Organization

Organization
Have you ever lost something because you had forgotten where you put it? Have you ever done poorly on a test because you didn’t remember that it was scheduled? Have you ever missed handing in an assignment because you forgot the due date? These events happen because you lack the skill of organization. This is a skill that must be learned. You can develop good organizational skills by following one simple step. If you are consistent and practice this step over and over again, organization will become a habit and you will find life is a little easier--you will be better prepared and less likely to forget or misplace things.

Activity #1
1. Write your answers to the following questions and be as accurate as you can. 2. When was the last time that you were late? 3. Why were you late? 4. What could you have done so that you would have been on time? 5. What was the last item that you lost or misplaced? 6. Explain how (or why) you lost or misplaced this item. 7. What could you do in order to avoid losing or misplacing other items?

People who are late or who lose or misplace things usually have one thing in common--they are not well organized. This can happen to most of us once in a while but, if it happens a lot, we need to work on our organizational skills. One of the best ways to become better organized is to write things down.

Activity #2
Make a list of things you usually do after supper each evening until you go to bed (ie. dishes, sports, homework etc) Was it difficult to remember these things?  If your answer was ‘No’, it is because you generally do these things every night and it has become a habit. If your answer was ‘Yes’, you probably don’t do these things every night and you had to really think about it. This activity was meant to show you that if you do something over and over again, eventually you will be able to do it eithout even thinking about--it will have become a habit.

Activity#3
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Create a list of all of the things you can keep in your locker. Make another one for all of the things you keep in your backpacks or bags if applicable. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Read your list over again and pick out the items that probably aren’t needed at school.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Remember this, every time you create a list for yourself, you are practicing your organizational skills. By doing this over and over again, it will become a habit and you will become a well-organized person!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Activity #4
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Read the cases below and answer the questions that follow each case.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">There is a sale on shoes at a department store. The salesclerk is very busy waiting on customers so he has decided not to return shoes to the stockroom after people have tried them on but not purchased them. He’ll sort it out when it’s not so busy <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. What problems might YOU have when you go to buy a pair of shoes on this sale? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. What suggestions would you make to this sales clerk? Pretend you are the clerk if it helps. Try to name 3 or 4 ways you could avoid this problem.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Sarah’s History assignment is an important one and will count for 20% of her class mark. Today is the due date for this assignment and her teacher will not mark work that is late. Sarah got up late and couldn’t find her assignment at home so she assumed that it was in her locker at school. It wasn’t! <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. If applicable, when was the last time you were in a similar situation? How did it happen? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. What suggestions could you make to Sarah (and yourself!) to avoid this from happening again? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3. How could better organization skills helped with this situation?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Activity#5
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Write all the ways you can think of that you can become more organized in your personal life. Make them specific to YOU.