Organizing Your Students

Organization is a gift that wise teachers give their students, and it is a gift that is useful long after the goodbyes are said in May. In Organization Made Easy!, we devote an entire chapter to organizing students.

One of the central topics is the use of student planners. While some schools have adopted and then left the idea, we explore the subject in enough depth and emphasize the follow-up that is needed from teachers to make the tool work.

We also look at habits and techniques that increase productivity and decrease stress for students:

• Writing it down
• Breaking goals into little parts
• Getting the book bag empty daily
• Learning to deal with papers
• Getting everything ready the night before
• Organizing the locker
• Using the "one-binder" method

You can order your copy today. Use coupon code IRK95 at checkout for a 20% discount.

New posts will continue to appear on this site for the remainder of June. After that, continue to enjoy new material at http://FrankBuck.org.

Digital Organization: How to Fit All of the Pieces Together

Two decades ago, the solution for our busy lives was one book to house everything. Our calendar, to-do list, address book, and notes were in one place. The Franklin Planner and Day-Timer were the survival tools of that era. Many continue to reply on the one-book method for staying organized. For 10 years, I was a devoted Day-Timer user. The intrigue of being able to put it all in one place was great.

Today, many of us look to digital tools to organize out lives. My transformation came in 2001 when I traded my Day-Timer for a Palm and began syncing it to Outlook. Over the years, the specific tools have changed. The strategy has remained the same. I still need a place to house my calendar, to-do list, contacts, and notes. We can now add email to that list. Respectively, I achieve my aim through following tools:

• Google Calendar
• Google Contacts
• ToodleDo
• Evernote
• Gmail

What if you could group these five elements of your productivity suite together? What if the entire set was always available anytime your browser was open? What if each one was only one click away at any time?

Take a look at the screen shot of a portion of my browser's toolbar:

Just under the address bar, you see an icon representing each of the five parts of my productivity suite. Each one is a button. When clicked, that site opens. How did I create those buttons? The techniques is unbelievably simple.

First, be sure that you bookmarks toolbar is showing. Right-click somewhere on the toolbar and be sure there is a check beside the "Show bookmarks bar."

Next, you will go to each site, one at a time. Navigate to your Google Calendar, for example. Notice the URL in the address bar. Notice that just to the left of that URL is a small icon. In the example above, that icon looks like a blank piece of paper with a corner turned down. The look of that icon will vary according to the website, but you will always see some type of icon.

The trick is to click on that icon and drag it to the bookmarks toolbar. That's it! In just a few minutes, you can have a button for each part of your productivity suite.

What other buttons might you want to have? For me, I have the following additional buttons:

• Toodledo Bookmarklet Clicking the link will take you to a blog post explaining what this does and why it's so handy.
• TV Guide. I can see at glance what's coming on in my area. I have this button on the computer in my office.
• Google Bookmarks. When I am reading an online article I want to add to my bookmarks, one click on this button brings up a box with the name of the site and URL completed. I can amend the information and adds tags and a description.
• Blogger. When I want to compose a new blog post, one click takes me there.
• Update website. When I acquire a new speaking engagement, I add the date to my website. I frequently makes small updates to the site, and the URL for where those updates are made is not one I can easily remember. With this button on my toolbar, I am one click away from being able to compose updates.
• Feedly. Read the post on how Feedly is one of the major source of information to keep me on top of the subjects which are important to me.

In just a few minutes, you can have your own browser toolbar buttons. It's easy enough, you will actually do it!

Does anyone already have a helpful set of browser buttons? Let me know what you have.

6 Survival Strategies for Ending "May Madness"

I enjoyed creating this segment for the School Leadership Briefing. I hope it helps you solve "May Madness."

Listen to the podcast

Android Users: Build Your To-Do List With Your Voice

Several years ago, I authored a post entitled "Play from Your Strengths." One sentence from that post states "...Peter Drucker talks of making strengths productive, and doing so in a such a way that it makes weaknesses irrelevant."

