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Time Management & Organization Skills:
A Toolbox for Skill-building
Ali Zidel Meyers, MSW
Meyers Learning Center
www.meyerslearningcenter.com
www.meyerslearningcenter.com
This presentation is copyrighted.
Please do not copy, distribute, or share this
presentation or the information contained here,
without the express written consent of the author,
Ali Zidel Meyers, MSW (650 544-5645 or
ali@meyerslearningcenter.com). Thank you.
September 17, 2007
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The Learning Journey
The greatest thing in this world is not so much
where we are, but in what direction we are
moving. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Navigating the Journey
• Where are you?
• Where is your child?
– Capacities
– Challenges
– Crossroads (academic, personal,
psychosocial, physiological)
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Welcome
• Who I am…
• Why I’m here
1. Tools
2. Techniques
3. Trouble-shooting
• What you won’t
hear
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Caveats
• No silver bullets
• Content vs. process
• This is an ala carte presentation.
• Journey Juncture (Slice it Up)
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Our Journey Map
The Tactical:
1. TEACHNIQUES
Role Modeling
Directed Instruction
Limit-Setting
The Practical:
2. LEARNING GEAR 3. Dealing with Difficulty
Time Management Avoiding Traps,
Organization Embracing Creativity, Collaboration
Problem-solving
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The Tactical:
TEACHING TECHNIQUES
Role Modeling
Children need models, not critics.
• Role modeling: They watch what you do and
mirror that. They do as you do.
• Despite every best intention or lofty lecture, your
deeds set the strongest example.
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TEACHNIQUE:
Direct instruction
• Direct instruction: Show and tell.
• Osmosis works in biology but not in learning
time management & organization skills!
• Kids who struggle with attention, executive
functioning, other learning differences need new
behaviors spelled out directly (and reiterated) in
ways that match their learning styles.
• ―Here’s how to fill out your planner…‖ ―Here’s
how to approach the teacher for help…‖
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TEACHNIQUE:
Limit-Setting
• Limit setting: Help them understand what’s
safe and not, what’s okay and what’s
not…boundaries
• ―Don’t carry your sister by her neck.‖
• Specific limits should be CLEARLY defined and
maintained as non-negotiables.
• Publish your Priorities: Decide on priorities
and make them known (personal safety, school
work, personal space, communal space)
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The Tactical:
TEACHING TECHNIQUES
Summary
• Role modeling: They watch what you do and
they do as you do.
• Direct instruction: Show and teach new
skills directly.
• Limit-setting: Define/communicate where
and what the boundaries
are.
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Our Journey Map
The Tactical:
1. TEACHING TEACHNIQUES
Role Modeling
Directed Instruction
Limit Setting
The Practical: 3. Dealing with Difficulty
2. LEARNING GEAR Avoiding Traps,
Time Management Embracing Creativity, Collaboration
Organization Problem-solving
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Learning Gear: Time Management
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Role Modeling
How do I teach my kids to manage time effectively?
• Model (practice) the behaviors you expect of them.
– Time chart
– Be ready for appointments on time (or early)
– Build time awareness:
• Time estimates, real time (chart it)
• Have an EXTERNAL dialogue about time
around/with your child
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Role-modeling
• Did you know you have to play ping-pong for 12 hours
to lose one pound?
• Examine ping-pong tactics you may use in your own
life. Look for ways to make your own tasks more
efficient, and model those for your child.
• Buy an old-fashioned (analog) watch and wear it;
have your child wear one so s/he can see the ticking
away of seconds to hours--how time moves.
• Prominently post a large calendar for the family and
empower everyone to use as a master planning tool.
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Are you a perpetual time juggler?
Role-modeling Time Management
• Do you feel victimized by time?
• Schedule/commitment overload
and stress
• Consider messages transmitted
to kids about time use and life
• Work on creating balance,
teaching balance.
• Practice being a time manager,
rather than a time martyr.
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Direct Instruction
Everyday lessons: the world is your classroom
• Simple, everyday tasks
• Teach time-saving techniques for…
– Computer work, document-saving conventions…
– Preparation (clothing for next day, lunch)
– How to estimate the length of tasks, then add a
cushion (double it, even).
