The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

I know many of you want to set some New Years Resolutions, but you’re resisting, because you don’t have the space of time or mind to add things to your to-do list.  So let me propose some things you might consider to resolve in 2007 that aren’t tasks but MINDSETS and BEHAVIORS of personal productivity.

1.  Seek to be a person of your word.  Are you reliable?  Can people count on you to do what you say you’re going to do?  Do you have integrity and keep the deadlines you promise?  What’s others’ perception of you?  Do you live out what you affirm?  Do you do what you complain about in others?  What things do people "jokingly" say about you and your behavior? 

2.  Seek to model productivity.  Do you have a reputation of exceptional organization, follow-up, and time management?  Are people afraid to send you email, because you never respond to them?  Is your desk a virtual black hole, where something coming in never goes out?  Does it take you thirty minutes to find something, and do you complain when someone else can’t find it in thirty seconds?

3.  Seek to control your technology.  Don’t be a slave to the Send/Receive button.  Discipline yourself to get work done, rather than allowing yourself to be sucked into the email vortex for four hours.  Be willing to turn off your Blackberry (gasp!) for two hours to focus on a project.  Forward your voice mail when you need some time to concentrate.  Set your IM on "do not disturb" while you finish up an article.  People are not going to die if they can’t reach you for an hour.  Those are expectations you are placing on yourself, rather than others placing them on you.

4.  Seek to be proactive. Wrap the present days before the birthday party (not in th car on the way).  Refill your prescription several days before you take the last pill (not when you’re out of medication, forcing you to wait at the pharmacy 30 minutes before work).  Find your tax receipts a month before taxes are due (not when you’re forced to file an extension).  Buy greeting cards before your card box is empty (not when you have to make a special trip to the store to purchase a single card).  You get the picture.

5.  Seek to live in the moment. You’ve passed that magazine twenty times—you know, the one that has a great article for your dad—and keep telling yourself, “I need to send that article.” Do it now. Decide that, whenever possible, you will dispatch routine tasks immediately. If it takes less than three minutes, do it right then. Avoid saying “I’ll do that later,” as in I’ll take that off the wall later.  Just walk down, get a screwdriver, and do it.  Strive for NOW.

6.  Seek to control yourself.  If you say to yourself, "I probably shouldn’t be doing this right now," you’re probably right.  Are you checking your ebay listings incessantly?  Are you surfing the Internet, shopping for personal affects, when you should be posting to your blog?  Are you watching several hours of television a day?  Do you stare out the window and space out when you’re disinterested in a task?  Do you spend too much time gossiping when grabbing a "quick" cup of coffee in the break room?  If you’re honest with yourself, how many hours could you save every day by being more disciplined?  And could you leave the office earlier with that saved time? 

7.  Seek to plug time leaks.  Where do you experience frustration throughout the day?  Are your staff meetings a waste of time?  Does a certain co-worker pop in and bother you several times a day about nothing in particular?  Have you stopped delegating a task to an assistant because it hasn’t been done correctly in the past?  Have you provided the appropriate training?  Do you say anything about things that waste your time?  Many people seethe in silence about the things that are bothering them the most.  Decide this year you are going to be proactive and try to influence changes in others or processes.

8. Seek to value yourself.  Your body is the most prized possession you own.  Are you taking care of it with proper exercise?  Do you get enough sleep?  What kind of food are you putting into this priceless treasure?  Do you hold rigidly to every appointment with others but cancel your own doctor, dentist, and eye appointments when someone wants that slot?  Have you had an annual physical and received the proper tests and checkups?  Are you a physically active role model for your children?  Drink water.  Stop smoking.  You know exactly what you’re doing to yourself that is lowering your personal productivity.

9.  Seek to walk your talk. You say your family is important to you.  Can people tell you value them by the way you spend your time?  You say your significant other is the most important thing in the world.  How much time have you spent spending time with them versus spending time working?  You say your spirituality is important, but how much time do you spend praying, reading, meditating, attending services, volunteering, or whatever reflects your beliefs?  Is it merely an outside facade?  If you say your health is important, how do you feel when you eat an entire pizza by yourself and watch five straight hours of television—consistently?  Say and do the same thing.  Be congruent.  Or just stop saying it and be yourself.

