 “Getting organized” is more than eliminating clutter and creating neat storage systems. One of the most important areas of organizing is task management.
It’s never too early (or too late) to teach kids how to get and stay organized with schoolwork. The skills they learn now will carry over into high school, college, and ultimately, their careers and home management as adults. • Establish a great homework routine. With your child, determine the best time for daily school work and stick with it. For some kids, it will be right after school. Others may need some downtime to play, and then it’s time to hit the books. The most important thing is to stick to the schedule so your child knows what’s expected. • Set up the space. Have a designated study area, such as the kitchen table. But for unique assignments, allow for some flexibility such as moving to a rocking chair for reading chapter books. Create a school supply box and keep it well stocked with supplies (paper, pens, pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, ruler, sticky notes, calculator, etc.) so kids don’t have an excuse to get up. • Make sure you know what’s going on at school. Instruct children to unload their backpacks as soon as they come home. Have them hang up their bags in a designated area (try a coat rack, pegs on the wall, or a wicker laundry basket near the front door). This allows for easy access the next day. They should bring homework to the designated study area. Check in each day so you’re aware of their workload and take special care when they seem overwhelmed. • Encourage the use of lists and planners. The older kids get, the more homework and activities they’ll have. Teach them to manage their tasks with the use of simple lists or a planner/calendar of some sort. Office supply stores sell ones with cute kid-friendly designs, or use computer lists (or even smartphones) for techie kids. When they learn of upcoming assignments, tests, or events, they should write them down in their planners. • Encourage color coding. Color affects our mood and memory. Let kids pick the colors of their folders and notebooks to correspond to different classes. If green reminds them of science, then they’ll know instantly to grab the green notebook when looking for their science notes. © 2016 Articles on Demand™ Visit the Student Organization pages on this website for specific, detailed information about Executive Function Skills, Improving Your Child's Organizing Skills, Organizing by Learning/Sensory Preferences and Action Style Preferences, Organization and Time Management Strategies for Kids with L.D., and Student Organizing Tips! Energize and Organize is here to help your child thrive and succeed in school! Donna LaRoche, M.Ed., Professional Organizer Serving Cape Cod, MetroWest and Eastern Massachusetts Contact: 617.640.2366, www.energizeandorganize.com  Last night I attended an excellent talk at the Lawrence School here in Falmouth. Tracey Bromley Goodwin, M.Ed., and Holly Oberacker, LMHC, from Navigating ADHD, Inc., discussed symptoms of the three ADHD key behaviors (inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity).
They presented insightful examples of the flip side of ADHD including Easily Distracted and Hyperfocused, Disorganized and Remarkably Organized, and Rejecting Help and Giving Help. Tracey and Holly detailed how "when you are aware of the Flip Side of ADHD, you can shift your view of ADHD and the ways in which you provide support." "A shift in thinking makes the difference in the life of a child with ADHD." -Tracey Bromley Goodwin and Holly Oberacker They highlighted the importance of communicating with the brain in mind and navigating effective communication. Examples included in their talk were moderating your tone, using fewer words, creating cue words, communicating in close proximity, remembering the Power of Three, considering the moment, listening actively and using visual clues. To learn more about Tracey and Holly's outstanding work, visit their website at www.navigatingadhd.com or give them a call at 508.566.0093. I purchased their terrific book, Navigating ADHD, Your Guide to the Flip Side of ADHD, at the conclusion of their lecture. I just checked and it's available for purchase at Amazon.com. Parents, caregivers, extended family members, educators, pediatricians and more are sure to learn a great deal about how to support loved ones with ADHD. Enjoy! Donna LaRoche, M.Ed., Professional Organizer Serving Cape Cod, MetroWest and Eastern Massachusetts Contact: 617.640.2366, www.energizeandorganize.com  This tip will help you stop procrastinating and get clutter reduced in your home. Inspire and motivate yourself with the “Quick Start” project. It should take no longer than 30 minutes. Next, try the “Keep Going” tip to really put clutter and chaos in its place!
