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Last week in my Clubhouse room, Organizing Teaching Spaces, we talked and shared a lot of ideas about how important organization is - with keeping our neuro-diversities in mind. Turns out - not everyone is tuned into or is drawn in by organization systems! What!!! Yes! It's absolutely true! We all have our strengths and styles when it comes to how we keep up with our spaces and materials, just like anything else. What makes sense for me, might not make sense to others, and vice versa. The key though, is that you work with your strengths here. That you create an understanding - with yourself - that in order to be fully functional and efficient, some kind of system must be in operation. Even the simples of them! Working with your strengths will usually result in a decent and perhaps sustainable way to keep on top of things! You know, that's why I created a few cards in which I thought most people may be able to anchor their Organizer-self in! So, are you.... ....Tidy-all-the-Time? ...Tidy-on-Top? ...a Piler or Stacker? or maybe.... a Once-a-Year type of organizer? Who else might you be? Just based on the name itself - which do you tune into immediately? Can you make a definition of your organizer-self using this title? Who do you think can relate? I have so many questions! Would love for you to drop some comments in the box below! And if you want a copy of my Organizer Identity cards, you can grab them here! See if your definition matches with mine!  Teachers! Sign up for a FREE coaching call to sort out your professional needs.
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Sometimes I think that people don't take me seriously when I talk about how important it is to establish systems of organization. Organization is not a surface level event. It requires sets of skills, a depth of understanding, and a willingness to make changes and improvements. I think it's fairly safe to say that most of us have felt the overwhelm and feelings of doom when we are in spaces that are cluttered, junky or in the space in which we are constantly overloaded with tasks. A few recent blog posts I've read on sites such as PsychCentral and ScaryMommy, I know they aren't scientific journals but, real people are sharing these serious emotional responses to too much stuff in spaces, too many things to manage, and not enough time in a day sort it all out. These emotional responses affect us daily in our personal lives, and that overflows into our professional lives. One might think I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but... I know I'm not. I know how easy it is to be on top of thing one minute and slip into the abyss an hour later. I've been there! Many times! An organized (teaching) life requires dedication and effort. It isn't easy. You know that --- and I know that! But it's possible to get yourself --- and your students --- set up for success. The impending feeling of doom when you enter your overwhelming spaces isn't normal, and we have to stop letting it be just that.  Teachers! Sign up for a FREE coaching call to sort out your professional needs.
Admin! Book a FREE consultation call to set up coaching for your teachers. Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw or surprise giveaway! App endorsements are unpaid. Photos are free from Unsplash or my camera roll. How does the room you're in right now make you feel? Look around, then close your eyes. Are you relaxed? Stressed? Present? Overstimulated? If your space makes you feel relaxed, what is it that makes you feel that way? If your space makes you feel stressed or overwhelmed, ask yourself the same question. What is causing the emotion you feel when you are in that space? What do you need to do to shift the emotion from stressed to calm? How can you amplify or translate the calmness to a space that makes you feel stressed?
All of these considerations can have an impact on your performance as a teacher and how your students respond. What you do right now can create a greater sense of usefulness and calm is you begin making small changes. Check in with yourself often. You deserve it.  Teachers! Sign up for a FREE coaching call to sort out your professional needs. Admin! Book a FREE consultation call to set up coaching for your teachers. Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw or surprise giveaway! App endorsements are unpaid. Photos are free from Unsplash or my camera roll. What's the one thing in your classroom or work space that just bothers you so much? For me, it's the cords. Phone cord, laptop cord, ring light cord, head phone cord. Cords, cords, cords! I hate cords. When they tangle, it feels like my brain also tangles. For Jamie, it was paper - actually Jamie was admittedly a paper addict. So let's call that a love/hate relationship. Jamie knew she needed to rid herself of all that paper in her space. So you know what Jamie did after we chatted a bit about decluttering? She bought a scanner, scanned the docs and saved them into a digital space. No more paper taking up her cute workspace anymore! Check out her post on the Organizing Teaching Spaces page on Facebook! Jamie - I'm so glad you found some peace with paper!  (Disclaimer: the image does not show Jamie's workspace ;) ) Teachers! Sign up for a FREE coaching call to sort out your professional needs. Admin! Book a FREE consultation call to set up coaching for your teachers. Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw or surprise giveaway! App endorsements are unpaid. Photos are free from Unsplash or my camera roll. This past week I had fun sharing a few organization tips with some awesome educators in my new webinar. One of the questions I asked was: Do you want to stop making organizational mistakes? Obviously, answers were a resounding YES. Further to that, was one lovely participant's comment written in the chat box, a mistake she keeps making - and trust me, it's a common mistake. I used to make the same one over and over and still get caught in it sometimes! Now, this particular mistake doesn't seem like it would be a big deal. But it is. It can change how you feel about your work space, how you feel about going to work and leave you with a sense of dread because you don't want to face it. It's the mistake of even thinking - yeah, yeah, I'll take care of that tomorrow - and then leaving a mess for yourself to clean up the next day. You've thought, said and done this, right? Putting off cleaning your space until the next day? This is a negative habit worth fixing for a number of reasons:
Does this sound pleasant to you? I'm guessing not! That stuff is blocking your clarity and productivity. Don't let it control you. You are the adult here! (You've said that to your students or kids, haven't you?) To combat that sense of things controlling your physical (and mental) space, here are three suggestions:
Go ahead and give it a go. Keep this practice up everyday for at least three weeks. In your work space, home space, wherever you need it. Then reflect on how this has (or has not) changed your day, emotional state or productivity.  I've never really been a goal-setter, but I love a good process cycle. - inquire, design, life, consumption - you name it, I like it. Here's the beauty of a process - working through one can get you to your goal (the one you don't think you have). Want to build a house? There's a process for that. Want to write a book? Process for that too. Cleaning up your house? Process! So thinking of this - here's an example of why goals sometimes fail.