10. Seek a positive attitude. If your life is filled with turbulence, challenge yourself to change your perception.  Are you playing to a self-induced drama?  Life isn’t as crazy as some people make it out to be.  What might happen if you refocus your attention to positive, proactive experiences and open your thoughts to opportunities instead of problems? You are where your attention is. If working late is a habit, you might tend to slack off your pace. You know there’s no rush, you’re not as focused, and you don’t push yourself or prioritize your work as well.  You waste time on things that don’t need to be done and convince yourself that you need to work all those hours, and then complain about it to others.  We can create our own self-fulfilling prophecies, so watch the stinking thinking.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and productive 2007! 

You work hard and want to be as productive as possible.  If you knew you were inadvertently creating office systems that slowed you down, you would of course be interested in correcting them.  In my fifteen years of teaching people to be more productive, I’ve observed many bad habits and behaviors that are easily corrected.  To get you started, here are four office faux pas you can fix and instantly become more efficient:

1.      Piling instead filing. If you have a cluttered office, you will spend more time trying to find information; you will have a harder time focusing on the task before you; other people won’t be able to find anything; your system is in your head, which taxes your memory; you will have higher anxiety levels; and it could impede your career progression, as people perceive people with sloppy desks to have sloppy work.  An organized desk sends this important message: I’ve got it together. Visualize your desk in your mind. What does it “say” to others? The next time someone walks over to your cluttered desk and makes a “joke” about the mess, you might want to listen and learn to file correctly. Your newly organized desk will now say that you are professional, competent, decisive, efficient, productive, and in control.

2.      Using stackable trays.  Stackable trays are great near a printer to store frequently-used letterhead, envelopes, and paper supplies.  They are horrible, however, for active work, as they simply become storage areas for mystery piles.  Once something goes into a stackable tray, it’s typically “out of sight, out of mind.”  You’ll end up with lower-priority items mixed in with high-priority work and project files mixed up with reference information.  Instead, use vertical “step” files with colored file folders for each category of information you keep: projects, ideas, and subjects.

3.      Keeping future work on your desk. Where do you put a meeting agenda for a meeting two weeks away? Where do you put an invoice so you remember to pay it in three weeks? Where do you put those plane tickets you don’t want to lose? Where do you put the birthday card (that you managed to buy on time) so you remember to send it? If you’re like most people, you put it on your desk!  Now the piles of papers grow around you, as if you poured fertilizer on them. So what can you do instead?  You need a system that will remind you which papers require your action today and allow you to forget the rest until their time. The answer: a Tickler File.  Get 43 hanging folders, label them 1-31 and January-December and hang in a drawer.  File paper on the day or month you need to see it again.  Check your tickler file each day and pull out the items you filed.

4.      Using sticky notes as to-do lists.  Another area of organization deals with all those little pink telephone slips, messages, and sticky notes you accumulate all day. Have you ever found yourself unable to understand your own scribbled notes or unable to even locate a message taken earlier in the day? Do you ever have trouble remembering if you returned a phone call or if someone called you back?  Some people miss appointments or forget to return phone calls because they cannot locate the original message.  Sticky notes are great to write down a fax number, mark a textbook, or a reminder to pick up dry cleaning.  Sticky notes should not be used for phone calls or anything requiring your action.  Instead, use the Tasks or To-Do function of your email/calendaring software, or use an old-fashioned paper planner to write a list of things to do each day.

If you said, “Yep, that’s me,” decide to make some changes.  With your now-neat desk, your vertical files, your tickler file, and your new time management system, you will not only experience a boost in your productivity but will motivate others to get organized as well.

http://www.efficientexecutive.com/blogs/efficientexecutive/2006/10/15-17-ways-to-collect-and-organize.html#links

I like this post on 17 Ways to Collect and Organize Ideas.  It started as 15 Ways from http://learningnerd.wordpress.com/ but it’s growing.

I’d like to add my own capture tools:

1.  My favorite is my Treo 700p, which has a Voice Memo feature.  I’ve programmed my buttons to activate it by pressing and holding the side button.  I can be driving down the road, get a great idea, and record a voice note to myself while keeping my eyes on the road.  When I’m safely parked and back in my office, I can replay all my "notes" to myself.  I write action items to be done today on a daily to-do list and items I might want to do someday on a master to do list.  Or you could use Tasks in Outlook.