Smartphones offer many great features. Having to type on a piece of glass with two thumbs doesn't happen to be one of them. All the while, voice recognition is becoming more accurate and more powerful. In many ways, the strength of voice recognition is making the weakness of two-thumbs-on-a-piece-of-glass input irrelevant.

While mobile devices which feature electronic to-do lists have been around for nearly 20 years, input has been cumbersome. Input in a paper memo pad has been far faster and easier. Advances in the area of voice input are tipping the scales.

In this post, iPhone owners who use Toodledo learned how they can use Siri's "remind me" command to enter tasks into Toodledo. Today's post is for Android owners. We examine how to use Google Now, to enter tasks into Toodledo. For those new to Google Now (also known as "Google Search"), this video shows over 40 examples of what it can do:



You will notice a "remind me" command is also available in Google Now, but that's not the valuable one for me. I generally don't want audible notification at a particular time. Instead, what I want is a vehicle to simply get a task onto my to-do list as quickly as possible. For that, I use the command "Note to self."

Create a Toodledo Account and Get the App
Toodledo is a free, web-based to-do list. I have written about it often. If you are new to Toodledo, start by reading this post. That post is the first in a six-part series examining Toodledo. After created your account, download the official Toodledo app from the Google Play Store.

Note to Self
"Note to self" allows me to talk, and Google Now translates my speech into text and gives me an option of where to send my message. The options you have will vary according to the apps installed on your device. Gmail will appear as one of the options. If you have installed Evernote, it will appear as one of the options. If you have downloaded Toodledo, it also appears as an option.

After choosing Toodledo as your "note to self" option, you will be presented with an option to to use it as your choice "just this once" or "always." Choose "always."

The task you entered with the "note to self" option now appears in your Toodledo app. Mine is automatically assigned a start date and due date of today, because I established those options in my settings. When the Toodledo app syncs with the "cloud," and you refresh Toodledo on your computer, the new task appears there also.

What if You Use a Different App?
Many apps sync with Toodledo, but do not offer the same integration with Google Now. For example, I had used an excellent app called The Ultimate To-Do List to sync with Toodledo. If you are using an app which does not allow the option for sending Google Now's "note to self" to your to-do list, read this post. It explains how to use a service called "If This Then That" and your Gmail account to send your voice input to Toodledo.

Organization Made Easy
We do what is easy; that's human nature. If keeping a to-do list is cumbersome, the practice will be short-lived. If entering tasks in a digital system is hard, we are going to wind up writing on Post-It notes and sticking them to our phones.

Imagine thinking of something you need to do, tapping once on your phone, speaking the task, and now being able to forget about it. Your phone has now trapped the task on your to-do list, with a start and due date of today. You don't have to remember the task. You will never have to re-write that task. You will never have to wonder on which envelope, napkin, or Post-It you wrote your commitment. All of your to-dos are in one place. Organization just got easier.

Why I Stopped Carrying a Wallet

Somewhere around 14 years ago, I stopped carrying a wallet. Since that time, I have not had the slightest urge to go back.

I guess I had always thought of a wallet in the back pocket as being something that went along with being a member of the male species. Never mind that sitting on the thing was uncomfortable or that the bulky wallet was unattractive. Furthermore, the wallet in the back pocket is a target for the pick-pocket. The wallet working its way out of a back pocket is also a possibility. Talk to any cab driver, and you will hear stories about wallets left on back seats.

One day I stopped, cold-turkey. But what about all of the items I had been carrying in that wallet? What was I to do with all of them? Permit me to share how I have navigated life wallet-free for almost a decade-and-a-half.

The key centers around a pocket-sized memo pad. It fits in a shirt pocket or inside suit jacket pocket. I have been a huge believer in always having pen and paper to trap ideas, to-dos, and other commitments. The memo pad includes several pockets. Those pockets hold my driver's license, several major credit cards, medical card, and a few business cards.