Quick Start: Set a timer for 15 minutes. Grab a garbage bag, walk through your home, and quickly remove ten things you no longer use or love. Also, recycle newspapers older than one week and magazines older than 12 months, plus expired coupons and junk mail. Dispose of the bags immediately. Keep Going: From here on out, put things in their proper places right away. Before buying something new, ask yourself if you really need it. If you decide to purchase, get rid of two similar items to make room. © 2016 Articles on Demand™ It's a great idea to put two trash bags of different colors (black and white) in every room that you are organizing. One trash bag is for trash and the other is for saving/moving items to another room or zone in your home. Every time you walk into a room you will be reminded and will know to take a minute to two to put items into the bags. When the bags are filled, out they go to the trash or to like with like zones in your home. This easy to remember action makes a big difference in starting the clutter organizing process because progress is seen almost immediately! What could be better? Get ready, set, go! Donna LaRoche, M.Ed., Professional Organizer Serving Cape Cod, MetroWest and Eastern Massachusetts Contact: 617.640.2366, www.energizeandorganize.com  Source: www.irs.gov It's the first of February and tax preparation season is in full swing. Mailboxes around the country are filling up with important documents needed to prepare and file income tax returns. Are you feeling overwhelmed with gathering and organizing your paperwork together to file your taxes?
The Internal Revenue Service provides the following and other useful tax prep guidelines and income/expense document information at www.irs.gov ... Free Tax Preparation Tips When it comes to tax preparation many people are far from efficient. In fact, most taxpayers are disorganized and unprepared when they begin to file their returns. Of course, you don’t have to make this mistake. The following 5 tax preparation tips can benefit you in a number of ways: 1. Get organized with the help of a checklist. If you use a tax preparation checklist, you’ll know for sure that you have all the right documents ready and that you won’t miss a single detail. A tax preparation checklist is the best way to stay organized because you can physically see what you have already done, as well as what needs to be completed in the future. 2. Get tax help if need be. You can find tax help in a couple of different ways. If you're looking for free tax help, the IRS offers 2 programs to eligible taxpayers: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE). There are also numerous software programs to help you prepare and file your tax return. Many people use tax preparation software because it helps them stay organized, maximize tax deductions and tax credits, and file electronically. If you are looking for one-on-one tax preparation assistance, consider hiring a CPA or tax professional. 3. Triple-check your work. Do not be tempted to send off your tax return until you review it at least three times. This will help to ensure accuracy while allowing you to feel confident in the decisions that you’ve made. Make sure that all your personal information is correct, especially Social Security numbers. Any mistakes on your tax return will lead to slower IRS processing, which means a longer wait for your tax refund. 4. Tax preparation does not start the day that you want to file your tax return. If you want to be fully prepared, you need to think about your tax situation throughout the year. Those who wait until April to organize their finances are putting themselves in a vulnerable position. Even if the next deadline is months away, you should still do what you can to stay organized NOW to avoid potential problems in the future. 5. Give yourself enough time by knowing your deadlines. This goes along with tax preparation tip #4 above. If you know the deadlines that you must adhere to, it becomes much easier to be prepared for anything that comes your way. Some people only need to be aware of one deadline: April 15th. Others will need to remember several deadlines, such as those who owe local/state taxes and make quarterly estimated tax payments. Almost everyone should be able to take advantage of these five tax preparation tips. Overall, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to successfully prepare and file your tax return. The closer you follow these tax preparation tips, the better chance you have of avoiding costly mistakes. TAX PREPARATION CHECKLIST Before you prepare your tax return you should have a tax preparation checklist to help you get organized. Along with this, your tax preparation checklist should also get you in the right frame of mind. Once you are organized and ready to move forward, you will find that everything begins to fall into place. What is the overall goal of a tax preparation checklist? Simply put, it will help you get everything together before you begin to file your tax return or show up for your appointment with a tax professional. As you move down the checklist, you will find items you may have missed as well as things that were accounted for in the past. Listed below are some of the details that should be included on your tax preparation checklist. Tax Prep Checklist for Personal Information — The IRS needs to know who is filing the tax return, as well as how many people are covered on it. To make this easy, they require:
Tax Prep Checklist for Income Information — The following documents will help you prepare all the income information that you need to file a federal tax return. Note that all these items may not apply to you:
Paper management is a very time consuming job! Get your organizational systems in place now and your taxes will be filed well before the April 15th deadline. Best wishes! Donna LaRoche, M.Ed., Professional Organizer Serving Cape Cod, MetroWest and Eastern Massachusetts Contact: 617.640.2366, www.energizeandorganize.com  January is at its end. Tomorrow brings a new month, a new beginning. Take a look back at my first 31 Energize and Organize blog posts for 2016 and think about one or two organizational changes that you've made to create the life and surroundings you envision for yourself and your loved ones. Well done! Have you been unable to get started or have you been procrastinating? Read on...  The word procrastinate comes from the Latin procrastinatus, which means, literally, “forward tomorrow.” If you’ve been putting off till tomorrow what you could — and should — do today, then recognize that procrastination is a habit that can be broken. But it won’t happen overnight. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. So set a date, (Mondays work well, because they feel like a fresh start) and track 21 days to stay the course.