2.  I use a Levenger SwiftNotes Pad Holder http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=322-323|PageID=2287|Level=2-3|Link=PI|special=search|ID=SearchClicked|i=4 that comes with a mini retractable ballpoint pen to quickly capture notes if I’m able to write (not in the car).  Small size allows me to keep it in my purse, so I have something to write on when I’m not carrying my planner (or think of the next great book idea while in the grocery store).

3.  If the information/idea comes in electronic format, I’ve created a simple Microsoft Access database to track it: Fields: Publication, Title, Date, Page, Issue, Author, Keywords, and Abstract.  I type ideas into the text area of the abstract and use keywords to describe the entry. Then I can conduct searches of my data by keyword or text.

4.  If the idea is in paper format I’ve torn out of a magazine or newspaper, I use yellow file folders to organize the ideas and keep them in a step file off to the side of my desk area.  My current Idea files are labeled: Book, Business Issues, Consulting, Marketing, Presentations, Product, Publicity, Technology/Equipment, Vendors, and Website.

How do you collect and organize your ideas?

My article "7 Ways to Leave the Office Earlier" was posted in the Microsoft at Work newsletter at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/atwork/work/leavetheoffice.mspx

I’d love to hear your strategies, secrets, and tips for how you get out of the office earlier and keep from working late nights!  Ideas?

I recently visited my grandparents (ages 81 and 86) and discovered a treasure trove of old family photographs.  Especially precious were the ones of my mother as a little girl (none of which she had seen before) and my great-grandmother, whom I vaguely recall visiting before she passed away.  With seven children, my grandparents had no idea how they were going to split them up after they passed, since many were one-of-a-kind.  My easy answer was to scan them, save them as .jpg files, and make CDs for each of my six uncles and my mother.  So I packed my precious cargo in my suitcase and headed home.  Then it hit me…what exactly did I get myself into?  I counted the photos: 282.  I quickly realized the huge time commitment and realized I was of course able to handle this task but shouldn’t handle this task.  I pulled up my favorite freelance-for-hire site: www.elance.com.  I posted my project requirements and received 18 bids on my project, ranging anywhere from $.25 to $1.00 per scan.  I awarded the project to a woman who took the time to email me directly, tell me about her scanner, offered to complete a couple of test scans at different resolutions to test what printed best, etc.  She quoted me $.75 per scan, which was higher than some of the bids, but she suggested an enhancement to my project specs: upload the scans to a photo site as well, so my relatives could order their own prints directly, and I wouldn’t have to send them CDs myself.  Even better!  Less time for me.  Bottom line: if you’re overburdened, you might not be delegating properly.  If you try to do too many jobs at once, it’s like spinning china plates on sticks: the longer you keep it up, the greater the odds of a crash.  The great philosopher Virgil said long ago, “We are all not capable of everything.”  Never do anything that can be done just as well by someone who is paid less.  If there is another person who can handle something you’re doing, stop doing it.  If someone can do the job 80% as well as you can, let that person do it!  We mistakenly believe only we can do it correctly.  Be open to new, innovative ways of tackling projects, and you will be pleased with the results.  And you can focus your time on higher-value activities.

In this society, you’ve likely been brainwashed to believe that you aren’t a good parent unless your child plays competitive soccer by the time she’s ten, she’s active in the Girl Scouts, can play the piano masterfully, and swims beautifully…and, by the way, leases a horse. Hear a little sarcasm in my voice? For years, I bought into this notion as well and dutifully enrolled my little girl in ballet, piano, church programs, choirs, Girl Scouts, basketball, and more. I used the rationale that “she has to try everything so she can find out what she likes.” 

Many children are so overscheduled, their stress levels race sky-high and the entire family comes apart at the seams. Many parents feel guilty because of the number of hours they spend at work. As a result, they overcompensate by signing their children up for myriad activities to show their commitment. When they aren’t working in the evenings and weekends, they shuttle their kids back and forth between activities, never realizing any quality time together. Your children don’t want all that activity—they just want YOU.

Still, parents tell themselves that all these activities are good for them. Yes, you may see long-term benefits—but at what cost? What cost to your children’s stress levels? What cost to your relationships with them? What cost to the sanity of your family? What cost to your spouse—the person you never see anyway because soccer games are held on complete opposite ends of town? Can simply spending quality time together strengthen your relationship?