I've been there too. I did something about it. Will you? Here's a place to start. Sign up for this FREE webinar! 3 Solutions for Common Teacher Organization Mistakes  Ok, yesterday was #ClearOffYourDesk Day - but just have a look at this small disaster zone. This is my little workspace. Ooops!  Somehow I managed to collect mail, sunglasses, gum, papers, a coin container - and don't get me started on that full cup of pens! Point is - most of these things get in my way when I'm trying to work. So why I do let them stay in my workspace? There are other places to put them.
If this looks kind of like your space, how you feel when you look at the mess. Everyday we go to a work space - and we shouldn't feel stressed just thinking about it! I used get really stressed all the stuff shoved in cupboards on all the shelves in my classroom. I had to make a change. So I did. But it took time. I was tired of asking myself - why is this crap in here! Let's talk about how to make a change. Consistently. So you don't get stuck asking yourself the same question I did. I don't want to think about my workspace or see it and feel annoyed because I can't navigate it, do you? Leave me some comments. Sign up for this FREE webinar! 3 Solutions for Common Teacher Organization Mistakes Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw or surprise giveaway! Sign up for a FREE teacher coaching consultation call to sort out your professional needs. App endorsements are unpaid. Photos are free from Unsplash or my camera roll.
When I think of to-do lists, a lot of things come to mind.
A planning book, a calendar, post-its, colored pens, notes pages, notebooks, a random sheet of paper, an email to self, reminder pings... That's a lot of things just for a list of to-do's for a 10-12 hour period, and a lot of places the same things get written. Will we have this same fear of forgetting something if we just streamline and simplify our to-do systems? So let's think about this. What do you really need to do to get yourself sorted out when writing your to-do list and actually getting the list finished by the end of the day? My friend Erin has been contemplating this. She is in the midst of changing how she sets up and works through her to-do list. Erin works full-time, spouses, and moms her toddler so she has a lot going on. She was thinking about all the things - chores, social media posting, sleep, personal projects, work meetings - and more! Sound familiar? A good starting point Erin chose was to block the days and times she planned to work late, start late, or vice verse. That was important to her yet, when I looked at her lists of all the things, embedded in the middle of her long list was her main goal ---- to get more sleep! Awesome! Self-care! When I saw that, I reminded her that her priority/goal (sleep) needed to be scheduled in next and was her non-negotiable. Her must do. Erin knows what she needs to function at her best. She needs sleep! (Are you listening?!) A next step would be to chunk tasks, then plan everything else around her goal. If you are planning to do something like this, I share some strategies about chunking time in the Taking Control of Your To-Do List toolkit. These help me a lot! I didn't make them up, but I morphed them from masters of focus like Nir Eyal and Michael Hyatt. I've done is spent lots of time thinking about priorities and how I operate as a worker so that I can do what needs to be done on time, whether I am working on my own timeline or someone else's - and that means chunking my time. 
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Last week I introduced a set of simple Organizer Identity cards, which can shed a teeny bit of light into who we may be as organizers... or not so much. If you didn't grab them last week, you can still get them in the link above.
This week I wanted to look at one identity in particular, because I think many of us can relate to it. The "Tidy-on-Top" Identity. Pretty self-explanatory! This person, is just this. The desk, table or work space is tidy and neat on the surface. It's a great stepping to actually getting organized. But attempt also creates this illusion or surface level organization that can provide a short burst of satisfaction! On the flip side ... we avoid opening the drawers or cupboards, and warn others before they peek inside! Sound familiar? I spent years being this kind of "organized" and finally just couldn't take the strategy I had to have in place just to open a cupboard door anymore! We all having tipping points, and they can be helpful. But why do we wait until we can't take the clutter in the drawers anymore? I can't pinpoint the exact moment I didn't want to open messy cupboards anymore, but I do know it was a process that took some time to think through. It did take some time to think through and plan the attack, and I just knew that I had to change my identity as an organizer if I didn't want to spend my time rubbing my forehead and rubbing my eyes (those are my go-to frustration moves). It was also important for me to recognize that this cupboard clutter made me a bit anxious when I needed to get something out during class! It was impacting the things I was bringing out for students because it was too much of a hassle! Hello - where were my priorities! Over the years my Organizer Identity has shifted and become more refined, and I've found or created systems that work for me. I'd love to hear from you in the comments, in an email, or on the Facebook group, Organizing Teaching Spaces!
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Want to get deeper into teaching space organization?
Secure your space before the this goes to all my social media channels! Special offer for my course, From Cluttered to Calm: A 6-Step Process to Organizing Your Teaching Spaces OFFER CLOSES TO BLOG READERS JAN 15th @9PM ET.
For so many events we participate in, whether it's starting a new job or participating in a professional learning workshop, we often work on some kind of strengths-finder or skill-assessment.
Well, I'm sure you know this isn't different when we talk about organization styles. So I want to know.... who are you? Click here to get a simple set of Organizer Identity categories. Once you get the categories, choose the one that best fits you most of time. The titles are self explanatory, but detailed descriptions are coming, so stay tuned! Then hop over the the Organizing Teaching Spaces Facebook Group, and share WHO YOU ARE! Let's see how many people we can group together! 
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Sign up for a FREE teacher coaching consultation call to sort out your professional needs. Take Control of Your To-Do List. Get the toolkit. App endorsements are unpaid. Photos are free from Unsplash. |