Organizational skills

Improving Organizational Skills 

One of the more common causes of poor grades and school performance is disorganization. Organization and planning ahead are learned skills. In order for students to become more organized, they will need to have a plan and practice it. People often have a hard time organizing themselves and staying motivated to practice good organization skills. You can learn organizational skills but, you must stay motivated to practice these skills on a daily basis.

SIGNS OF POOR ORGANIZATION

Below is a list of symptoms students show indicating that organizational skills need to be developed.

 

If you are demonstrating any of these of symptoms, you must become aware of your weaknesses and work to correct them. Your level of success and the efficiency at which you achieve is directly related to your organizational skills.

The following organizational strategies may help.

  

The Four Basic Orgnaizational Skills

In order to avoid the problems listed above, students need to do four things successfully:

(1) Write down assignments and bring materials

(2) Keep track of papers

(3) Plan ahead

(4) Have a study place and time.

1) The Writing Down Assignments and Bringing Home Books Skills

            Talk with your teacher about when and how homework is assigned. Some teachers assign homework only on particular days. In addition, teachers tend to provide the homework assignments at a particular time and in a particular way. For example, some teachers write the homework assignments on the board at the end of class. Others provide the assignment verbally to the students, or use echalk. Knowing this information will help you keep track of your assignments.

 Have and use an assignment journal. You need a pad or notebook to write down daily assignments, test dates, project instructions, and other important school information. This planner can be a simple pocket size spiral pad or as fancy as a daily planning calendar. Many office supply stores carry different types and styles of notepads and books that can be used for an assignment journal. Get and use one you like.

 Develop a system for remembering which books to bring home. Some tricks for remembering which books to bring home include positioning books that need to go home in your locker or backpack. For example, you can put the books to go home on a particular shelf in the locker. Other students turn the binding of the books to go home toward the back of the locker/desk. If you regularly have trouble remembering which books to bring home, you may need to bring every book home every night.

 

2) The Keeping Track of Papers Skill

It is important to have a system to keep track of all the papers that need to go back and forth to school. In addition to homework papers, you need to keep track of study guides and previously graded papers to study for tests at home.

            Have and use a subject folder/binder. Your need a folder/binder for each subject to keep all your papers organized.

            Teach yourself to have a nightly planning time. Teach yourself to spend a few minutes each night organizing your papers. This should include placing all papers that need to go back to school in their proper pocket in the subject folder and placing the folder, books, and other needed materials into your backpack EACH NIGHT- NOT in the morning as you rush out the door!

 

3) The Planning Ahead Skill

Most adolescents have important social and recreational activities going on throughout the week. In order to have time for these activities and still have enough time to get homework completed and study for tests, you need to learn to plan ahead. One of the best ways of keeping track of time and all your activities is through a daily and weekly schedule.

            Map out a daily and weekly schedule. A dry erase marker board attached to the bedroom wall provides a good way for you to see the activities of the week at a glance. Making a large paper schedule or using a week-at-a-glance calendar can also work. Before school, these schedules can serve as a reminder of what you need to bring home from school that day. After school, they can help you decide what you need to work on that day.

            At the beginning of the week, list out all the activities for the coming week. This will help you plan. For example, if you child has a Social Studies test on Wednesday and you need two days to study for it, you can plan on bringing your Social Studies text book home Monday and Tuesday nights and or negotiate extracurricular activities that may  impede on your test preparation.

 

Each day, be fully informed and decide what needs to be done that day and when to do it. This should include a listing of all homework assignments and other activities and responsibilities. It is often a good idea to decide ahead of time on the order of homework assignments, sandwiching the harder assignments in between the easier assignments.

 

 

4) Your Study Place

One of the most basic habits you should have is to study in one place. Choose a particular location that you can use each time you study. An effective workplace is one that has adequate space to spread out, is well lit, has the needed supplies close at hand, and is relatively free from distractions.

Observations and surveys of children and adolescents have shown that they frequently choose to study while listening to a radio or watching television. Should this practice be discouraged? Based on studies in this area, the answer appears to be “it depends.”

Audio and visual distractions will tend to interfere with more with difficult assignments than with easy and routine assignments. In addition, meaningful background sounds, such as TV and speech, tend to be more distracting than music or other non-vocal background noise. As a general rule, you should try to control and limit meaningful distractions, such as telephone, TV, and interruptions from others during study time, particularly during difficult tasks. Do not worry as much about music and other non-vocal background noise during easy and routine assignments, if you are completing all of your work.

THOUGHTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE TEACHING YOURSELF ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS

It is important to keep in mind that using the ideas described above requires discipline and motivation. You will need to practice the skills until they become a regular part of your routine. You need to help yourself develop these skills and stay motivated. There are a number of things to keep in mind:

            1. Shape up your skills over time. Start with where you are now and set small incremental goals. Do not expect perfection right away. Reward small steps toward the ultimate end goal of good organization. As you make improvements, you can expect a bit more, gradually moving toward the desired end goal of using the organizational skills regularly.

2. Some of the skills may require teacher and or family assistance initially. For example, some students find it is helpful to have the teacher monitor the behavior at school until they are able to do it on their own. Parents sometimes need to talk with the teachers to enlist their cooperation on tracking homework completions and they like to check your daily assignment planner and or, you may need them to assist you with your nightly planning. Don’t be afraid to get help and remember this is an important life skill that needs to be learned and developed.  

 

 

 

Adapted from Mark Edwards, Ph.D.