Having made big changes in my thinking in this area, I offer these suggestions that might work for you:

One activity at a time. Sometimes it’s easy to make excuses for why your children are involved in so many “good” programs. For example, we have a Wednesday night program at our church that Meagan joined for a year. “My goodness,” I thought. “We have to be able to make time for her to learn about the Lord.”  Forget that she was already participating in another program on Sundays that required her to study lessons during the week. Forget that she had Girl Scouts every other Monday, piano lessons on Wednesday after school, and soccer practice on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, with games on Saturday morning. AAAARRRGGGHHH! I soon realized that it was easy to “justify” the need to participate in yet one more thing because it was a church function. So we gave up going to this program and felt good about the additional family time we’d gained. The benefits of that time are arguably better than what she’d get from attending the church program. The key is to achieve a good balance.

One season, one sport. Tell your child he/she must choose only one sport to focus on each season. For example, if playing on both volleyball and basketball teams occur in the same season, pick one over the other. If your child really enjoys soccer but also wants to ride horses, take a hiatus from riding during the spring soccer season. Then ride during the summer until soccer begins again in the fall. When it’s too cold to play soccer or ride horses, take a few months of swimming lessons at an indoor pool.

Find activities more than one child likes. My husband and I teach Sunday school. We tend to arrive at church feeling a bit frazzled and thrown-together after getting three kids fed, dressed, and out the door. But one of the other teachers always looks amazingly put together, despite the fact she has four young children at home. So I asked about her family management tips for being relaxed and happy. She told me one of her secrets was to find a single activity that all the children could participate in together, no matter what their ages. That way, she wouldn’t be running around so much. She let her children decide what sport to be involved in, and they chose swimming. Practice times are the same for everyone and the meets happen at the same place. What a great idea!  Now I’m applying the same concept for my boys with piano lessons, karate, and soccer league (not all at the same time!).

Log and limit technology time. Set a time limit for yourself and your children for television, video games, IM time, phone, and Web surfing. Any combination of the above is allowed, but not all. I’d start with a maximum of 90 minutes a day and reduce it from there.  Require each person to annotate the log when spending budgeted time in one area. Keep the log (with a pen attached) near the activity area to make it easy for each person to complete. Review the logs often so you know what’s going on.

Conclusion

From a very early age, our children depend upon us for structure and predictability.  The benefits of organization to children are many: they feel secure when they know they can depend on an outcome; organization helps them gain self-control; it keeps their stress levels in check; and they develop a sense of confidence and independence. 

With a little help from you, children can learn to be organized.  It’s not innate: they weren’t born with this ability.  And it’s an ongoing quest for you and them.  Help your children gain control over their lives by modeling it.  If you make to-do lists, teach your children to do them and explain why you use them.  If you use a planner, get a children’s version and show them how to track homework assignments and schedules and record project due dates.

The key is to organize a little bit every day—not just during the first days of school.  I hope you gained some new ideas in one of the six important areas of organization for your children and can put some new systems in place in your quest to help them become productive citizens.  You can discover many more systems in my book Find More Time: How to Get Things Done at Home, Organize Your Life, and Feel Great About It.

It’s important to instill the values of hard work and fairness in your children. As they gain responsibility and perform chores at home, they learn it’s important for everyone to pitch in and do his or her fair share to take the burden off one person. 

If you live here, you clean. Even my four- and five-year-old boys have chores. I went to the grocery store and bought a big poster board. In the left hand column, I listed a due date for chores. (Each chore may actually be completed any day during the week, but it must be done by Saturday.) Across the top row, I listed the chores. Each child has his or her own chores posted. When one gets completed, the boys put a sticker on the corresponding column (Meagan uses checkmarks; she’s much too cool for stickers). The last column is for “bonuses”: extra chores done that weren’t required. We pay one dollar for each year of a child’s life as an allowance. If something isn’t done or gets done incorrectly or with whining and complaining, the child’s allowance gets docked. 

Meagan completes one of the seven tasks required each week to earn her allowance. Whether it’s emptying the trash containers around the house, bagging up the newspapers, or gathering the laundry from the bedrooms, she performs one task. When Saturday arrives, she’s already finished her weekly chores and can enjoy the weekend. Adults should use the same logic with running errands throughout the week.