To start, give yourself a reason to stop procrastinating. Maybe you’ll improve your financial situation because you’ll pay your bills on time. Or you’ll impress your family, friends, and coworkers because you’ll appear productive and efficient. Or you’ll be less stressed because you are on top of your to-do list and arrive on time. Whatever the goal, keep it in mind throughout the first 21 habit-forming days. To get a handle on procrastination, start writing. Use a spiral notebook or planner to capture all your tasks. Do not use scraps of paper or sticky notes. You’ll want everything in one place. Keep a running master list of tasks that need to be done. (It might be really long.) But then, each evening, make a smaller “to do today” list for the upcoming day, either on a separate page in your notebook, or on the next day’s planner page. List only the most important things you need to accomplish that day, and keep the number of tasks realistic and attainable. (About five things usually works well.) The next morning, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done, and you can concentrate on those above all else. That evening, evaluate your list. Anything not completed moves forward to the following day’s task list, and a few more items are added. And take a moment to permanently remove tasks from your list that no longer contribute to your goals or happiness. As you’re writing your to-do list, make sure to break tasks down into realistic-sized chunks. If your goal is to organize your messy kitchen, the enormity of it will seem daunting. Instead, break it down into one-hour tasks: toss out all expired foods in pantry; clean out refrigerator; organize junk drawer; set up mini-filing system for kitchen. Completion dates are important, so assign specific tasks to specific days. You won’t organize a kitchen in a day, but over the course of a week, you can do it! And each day’s successes will give you the drive to keep going. For truly unpleasant tasks, set a timer for 15 minutes, and just do it. Nearly anything is palatable for a quarter of an hour. It’s also helpful to see that most unpleasant things don’t take nearly as long as we think they will. You may hate going through your in-basket at work. But just 15 minutes each morning and evening is enough to review, sort, do the quickie tasks, and assign the longer ones to your planner. If you’re feeling sluggish, complete an easy job first, to get your momentum going. Also, do the toughest tasks when your body is most alert — some people function better first thing in the morning, while others perk up later in the day. Treat time like a precious gift. Are you a people-pleaser? If you’re truly behind in your own tasks, don’t add any more optional to-do items until you’re caught up. It’s okay to say no. It’s okay to delegate. It’s okay to take some time for yourself. And stop saying, “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all.” Limit choices, let good enough be okay, and move forward. Perfection is not realistic or required in life. Reward yourself. After 21 days of “just do it” action, treat yourself to something nice... lunch with a friend, a luxurious nap or bubble bath, a hot-fudge sundae, a concert, or an afternoon with a favorite book or movie. You’ve earned it! © 2016 Articles on Demand™ Energize and Organize is here to help you make significant improvements in your well-being and to create the life and surroundings you envision for yourself! Please contact us when you are ready to work together to create harmony and balance for yourself and your loved ones. We look forward to hearing from you! Donna LaRoche, M.Ed., Professional Organizer Serving Cape Cod, MetroWest and Eastern Massachusetts Contact: 617.640.2366, www.energizeandorganize.com |
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