– Managing HW and other beloved tasks. Make it real:
use blocks or manipulatives to demonstrate time and
its passing.
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Direct Instruction
• Be architects of time: enable your child to partner with
you in planning and owning their time.
• Build a time management blueprint for a set time period.
– Discuss given tasks for a particular day, weekend, or
week ahead.
– Plan the timing of events with your child. Map it out
– Build in contingencies. When problems arise, treat them
as time-based word problems and solve together
– Execute the plan. Evaluate its effectiveness.
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Limit-Setting
• Do you fear limit-setting?
• Conflict avoidance, fear of perpetuating a
painful cycle, not knowing how or where to
start…
• Obstacle to teaching time management skills
• As kids move from dependence to
independence, they need limits defined
regarding time, or they will not learn how to
use it effectively.
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Limit-Setting
• Teach ―First things first!‖… ―The sooner you do
it, the sooner you’re through it!‖
• Students should have a regular Study Routine:
their working hours (no distractions, no
interruptions).
• A bliss list or ―time tokens‖ can be used to
reinforce the notion of working hard, then
enjoying free time.
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Learning Gear: Time Management
Limit-Setting
• Publish priorities.
• Discuss with your child.
• Problem-solve together when conflicts
around time use occur.
• Time monsters can be postponed until
after schoolwork is done, even used as
rewards.
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Learning Gear: Organization
What is it?
• v. or·gan·ized, or·gan·iz·ing, or·gan·iz·es
• To put together into an orderly, functional,
structured whole.
• To arrange in a coherent form; systematize
• To arrange in a desired pattern or structure
• To arrange systematically for harmonious or
united action
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Learning Gear: Organization
Organization Demystified
• The secret’s in the system.
• The key to organization is not so
much in a magical type of system, but
in finding a system that works for you,
implementing it, and maintaining it.
• Does your form = your function? Are
you wearing hockey gear to play
tennis?
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Learning Gear: Organization
Direct Instruction
• Two basic elements to organizing (for kids):
1. Their stuff/space
• Planner, binders, study space
• Bedroom/dorm room, household: drop spot, crates,
filing containers
• Weekly Weed-outs, 10-Minute Tune-ups (daily) for
maintenance
– Tell them directly what you expect and show
them how to do it. Ask them to ―teach the
teacher‖ to check their understanding.
2. Their time (time chart), routines and habits
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Learning Tool: Organization
Role Modeling
• You can hire an expert, read books, surf the net--
but the system you devise for yourself (or with
your child) will be the most effective & enduring.
• Develop an organizational plan of attack.
– Find the spaces in your life that are most out of order.
– Start aligning form with function.
• The goal is not to have the fanciest
system, but one that works well for you.
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Learning Gear: Organization
Role Modeling
• Implement some aspect of your plan each
week. Examples:
– File, Pile (to handle NOW), or Recycle your
mail. Give your homeless stuff a home.
– Organize yourself in baby steps; get a key dish;
tackle that junk drawer
– Do a weekly weed-out: dump out your purse,
wallet, briefcase and weed out once a week. Rid
yourself of clutter you don’t need.
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Learning Gear: Organization
Limit-Setting
• Rescue selectively.
– What are you doing for your child right now
that he/she may do for themselves?
– Fast forward any of these behaviors another
5-10 years. Will they have adopted these
behaviors or still be relying on others for
them?
– Logical consequences, natural outcomes
– Kids with LD—a delicate balance: support,
tools, age, stakes
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Learning Gear: Limit-Setting
You’ve got power…use it.
• Consider every single thing your child
considers a birthright:
• Unlimited phone access
• Unlimited kitchen access
• Hobby time
• Cell phone time
• Computer access
• Allowance
These are privileges, not rights.
You can grant (or deny) them!
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Learning Gear: Organization,
Time Management Go Hand in Hand
Direct Instruction:
• Teach your kids to
– Think ahead.
– Plan ahead.
– Act now. (A planner is a terrific tool for
practicing these concepts).