Pick age-appropriate chores. As the boys grew older, I let them start taking over some of Meagan’s chores. I’m sure she initially thought she’d have less work to do, until I explained that responsibilities shift, as people grow older. Fathers and mothers of other animal species only feed and shelter their babies, until they’re old enough to fend for themselves, at which point they deliberately stop helping them. Teach them to be self-sufficient, and you will give them important life skills, while at the same time, reducing your workload. Accept the fact that hard work and responsibility are actually good for a child. Allow them to complete the chore their way, as long as they achieve the result you want. Consider complaints a part of raising a child and, rest assured, parents across

America

are hearing: “Well my friend Boo-boo doesn’t have to do this.”

At ages four and five, we know from experience that boys can:

·        Put away silverware from the dishwasher.

·        Set and clear the table (put milk in small pitchers, so they can pour it themselves).

·        Empty small trashcans around the house into a big bag.

·        Put dirty laundry from the hamper into a black lawn bag and haul it downstairs into the laundry room.

·        Pick up the playroom (especially if you’ve made it easy for them to know where things go).

·        Keep their bedrooms clean.

·        Brush their teeth.

·        Get dressed on their own (you’d be amazed how many people still dress their four-year-olds). By the way, if you wet your child’s shoelaces before your child ties them, they won’t have to be re-tied all day. Better yet, get shoes without laces.

At age ten, children like Meagan can:

·        Clean the cat litter.

·        Gather Mom and Dad’s laundry.

·        Wash the dishes.

·        Load and unload the dishwasher.

·        Wipe off kitchen counters.

·        Pack lunches for school.

·        Tidy the living room.

·        Do homework without being asked.

·        Get out of bed and get ready for school while parents sleep in.

Make it easy for children to succeed. Keep a stepstool in the kitchen so they can reach the drawers and lower cupboards. Use paper plates so they don’t drop and break them and can throw them away at the end of the meal. The time saved is far worth the extra money spent on the paper plates. Ditto on plastic cups. (Of course, when we have company, we do use regular dishes.) We buy milk in gallons and pour a small amount into a small Tupperware container within easy reach, so the children can pour their milk themselves. 

Remember, parents are not servants; they are teachers. You won’t be around forever.  Being slaves to children when you can teach them independence undermines both your life and theirs. Stop it as soon as possible.

Organizing Children’s Keepsakes

One of the common complaints I hear from parents is about all the stuff that comes home from school.  Where do you put all those great art projects, mementos, and clay handprints you just have to keep?

Create a treasure box for each child. When each of my children was born, I wanted to save all the little things from the hospital: the nametags on their cribs, the bracelets from their wrists, their “going home” outfits, and all those things. Add to that their first pair of shoes, their favorite (now cast-away) blanket or stuffed animal, their first lost tooth—what a bunch of stuff! So I got three of those sturdy plastic bins with a lid and designated one for each child. I keep each treasure box on the shelves in their closets and add to them as I come across a “must save” keepsake.

Collect your children’s art projects. Get a three-drawer rolling storage cart, cardboard chest of drawers, or large plastic storage bin to store your child’s art projects and schoolwork.  Each of my children has one of these craft chests in his/her closet. The trick is to make sure you’re only keeping the most special papers: original creations, “firsts,” and items that weren’t mostly created with the help of an adult. Or you can use an art portfolio, which stores flat and can only hold so much. Just remember that you can only keep as much as the chest, bin, or portfolio can hold. When you run out of room, you have to purge. Fawn over your child’s projects as you should, but then secretly throw most of them out when your child isn’t looking. I have a single large envelope of very special art projects I created as a child that my mother saved; as an adult, I wouldn’t want to own any more than those. Remember, you’re saving for your children, so don’t burden them with unnecessary clutter.

Set up a baby book for each child. Ideally, you would have started each child’s book upon becoming pregnant, kept up with it as the child reached milestones, and completed it before you forgot everything that happened. If you didn’t, don’t despair. It’s not too late to get a baby book, fill in the blanks, and gather as much information as you can. For me, my baby book is a real treasure. I love feeling the lock of my baby hair and looking at the little bracelet that had been placed on my wrist at birth. Your kids will certainly love to know the details of their births, as they get older, especially when it’s time for them to have kids of their own.