Hardly a day goes by that I do not charge some purchase on a credit card and now have credit card receipts to handle. One pocket of that memo pad allows collection of those credit card receipts, business cards from other people, or other miscellaneous bits of paper. At the end of the day, that little memo pad gets thrown into the Inbox. The bits of paper collected during the day and notes jotted on the memo pad are handled. The memo pad is ready for the next day.

By the way, those who are in the habit of carrying that small pocket notebook are in good company. You can read about the notebooks of 20 famous men.

In my right front pocket, I carry a set of keys. These days, the set consists of only two keys: one to my car and one to my house. School principals are famous for carrying huge rings of keys. As a former principal, I was the exception. In my life and yours, probably 5% of the keys in our possession account for 95% of the use. Keep the 5% on the key ring in your pocket. Put the other 95% on a larger ring which lives in the center desk drawer.

I used to carry a flash drive along with my key ring. That flash drive allowed me to copy a digital file when I was out of the office. Now, with a Dropbox account, I can upload a file from any computer to Dropbox, and it is waiting for me when I get back to my own computer.

We all need to carry cash. Mine is in a money clip in the left front pants pocket, along with a handful of change.

Calendars, address books, and photos are often the culprits when pockets are bulging. A smartphone in the jacket pocket houses my calendar, to-do list, address book, a wealth of reference material, and tons of photos.

If you are tired of sitting on that wallet, are constantly checking to be sure it's still there, and wish there was a better way, look no further. Get a money clip and a nice memo pad. Say good-bye to the wallet once and for all.

Master Paperwork With Tickler Files

I have been a user of tickler files for over 30 years recommend them in my "5 Keys to Organization & Time Management" workshop. I was delighted to see a colleague write about his experience with tickler files after attending a session with me.

You can read the entire post on the Inspiration from Others blog.

The Art of Delegation (for Teachers)

Some teachers are masters of delegation. Simple classroom jobs are delegated to students. These teachers realize two important concepts:

A teacher cannot do it all. Delegating those things which a student can do and do well leave more time for the teacher to do those things which require his/her expertise.

Allowing students to help with running the classroom gives them a "stake in the program," gives them a sense of ownership, and builds responsibility.

In Organization Made Easy!, the chapter entitled "Focused or Fragmented" examines this concept. Read about how two elementary teachers structured systems giving every student responsibility. Read tips on how something similar could be used in secondary schools.

Your Filing Cabinet: Friend or Foe?

Is your filing cabinet a trusted friend or a dreaded foe? Can you quickly put your hands on documents, or do you stack them on top for fear that they will disappear into a black hole if you open one of those drawers? If you want to save time, spend a little time organizing the filing cabinet. Be sure that you block out enough time to do the job well. It might mean a Saturday morning at school where you can work free from distractions, but it is time well spent.

To begin, gather several large garbage bags and reclaim some of the drawer space that has been occupied by papers that have no value. The process of purging your filing cabinet will not only get rid of the unwanted and unneeded, in the process you will undoubtedly run across some real gems you had forgotten you had.

How much time could you save if you could actually find what you are looking for in that filing cabinet? You will also need a generous supply of blank folders on hand. The last thing you want to do is compromise your system simply because you didn’t have enough folders available. I prefer to use manila file folders as opposed to hanging files for general reference filing. Manila folders are much cheaper and take up less room than hanging files. If you want great-looking labels, a Brother labeler is a good investment. Of course, if your penmanship is good, there is certainly nothing wrong with hand labeling the folders.

Scrutinize the system you have for labeling your folders. If you begin labels with nouns, you will find it easier to develop a logical filing system where you can find your documents. Certainly, you can be open to the possibility of using subcategories. Identify the folders that are too thick and see how they can be subdivided. You will probably find other folders with only a few pieces of paper each that could be combined under one category. If you are in for a major renovation, find a couple of colleagues who seem organized and see what sort of system they have developed.