• Empower your child to begin to self-
manage; these skills will be critical
throughout the lifespan.
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Create the conditions…
Be a farmer …not a fly
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Our Journey Map
The Tactical:
1. TEACHING TEACHNIQUES
Role Modeling
Directed Instruction
Limit Setting
The Practical:
2. LEARNING GEAR 3. Dealing with Difficulty
Time Management Avoiding Traps,
Organization Embracing Creativity, Collaboration
Problem-solving
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Dealing with Difficulty:
Avoiding Traps
1. Multi-tasking = Effective Time
Management
2. I should let my kids figure this stuff out
on their own.
3. I’m hopeless; I can’t teach these skills.
4. My child is hopeless. I’ve tried telling
him/her what to do, and it’s not working!
5. The Felt Fishy Syndrome
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Trap #1:
Multi-tasking Means Effective
Time Management
• We all do it. Is it
effective?
• University of
Michigan study
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Multi-tasking:
not all it’s cracked up to be
• For all tasks studied:
• Subjects lost time when
they had to switch from
one task to another
• Time costs of multi-
tasking: You've got to
(a) want to switch tasks
(b) make the switch
(c) get warmed back up on
what you're doing.
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Multi-tasking Takes Time
1. Translation: multi-tasking can actually
lengthen task time.
2. Other problems: distraction, car
accidents, relationship difficulties,
stress
3. The real world: multi-tasking is a
reality of our modern society… some
parents feel it’s important that their
kids know how to do it
4. Be mindful about multi-tasking
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Trap #2: Let them figure it out on
their own.
• Developmental factors
• Time is an abstract concept.
• Would you teach Algebra to a 3rd grader?
• Future-thinking
• Realistic Expectations
• Your involvement
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Trap #3: I’m hopeless.
• Start small.
• Examples: Each time you walk through a room,
put something away.
• Each time you sift through the mail, practice
the OHIO principal (Only Handle It Once).
• Check out FLY LADY.NET
• Involve your child in problem-solving around
family time management issues
– Ex: How to avoid black holes (loss of stuff=loss of
time)
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Trap #4:
My child is hopeless.
• Don’t give up. Do you think that your child
is un-teachable? Of course not.
• Any kind of behavioral change takes
time, effort, and lots of practice.
• Have you been a farmer or a fly? …Work
to create solutions that really fit. Your
answers may not be the right ones for your
child.
• Recognize what your child does well; give
specific praise when you see it happening.
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Trap #5:
The Felt Fishy Syndrome
There’s always someone doing a “better” job…
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Dealing with Difficulty:
Problem-solving
• Feeling off track?
• Collaborative problem-
solving provides a
roadmap
• Creative, collaborative
problem-solving (H/O)
• School Tips Handout
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Dealing with Difficulty: Reminders
• Bad-habit-breaking: Any kind of behavioral
change takes time, effort, and lots of
practice.
• Have you been a farmer or a fly? …Work to
create solutions that really fit. Your answers
may not be the right ones for your child.
Create the conditions…nurture the seeds.
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Dealing with Difficulty
When in doubt, resist the SHOUT!
• Acknowledge difficulty, empathize
• Explain relevance
• Help your child find other options.
• Emphasize solutions, not what s/he should
have done.
• Practice accountability
• Ignite Motivation
• Praise successes, big and small
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Is it time to seek help?
• These challenges are all NORMAL!
• Kids need trial and ERROR to learn,
problem-solve, figure it out…expect that
• In some cases, it makes sense to seek
outside help:
1. Tapped out
2. Relationship unraveling
3. Potential and performance out of sync
4. Your child asks for help
5. Your child seems depressed or anxious
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Final Words
• Change takes time. Have faith in yourself and
your child.
• You may not get immediate feedback or
showers of thanks, but it will come in
surprising ways, if you are open to it.
• The real moment of success is not the
moment apparent to the crowd.
- George Bernard Shaw
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Questions?
Time Management and Organization Skills:
A Toolbox for Skill-building
Ali Zidel Meyers, MSW
Meyers Learning Center
www.MeyersLearningCenter.com
www.meyerslearningcenter.com
