Transform Chaos to Order with these Tips for Disorganized Teens

Max lazily reaches for his phone to turn off his alarm and slowly starts getting ready for school. It’s Monday, so there’s a vocab test in English and wrestling practice after school. Max forgot to study last night, and he doesn’t realize it yet, but he’s also forgotten his wrestling gear. Max’s mom used to think he was pretty good at staying on top of things, but Max has been struggling with organization ever since he started high school. She’s worried that things are just going to get more and more challenging, especially in a couple years when Max has to juggle test prep and researching colleges with AP classes and wrestling. If Max’s story sounds familiar, help your teen master the executive function skills related to organization by following our tips for time management, prioritizing, keeping track of materials, and more!

Be supportive. The first step to getting organized is to open up a dialogue with your teen, keeping in mind that the best approach is to listen rather than offer judgment. 

• Ask questions that will help you assess his or her strengths and weaknesses, focusing on setting manageable goals that would make a positive difference in your child’s life.
• As your child works towards his or her goals, provide positive reinforcement and be flexible when a new routine needs to be adjusted. 
• Support can also come in the form of modeling effective organization methods, creating a safe and quiet study space, and maintaining routines at home.

Plan ahead. Prevent procrastination panic and missed deadlines by fine tuning time management skills. Leave behind Sunday evening rushes to patch together a project and embrace using a planner, which can be either physical (e.g. notebook) or digital (e.g. Google Calendar), so your teen has one place to go to note all of his due dates, tests, quizzes, activities, and more. 

• A perfect planner is one that includes a calendar, a weekly schedule, daily planning pages for assignments, and either a separate section or function to create to-do lists. 
• Set reminders a day or two before deadlines either as stickers or highlights on a paper planner or as notifications on an app. 
• Color code different types of tasks, so they are easier to recognize.
• Students should regularly check their school’s learning management system, such as Canvas or Google Classroom, and make it a habit to have planners close at hand at the beginning of each class and write down test dates, homework, assignment instructions, and anything else that might be relevant to completing a task. 

Prioritize. Organization headaches are a common symptom of misplaced priorities. Completing an assignment can involve several steps: some that are easy and others more difficult, for example. So, how should a student prioritize? 

• The most effective tool to prioritize tasks is a to-do list, which can be created in planners, on whiteboards, and in apps (e.g. Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do). 
• Students should review the calendars in their paper or digital planners at the beginning of every week and set up to-do lists for each day, adding new assignments and activities to daily planning pages and transferring those tasks to the to-do list. 
• Use a highlighter or numbers to rank tasks from important to least important and list parts of tasks separately when applicable. Studying for a test, for example, involves several steps, including reviewing notes or a study guide, making flashcards/mind-maps, and answering practice questions. Figuring out all of the tasks for an assignment can be challenging for some students, so resources like Magic ToDo from GoblinTools is a great place to start. 

Establish routines. Routines are the glue that holds any organizational system in place. They make what seems like an overwhelming amount of things to remember, track, and manage into something that is as normal and natural as brushing your teeth. 

• Start by filling out a weekly schedule worksheet that lists the days of the week horizontally across the top of the page and the hours of the day vertically on the left side of the page. Your child should include the time she is in school, activities, meetings, doctor/dentist appointments, sports, meals, flex time for unforeseen circumstances, and even free time. In the spaces left behind, select reasonable times to complete assignments. Schedule homework from 7:00-9:00 in the evening, for example. 
• Next, it’s time to think about daily routines. Think about a typical day as well as past organizational hiccups, then create routines that stop problems before they start (e.g. organize notebooks on Fridays, set aside everything for the next day on the night before, etc.). 

Manage Materials. Exchange messy backpacks, cluttered desks, or chaotic Chromebooks with systems that keep materials in order. 

• Either have a separate color-coded binder, notebook, and folder for each class (e.g. red for math, green for science, etc.) or have one binder with separate color-coded tabs with folder pockets for each class. 
• Set aside a time each week to move any worksheets, quizzes, or assignments from folders to binders by using a hole punch and place any old notes, quizzes, or handouts into a labeled accordion file. Pick a day like Mondays or Fridays to clean lockers, so any loose books or papers can find the right home and dirty clothes or old food can be washed or trashed. 
• Find a quiet and clean place at home to study where there are limited distractions and back up supplies available like pencils and paper. Have a whiteboard calendar with extra blank space nearby to note important dates, jot down daily to-do lists, or mind-map ideas.
• Organized digital spaces should feature folders for each class with separate subfolders for each unit.

How A+ Can Help

As students move from each grade to the next, especially as they move from middle school to high school, they will not only be given more responsibilities, they will also need to become more independent. Establish routines and systems now to ensure that your child has the tools and confidence to handle whatever comes next. In addition to our tips for disorganized teens, A+ Test Prep and Tutoring offers executive function coaching that helps students assess their strengths and weaknesses in order to set specific goals linked to developing skills ranging from note-taking to time management. We address the root causes of why a student is struggling and create strategies and routines for ultimate success.

At A+ Test Prep and Tutoring, our practices are based on the latest developments in educational theory and research. We have an excellent team of tutors who can help you with standardized testing, executive functioning, or achievement in any other school subject. If you want to find out more about our services, contact us here.