 Be sure to leave some room in each drawer. Three-quarters full is plenty. When drawers get tight, you will resist filing like the plague. Offices and classrooms all over America sport stacks of files piled on top of filing cabinets, counters, and every flat surface imaginable—all living proof that overly-stuffed file drawers are no picnic.

How much time could you save if you could actually find what you are looking for in that filing cabinet? How much frustration could you save? Schedule a day to devote to this project and get it done.

Did you like this post? Click one of the small social media icons below to share with others. Feel free to leave a comment below with your own thoughts.

Workshop Review

The last two weeks have been busy ones, but a good ones. My thanks to the Illinois Principals Association for having me as one of the keynote speakers for the IPA Assistant Principal & Deans Conference. The subject was "Time Management in a Digital World."

I always enjoy presenting at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference. The timing allowed me to present in Illinois and return to Alabama the following day to present five sessions:

• Free Tech Tools That Increase Productivity
• Social Media: All the Eggs in One Basket
• The (Almost) Paperless Teacher
• Get Organized in the Cloud
• Why Your PowerPoints are Awful and What to do About It

As promised, I drew a name from those who had attended at least one of those sessions and had connected later either through Facebook, Twitter, commenting on this blog, or becoming a newsletter subscriber.  Congratulations to Pamela Harman, winner of a copy of Organization Made Easy!: Tools for Today's Teachers.

The room filled up early for the first session of the day at AETC.

This week, I enjoyed presenting a half-day version of Get Organized! The 5 Keys to Organization & Time Management and half-day hands-on version of Get Organized in the Cloud through the University of Montevallo Regional Inservice Center. A special thanks goes to Dwight Jinright for ordering copies of Organization Made Easy!: Tools for Today's Teachers  and providing each teacher with a complimentary copy.

Identify a "Bulk" Area

What in the world is this? Is this the most recent version of these policies? Do I really need to keep this?

This summer, many teachers and administrators will undertake new positions. One of the first orders of business will be cleaning out and organizing the space left by the one who left the job. My experience has been that those on the way out are not nearly as conscientious about having everything neat and organized as the person coming in.

As you organize, anything you pick up will fall into one of two categories: 1) you need it; or 2) you don't. You toss the junk and organize the treasure. The only problem is that in those early days in a new job, it's hard to tell which is which. As a result, too many people hang onto it all and wonder why they can never find anything amid the clutter.

I held 5 different positions during my career in education, and in each case found myself asking questions about material I would run across. Time tends to answer those questions. The manual about which we have no clue today turns into the manual we will be looking for a week from now. We come across a box of keys and nobody has any idea what locks they fit. A month later, we encounter that locked storage room for which there seems to be no key, and find a match in that box of orphaned keys.

My answer to sorting out the mystery was to establish a "bulk" area in my office. It was the one area where I could toss any questionable item until a better decision could be may about whether to keep it or trash it, and if the answer was "keep it," exactly where to put it. The decisions are small ones, but they are decisions which must be made. As a principal, I had a large storage closet in my office. One shelf was designated as the "bulk" shelf. Those large items whose purpose was unknown went there. As a central office administrator, one cabinet in a built-in bookshelf served the purpose of holding those bulk items.

On my repeating task list, I added an item which simply said "Check Bulk," and set it to repeat every week. Seeing that task on the list was my trigger to examine that special shelf or cabinet. With each passing week, I gained a better understanding of what was trash and what was treasure. Each week, the "bulk" area grew smaller as some items were discarded and others were organized in their proper places. Do you really want boxes sitting in a corner of your office?

The day the bulk area was totally clear was a major step forward. It was a sign that there was "a place for everything and everything in its place," as Benjamin Franklin said. It was also a sign that the junk was gone and not taking up valuable real estate in an office or classroom.

Once the clutter is gone, that bulk area takes on a new and useful purpose: A microscope needs repair and you plan to deliver it to the proper person on Friday. Where do you put it from now until that time? You have a box of books to donate to charity and plan to take them on Tuesday of next week. What happens to that box of books until then? A new box of books arrives. What do you do with it until the books are distributed to the proper place?