Create a school memories book for each child. I found an excellent school memories book from Lillian Vernon. It has two pages for each grade K through 12. In addition to giving lines to record activities, signature, friends, dreams, and vital statistics, the book has a pocket for each grade to store the most important documents: report cards, photos, letters to Santa, and small samples of artwork. To keep up, I wait until the school pictures come in from that school year. I paste the photo, fill in some of the blanks, and (the trick) give it to my child to fill out the rest. I keep them handy on the bookshelf in my office and throughout the year, I put important items (report cards, a special drawing, a letter to Santa, etc.) in the keepsake pockets.

My older child, Meagan, just entered 6th grade (middle school in our district), which involves moving from class to class.  We bought the requisite list of supplies, including the exact type of binder the teachers wanted to organize school papers.  I was unable to find the brand listed in the stores, so I ordered it from the Internet.  I thought, “Wow! This is going to be a fabulous binder.  I can’t wait to see what the fuss is all about.”  When I received the binder, I was confused.  It had no sections, no pockets, no tabs, no dividers, nothing.  I wondered “How in the world is she going to keep the papers separate for the six different classes she’s taking?”  I tried to explain to her the binder wasn’t going to work, but she was insistent on using the exact type specified.  I kept my mouth shut and my eyes on the binder during the first week, observing as she attempted to organize all the various papers.  She eventually came to me, sheepish, and asked me to help her.  “Mom, all my papers are mixed up in a big pile, and I can’t keep anything straight.”  We ceremoniously emptied the binder and put it in the playroom.  We went shopping and looked for a binder with six different sections built in and soon found the perfect solution.  The lesson of course is not to assume that other people know what’s best for your child.  To help them succeed, you must guide their choices and be educated yourself on the different options and best way to organize them.  Once the system is in place they are pretty good at using it.

Designate a specific homework time.  Many children come home to no structure.  Yes, I agree it’s important to allow a child to relax and unwind a bit after a long day, but it could be a mistake to allow your child to put off homework until after dinner.  Instead of spending time with the family, playing, doing chores, and doing personal maintenance, children end up underestimating how long homework is going to take and stay up late, cutting into their bedtimes, causing chronic sleepiness and inattentiveness during class the next day.  I let the children have a half-hour to play with the neighbors, watch television, talk on the phone, whatever, but then it’s right to homework until dinner.  Usually they are done before we eat and can spend the evening relaxing without having assignments hanging over their heads.  Teach them the old mantra, “Work before play.”  Be aware of what projects were assigned and the due dates, and make sure they are cracking at them bit by bit, so they won’t attempt to complete it all last minute and pull an all-nighter (which usually includes you).  Help them identify all the steps needed to complete long-term assignments and work on them in manageable chunks.

Get the kid’s day started. Pack (or have your kids pack) lunch boxes if they don’t buy at school; make sure the clothes are selected down to the last hair bow and shoes; lay out breakfast dishes; fill up the backpacks (don’t forget homework, permission slips, lunch money, show-and-tell, gym clothes, musical instruments, etc.)

Put library books in their own tote. How many times have you taken your child to the library to check out books, accidentally combined them with their own books, forget they were on the bookshelf, and owe lots of money when you finally discovered and returned them? Simple solution: Keep a separate tote for library books. The next time you go to a conference, keep the cheesy bag you get to carry around your materials. Take it to the library with you and immediately put your checked books inside it to transport home. Train your kids to always replace library books after reading them into the special book bag. Meagan has a separate compartment in her school backpack just for school library books that need to be kept separately and returned. Using these methods, you’ll never again have to rummage through a hundred books on your kids’ shelves to find the borrowed ones.

Don’t make lunches for your kids! Every month, Meagan brings home the school lunch menu and hangs it on the refrigerator. The cooks at her school are diligent in creating a balanced meal, including protein and vegetables (their lunches are healthier than mine).  Each night, she looks at what’s being served at school the next day. If she wrinkles her nose at the offering, she packs her lunch that night and puts it in the refrigerator. Generally, though, she likes what’s being served and buys her lunch. She has a spending account I fill up once or twice a year, so I never waste time looking for change in the morning. Meagan simply gives her account number to the cashier and takes her food. When it comes right down to it, the cost of purchasing at school (national average: $2.00 per day) is minimal. When you factor in the cost of the food (juice boxes, deli meat, pre-cut and washed vegetables, apples, etc.) plus the time (ten minutes a day equals 50 minutes a week) and hassle to prepare it (priceless), the extra few bucks a week spent in hard cash is worth a panic-free morning.

