Back To School | Take Control Organizing

Friday Review!

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Nikki in Back to School, Blog, Friday Review, Home Organizing

Transitioning into Fall!

It’s been a busy week for many of us! The transition from a Holiday weekend to the craziness of back to school! I look forward to the weekend to catch up!

For many of us, transitions and change are not always easy. My number one tip during this transition is to plan as much as you can the night before! Whether that is getting clothes ready, lunches pre-made, or packing the backpack….The more you can do the night before … the easier your morning will be!

For the Friday Review, here are the articles that caught my interest this week! Enjoy!

Zen Family Habits – How To Make A Confident Return to the Workforce - If you are returning to the workforce, this will no doubt cause some change and possible chaos to the household. This is a great time to hire a Professional Organizer to help you establish solid organizing systems to help run your household smoothly and less stress… notice I am not saying the stress goes away, but it can certainly help!

Digitwirl – Recipe Storage and Grocery Shopping Made Easy - This looks like a very helpful app for easy meal planning!

She Knows (Home & Garden) – Stylish Back To School Essentials - Some great ideas on your making your study area organized and stylish!

Have a Great Weekend!

Happy Organizing!

Focus and Homework!

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Nikki in ADD / ADHD, Back to School, Home Organizing, Productivity, Time Management

Increase Your Focus!

Knowing you have hours of homework to do is not a good feeling for anyone! You may want to procrastinate and find something better to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s more important or not, you want to avoid what is ahead of you.

When you finally sit down to do the homework, you feel overwhelmed and anxiety and stress takes over. It’s hard to focus and all you can think about is everything you have to do and you find yourself easily distracted by email, the phone, and the other conversations going in the house. It really doesn’t matter what it is, it could just be the fly in the room… It captures your attention but the homework still sits in front of you!

How can we increase our focus while doing important tasks like homework or working on a project for work?

This is a very important question if you have ADD/ADHD, because the distractions can actually be so overwhelming, you don’t get the project done and it starts to effect not only you but others around you too!

Here is a strategy I recommend with my clients: 15/5

15/5 means you work for 15 minutes and then you give yourself a break for 5! It’s a simple strategy breaking your homework or project down into 15 minute intervals. 15 minutes is not a long time but it’s long enough to get started and once you start adding up your 15 minutes they do turn into an hour and progress will be made. The 5 minutes in between allows you to look at your distractions, check your email, let your brain wander, until it’s time to get back into it.

Tips to make this work:

1) While you are in your 15 minutes of work time, cut your distractions- turn the email alert off, close your door, work in a quiet area, be in an environment where you focus best. Set yourself up for success!

2) Use a timer – Especially for the 5 minute breaks, 5 minutes can easily turn into 30 minutes if you are not careful. If after the 15 minutes of work you are still motivated and doing well, my recommendation is to keep going until you start to wander, then it’s time to take that 5 minute break, or maybe a little longer depending on how long you have been working and what your particular circumstance is.

As in any strategy, you have to make it work for you….

Please note: This strategy can work on all ages of children, from elementary to college!

Happy Organizing!

Friday Review – Back to School Organizing!

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Nikki in ADD / ADHD, Back to School, Friday Review, Home Organizing

Happy Friday!

We are getting close to the end of August….

Ready or not, it is Back to School!!

This Friday Review is dedicated to making the back to school transition a smooth one! The first recommendation is from TCO ourselves… If you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to the latest podcast, it’s all about transitioning back to school! I give my top 3 tips in making the transition as smooth as possible! We know you don’t have a lot of time, we produce our podcasts to be short, sweet, and to the point!

Here are other articles around the web giving us great tips and tricks to start this school year with an A+!

Confident Mom – Successful Homework Strategies

Simply Stated – A Clever Way to Display Kids Artwork

About.com – Back to School Tips for Children with ADHD

E-mealz - A Meal Planning Resource for Busy Families

FamilyFun.com – Back to School Lunches & Snacks

Have a great weekend!

Happy Organizing!

Organizing For Teens!

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Nikki in Back to School, Home Organizing, Productivity, Time Management

If you have read any organizing books in your lifetime, I am willing to bet you have heard of Julie Morgenstern! She is the author of all of the Organizing From the Inside Out series….

I had the privilege of watching her speak at the last NAPO Conference and let me say she is very inspiring! With back to school right around the corner, I wanted to recommend her book, Organizing From The Inside Out For Teens!

It covers everything from organizing your room, study areas, backpack organization, you name it and she covers it! One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed is her concept of “The essential 7″. This concept can help anyone whether you are a teen or not, it doesn’t matter, the point of knowing your essential 7 is a crucial part of the organizing process.

So what are the essential 7?

Organizing is not about getting rid of your belongings… it’s about finding out what is most important to you. Your essential 7 are those items that are most valuable! These are the objects you use on a daily basis, the items you love and never want to lose track of! Identifying these essential 7 items will allow to start your organizing process, now that you know what’s most important, you will find it easier to sort out the items that are not so important.

Knowing your essential 7 will also help in the placement process of where to put your belongings… Nothing is more frustrating if you can’t find your ipod or the homework assignment that is due the next day! By assigning a home for these essential items-eliminates the stress!

How can identifying your essential 7 help you in your organizing process?

Are you constantly looking for the same items over and over again? What do you use on a daily basis? These are the questions to start asking yourself on how to identify your essential 7!

Now is the time to do something about it!

Happy Organizing!

Back To School Review!

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Nikki in Back to School, Home Organizing

We have been in school now for almost 2 months, some of you maybe even longer. At the end of October, our Back to School Organizing Central is coming down!

There is no better time than now to re-evaluate the systems you have put in place to keep your home organized and in order!

You have done the work to set up the systems, now you need to ask yourself are they working?

Are your kids turning their homework in on time?

Are you getting permission slips and other forms back when you are suppose to?

What about your mornings and nightly routines? Hopefully they are calm and not chaotic!

Whenever you set up a new organizing system within the home, it’s important to “live” the system for a couple of months to decide if it’s really working. If you are happy with your answers for the above questions, then you are doing well! If not, take the time to start looking at where your processes are breaking down.

Are you being consistent enough?

Does everyone know what is expected?

Are you planning in advance?

Look at the areas that need help and start making changes today!

Your organization changes with your schedule. It’s important to have structure but be flexible enough to change when you need too… There are a lot of activities that come up during the holidays, now is the time to fix whatever is broken so you can enter this new season with peace and not stress!

Happy Organizing!