For each of these examples, a designated spot for bulk items needing some type of attention provides an answer. To make this bulk holding area work, two factors must be in place:

1. The designated shelf or cabinet can only be used for bulk items needing some type of action. Do not let that spot also accommodate items which are to be stored there permanently. If used properly, that bulk storage spot will spend the majority of its time empty. 
2. Some trigger must be present which sends you to that bulk storage spot. Putting a reminder on the to-do list for the appropriate day to deliver the books, take the microscope for repair, delivery the books to charity, or unbox the newly-arrived set of books will prevent those bulk items from being forgotten. 

Whether you are new to the position or simply want to turn over a new leaf and move from a state of chaos to the freedom of order, creating a system which provides a place for every item is a tremendous first step. You will have an environment free of clutter. You will be able to put your hands on anything without the need to “hunt.” The time invested in creating the system translates into time saved each and every day.

Friday's Illinois Principals Association Online Academy

I had a great time Friday presenting an online class for the Illinois Principals Association Online Academy. Entitled Time Management: The 5 Keys to Total Control and Peace of Mind, the 3-hour interactive webinar was designed to give practicing administrators practical tools to help them accomplish more, stay on top of their workdays, and experience less stress.

Here are comments from participants:

• The presentation provided a wealth of information for the tech savvy person as well as the old school paper and pencil person. 
• He was wonderful. Loved his style! 
• This was wonderful! It was really a great seminar. 
• This was a very valuable course. I tend to get caught up in the "no time zone" and feeling as if I don't have time to get to the many piles on my desk. Dr. Buck gave some great organizational tools that I plan to implement! 
• Thank you! This is the first Online Academy I have participated in, it won't be my last. 
• This was my first Online Academy. I didn't think I would enjoy the Online sessions as much as the in person ones, but I really enjoyed this and found the interactions with the other attendees to be fun and enjoyable, too! 
• This webinar got to the heart of how to tame the paper monster! I loved it! 
• This was one of the best conferences I have ever attended, in person or otherwise. Definitely worth the time to do! 
• I wasn't sure I would like this format, but really did. It provided me with a different way to learn valuable material. 
• This was one of the most helpful AA I have ever taken. Lots of great ideas to get organized!! 
• I enjoyed the online academy. I was able to get great information and stay within district. 

Thanks to those who participated in this event! I hope that the concepts you learned will be applicable every day in your jobs.

Why Get Organized?

When I conduct workshops, I often ask participants, “Why would you want to come to something like this? Why would you turn out for a workshop about organization and time management?” Here are some of the answers I get…

1. Less stress. According to WebMD, seventy-five to 90% of doctor’s office visits are stress related. Too many people can’t sleep and often wake up in the middle of the night concerned about what may have been forgotten. They live with this gnawing sense there is something important they should be doing, but they have no idea what it is. 
2. Feeling of being “in control.” The organized person has a place for everything. What has to be done is neatly trapped in a system, either paper or digital. This person sees everything which needs to be done, examines the time available, and makes choices as to what to do today, and what can wait.
3. Life becomes easier. We can feel victims of the demands placed upon us. We can feel pulled in all directions. Approach the day with a plan and work the plan. Don’t be afraid to decline a request for your time. Leverage available technology to increase efficiency. 
4. You get more done. How many times do you get home from the store only to realize you forgot something? Back in the car and back to the store you go. Work from a list. Organize that list so like items are grouped together and can therefore be completed quicker. Use those random bits of time to knock off some of the small items from your list you would have to do at some point anyway. 
5. The important things get done. All tasks are not created equal. Identify the ones which provide the biggest payoff and “front load” the day with them. In the words of Goethe, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” 
6. You save money. Do you buy items because you can’t find the ones you already own? Do you lose gift cards and let valuable coupons expire simply because you didn’t realize you had them. Are you spending money on home repairs because you neglect preventive maintenance? When you are organized, you can throw it all in your system and receive reminders at the appropriate times. 
7. You can find things. Benjamin Franklin’s advice, “A place for everything, everything in its place,” is as applicable today as it was then. How much time do we spend looking for car keys, important papers, a particular article of clothing, or that book we just knew we had? If we take seconds to make decisions about logical places to put our belongings, we save hours in retrieving them later. 
8. Others can count on you. Do you know people who operate their lives from three calendars yet can’t fully trust any of them? Has past experience taught you without a reminder call, they are apt to be a “no show” for their appointments or walk in a half-hour late with the same lame excuses? When you are organized, when you have a system in place, you see your commitments in a timely fashion. You are able to come through. You teach other people they can count on you. 
9. You are ready to take advantage of new opportunities. Opportunity knocks not once, but many times. Are we ready to answer? Do you know someone who is mired in details, is always pushing a deadline, and who just seems to constantly be running behind? Know what your commitments are, know where you stand on each one, and work ahead of deadlines. At that point, you are well-positioned to answer when opportunity knocks. 
10. You feel better about yourself. This one is my favorite. When you are organized, when you are on top of your game, you simply feel better about yourself. Another New Year is upon us. 