Children have a difficult time conceptualizing proper systems and are bewildered by what tools to use to make their lives easier.  However, if given the proper tools, children are great at using the systems you establish for them.  Here are some tools and ideas you could put into place to help your children organize their environments and feel in control of their surroundings:

Make the playroom easy to play in. Now that you’ve pared down the toys you keep, design a plan for these toys to actually get played with. If your kids can’t see a toy, they don’t think to look for it, and will soon forget it exists (and you’ll probably discover forgotten treasures in the sorting process). Take advantage of any available vertical wall space in a dedicated playroom or on one wall of a bedroom by installing adjustable shelves. Leave more room between the floor and the first shelf to accommodate large items. Place the other shelves about 18 inches apart. For the odd areas under the windows, purchase bins, carts, and storage units from Target. Once you have your organizing equipment, group the toys in a logical order based on type. Invest $30 in a high-grade labeler so you can print and stick custom labels to the edge of the shelves, indicating what goes there.

We have large bins (we actually toss the lid, because they are hard for children to open and aren’t very useful) for the following:

·        Construction equipment

·        Large animals

·        Dress up

·        Balls and outside toys

We have medium bins (no lid) for the following:

·        Toy weapons and vehicles

·        Superhero accessories

·        Hot wheels track and accessories

·        Musical instruments

·        Legos

·        Books stacked vertically as in a bookshelf (I find bins keeps books from falling over and out of bookshelves and they can be sorted by type)

·        Blocks

·        Dinosaurs

·        Stuffed animals

We have small bins for the following:

·        Plastic play dolls and animals

·        Scratch paper

·        Stickers

·        Markers

·        Crayons

·        Colored pencils

·        Craft items

·        Blocks

·        Pegs

·        Puppets

·        Electronic games

·        Electronic books

We have two large rolling carts with three drawers each. One contains:

·        Large superhero characters

·        Medium superhero characters

·        Small superhero characters

The second set of drawers contains:

·        Small superhero pieces (discs, small plastic weapons used by superheroes)

·        Sets of small items in individual Sandwich Baggies (Ninja Turtles with their own things, Wrestlers with their folding chairs and champion belts, etc.)

·        Lace up sets

We used to have a third set of drawers in a rolling cart that had Barbie dolls, Barbie clothing, and Barbie equipment. But when Meagan announced she was too old for them, I secretly bagged up her well-worn dolls and put them in the crawl space. When she’s 16, I will give her the chance to keep her old Barbies (I hope). If not—OUT! We keep larger toys, such as spacecraft, electronic games, and musical instruments on the shelves. Puzzles and games are kept in the box the toy came in. Don’t toss the original box and substitute bags with twist ties or less durable options.

Keeping toys in bedrooms. Many homes don’t have a separate “playroom,” and children keep toys in their rooms. The key is to take advantage of unused vertical space. Select one wall away from the bed and install shelves from the floor to the ceiling. Store toys that are played with frequently (such as favorite dolls or superheroes) in plastic bins and store them underneath the child’s bed. Use a chest at the foot of the bed for a bench for tying shoes, with a lid that opens to conceal additional toys.

Organize entryways. Make it easy for your children to keep their shoes, gloves, and jackets organized. We installed cubbies vertically up a wall in our mudroom, which is right off the garage, and assigned the highest to the tallest child. As each kid walks through the door, sunglasses, mittens, and hats are immediately deposited in the cubbies. Each child also has three hooks for jackets, coats, and backpack. Shoes are placed underneath the cubbies, so they are out of the way.

Teach them to be consistent.  Think about all the annoying little things that are constantly strewn about your home or an item your children can never find.  For example, if your children are constantly losing their shoes, they don’t yet have a proper routine.  Establish a shoe landing pad, right as they enter the house, and teach them to take off their shoes in the same place, every time.  If things end up on the living room floor that belong upstairs, simply because your child doesn’t want to climb the stairs to put things away, allow them to use a stair step or basket as a temporary place to accumulate items that need to go up.  Then next time they head upstairs, they can just grab the entire pile or basket.  The kids know to put their school papers or nifty artwork on my office desk for safekeeping. They’ve learned that if it’s on the kitchen counter, it’s eligible to be tossed, so if they want Mommy to look at it, they put it on her “safe zone.” If you don’t have a place for everything, they can’t learn to put things in their place.