to help you succeed, and they want you to ask for help if you need it.
A lot of my suggestions may not seem all that different from what your teachers will tell you. This is partly because organization was one of my strengths as a student ( I was even voted “most responsible” in my eighth-grade class!), and partly because I spent so many years as a teacher. While many of my suggestions simply offer extra and/or alternative ways to do as your teachers ask, some are more creative, and as with many lists I will give you, they are far from all that you can do. One of the things I will continually encourage you to do, no matter the subject or skill being discussed, is to come up with your own ideas, because coming up with ways to help yourself is a great way to be sure you will follow through on what you come up with! As I said in my last post, there are many different things you can do to become more organized. Different methods work for different people, and while you should strive to do the best you can with whatever organizational methods your teachers may suggest or require, don’t be afraid to try other methods if you find that assigned methods are not helping you as much as your teachers are hoping, or perhaps even assuming, they will. Just make sure, as I’ve already mentioned in this post, that you get approval for your choices when you need it and ask for help when you need it, because the last thing your teachers want, and the last thing you should want, is to take a skill meant to help you improve your grades and turn it in to something that will hurt them instead. Whether you are someone for whom organization comes naturally, or someone for whom it is more challenging, just keep striving to get better at it, because over time, it will pay off.