Among the top resolutions every year is to “get organized.” If that one is on your list, I invite you to follow this blog. We examine the little things you can do which make big differences at work and at home. Maybe this year, you really will keep that resolution to “get organized”!

Navigating the Digital Calendar

This summer, I enjoyed presenting at the Forum for Innovative Leadership in Memphis, the Alabama Educational Technology Conference, the Fort Bend Leadership Institute, workshops for the Lewisville Independent School District, the Huntsville Center for Technology, and Fort Bend's Ridgemont Elementary School. Working with that many people from such a variety of locations keeps in touch with the trends in tools people are using to stay organized and manage their time. It also lets me know where the holes exist in peoples' systems.

Smartphones are the rule. Whereas the tipping point on cell phones happened some years ago, we are ow seeing the vast majority of people having a phone hich also sends and receives email, and has the capability of the serving as the owner's calendar and to-do list, along with performing many other functions. While Android devices account for over half of all Smarthones in the United States, iPhones seem predominant among the audience of educators. The number of BlackBerry users is considerably less than a year ago, a trend we are seeing nationwide.

The percentage of people using Smartphones to keep their calendars is growing. The audiences are generally split 50/50 with half keeping paper calendars and half keeping digital ones. While many have a good system for syncing the phone with the computer and other devices, many have calendars only on the phone, and are doing all entry with two thumbs.

I am interested in how adept people are at navigating on their digital calendars. One of the activities we do during my flagship workshop is to ask give people a date in the future and ask them to navigate to it as quickly as they can using their calendars, regardless of whether it is paper or digital. When they have found the requested date and time and can tell me whether or not they are free, I have them stand. The time between the first to stand and even the point at which 50% are standing is remarkably large. I know from experience that if using a tool is difficult, we don't use the tool, whether we admit it or not. Human nature dictates we do what is easy. We have got to make using our digital calendars easy.

Paper-based people flip a few pages and are looking at the requested date. Some of the digital folks are able to access the calendar with a single stroke, are instantly on the monthly view or can get there with one more tap, and can fly month-to-month with one tap per month. They arrive at the requested date as quickly as their paper counterparts.

Far too many people, however, spend far too much time trying to figure how to get to that future date. Without a doubt, in their day-to-day lives, they are finding themselves telling people, "I will get back with you," because finding the information is too cumbersome. Or, they wind up keeping both a paper calendar and one on the phone, doing double entry, so they can see the "big picture."

The most surprising—and disturbing—are the ones who stand almost immediately, and when asked how they found the date so quickly, reply they know the date is free because they simply never schedule anything that far out. Imagine the glass ceiling they have imposed upon themselves and the opportunities which invariably be missed. I could not image operating that way. My calendar includes those dates which are firm, dates that my wife has commitments on a second color-coded calendar, and FYI dates and a calendar of a third color, all displayed together on my digital calendar and available to me on my computer, tablet, phone, or on any computer anywhere which has Internet access. My calendar traps those dates—the ones which are firm as well as the potential opportunities. My brain is free to handle more creative ideas.

My calendar has been in digital form for over 10 years. I offer three suggestions to help make functioning with a digital calendar satisfying:

Practice navigating
Spend the few minutes it would take to learn the quickest way to navigate to a future date. In short, it will involve opening the calendar with the fewest strokes, getting to the monthly view, and moving from month to month to the date in question. This procedure parallels what we have always done with paper calendars.

Practice searching
Learn to search the calendar. The area were the digital calendar shines is its ability to find that appointment without the person having to visually scan the screen looking for it. For example, if someone is looking for the next hair appointment, a search will turn up every hair appointment as far into the future as they have been scheduled, and do so quicker than someone attempting the same with a paper calendar.

Get the phone "in sync"
Sync the calendar with the computer. If I had to do all of my entry with two thumbs, I would go back to paper. But, if I can do the entry on the computer and then sync it to my phone, that is easy enough I will do it.

Back in the days when the Palm was the only game in town, the company recognized entry on the computer and then syncing the data to the handheld was the way to go. Performing a "hot-sync" was a key element, and they even provided the desktop software to do it. They also realized Outlook to be a giant in electronic organization and included the ability to sync with it. RIM realized the importance of entry on the computer, and to this day includes software which will sync Outlook to the BlackBerry.

Other Smartphone manufacturers have not emphasized synchronization to the same extent, and have left that job to third-party manufacturers. With many phones and many software programs available, the job of figuring out how to get the phone syncing fall more on the owner.

Do not let that situation be a deterrent. The Internet is full of videos and sets of instruction for getting your Smartphone syncing with whatever calendar you are using. The bottom line is to make getting that sync happening a goal, and don't stop until it's happening. The flexibility you gain from being able to enter information here and see it there is worth any research you have to do.

In the next post, we look at keeping to-dos digitally.

How to Remember to Write Thank You Notes

In the last post, you heard Tom Peters talk about the importance of “thank you” notes. As you read it, you may agree with the sentiment. Yet in our busy day-to-day lives, we may not think about it. At least, we don’t think about it when we are seated with a blank note card in front of us!

Let’s change all of that. Let’s structure a system where we do think about it. Furthermore, let’s structure a system which causes us to think about it at a time when we are sitting down with a blank note card in front of us. It does not get any more convenient than that!

This idea actually came from a workshop participant. As we talked about tickler files and their various uses, this participant raised her hand. She explained that she had been using tickler files for some time. Like many of us, she wanted to get better about writing thank-you notes. Like many of us, it just never happened.

One January day, she took 52 blank note cards, one for each week of the year. She scattered them through her tickler files. She had structured a system that caused a blank note card to pop up once each week. That was her trigger…her trigger to stop and use that blank note card to thank somebody for something.

She was already sitting down at her desk. She had the note card in front of her. Now, all she had to do was write the note.

I suspect people began to think of her as more thoughtful, more appreciative. Actually, she was just as thoughtful and appreciative to start with. All she needed was a system which helped her let those qualities show.

If it worked for her, maybe it could work for others.

School Leadership Briefing: Four Tools to Help You Focus, Be Productive, and Reduce Stress

I was invited to contribute to School Leadership Briefing, an audio journal providing professional development to administrators. Click on the image below to listen to the short podcast.

The Importance of Being "On Time"

I have posted before on the book The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence written by Tom Peters. On page 363, he talks about the subject of punctuality:

A "couple of minutes" late is... late. Five minutes late is... late. One-point-three minutes late is... late.
Late is... Late. "Better late than never"? Never. Period.
Early is not late.
Early is respect.
Early = "I care."
It matters.
Arriving early for a meeting is not a sign that you are "anxious." It’s a sign that you are ... PUNCTUAL.
Late is rude.
George Washington was never late.

Featured Free Resource--Paper Daily Planning Page

Do you organize with paper and are looking for a good page layout? Click here and download a daily planning page.

Throw it on a copier, cut the pages in half, hole punch, and they are ready to use. You will see a place for appointments, ample room for your task list, and a spot for your "Fab 5." The blank facing page is where you will be able to record notes from phone conversations, meetings, and other information which comes to you on the fly.

The page includes reminders to word tasks clearly, to group them, and provides a place where you can answer the question, "How Did You Make Today Count?"

Questions from a Reader...Organizing the Boyfriend

How do those who are organized help those who are close to them who are not? Below is a message I received, along with my answer. It might help someone else in a similar situation:



Dear Frank,


As a matter of fact we are both working. He's in the real estate business and I'm an economist in the telecommunications sector. I'm somewhat of a compulsive organizer, with a thing for labeling up everything: boxes, folders, notebooks, envelopes, you name it. Though I'm messy here and there, I try always to develop "methods" to ease up my life and keep my things in order. Shopping lists, to-do list for traveling and so on. I like to plan ahead and make sure there's nothing to be running for in the last minute.

How Do You Keep Up With What Has Been Delegated to Others?

We all have those situations where the responsibility for action belongs to someone else, yet whether or not they follow through impacts us. Consider these situations:

1. You are working on a project with other people and have delegated certain tasks to them. How do you make sure everyone comes through with the deliverables?
2. Someone borrows books or other belongings from you. How do you keep up with what you have loaned? What sort of trigger will cause you to mention something when an item is not returned?
3. You have placed an order with a company. How do you keep up with what you have ordered? At what point would you call to ask about the status of the order? What is the trigger that would cause you to make that call?

As long as we live in a world where our happiness, success, longevity, or whatever else is in part dependent on someone else, we need to have some system that will allow us to hold others accountable.

As a young teacher, my tools were a pocket memo pad and a set of tickler files. When someone borrowed my stuff, I immediately made a note in that memo pad...something like, "Expect to receive XYZ book from Steve. Loaned on Oct. 3." After asking myself what would be a reasonable time frame in which to ask Steve if he was finished with the book, the little sheet from the memo pad would be thrown into the appropriate tickler file.

When I placed an order with a company, I would take a copy of the order and write "Expect to receive" on the top of the form, decide when it should arrive, and throw the form in the tickler file for around that time.

When someone was supposed to handle a task and then get back with me, a little note saying, "Expect to receive reply from John" went in the tickler file for around the time I wanted to check on progress.

Over time, "Expect to receive" was shortened to "ETR," and although the tools have changed, that acronym has stuck. Instead of a slip of paper thrown into a tickler file, so many of those little "ETR" items become tasks in Outlook. When the ball is in the other person's court, "ETR" is going to be in the task line. I select a due date, save, and forget about it. The system does my remembering.

When the due date arrives, I am looking at the "ETR" item, and there is my trigger to take action. What if I want to see at a glance all of the things that I am counting on from other people? In Outlook, I click the Task button and type the letters "ETR" in the search window. I am now looking at a complete list of every task with that configuration of letters. If I am doing the same thing on my BlackBerry, I go to the Taskpad (Outlook 2003) or To-Do Bar (Outlook 2007), enter "ETR," and I am looking at a list of everything others owe me.

By the same token, I could enter the name of a person, "Bill" for example. I would see everything Bill owes me, every phone call I am supposed to make to him, everything I had borrowed from him, etc. all in order by due date.

Our lives are complex. We have a great deal to "keep up with." Keeping up with those delegated items is among them. Three little letters keep me on top of it all.

Clean Off Your Desk Day

Happy "National Clean Off Your Desk Day"! Yes, it is a real event, celebrated each year on the second Monday of January, The photo you see was sent to me by a friend...an actual photo of his desk. Today seemed to be the perfect day to share it.

Just for fun, take a look at these statistics related to the clean desk.

If you are looking for a solution to the paper blizzard, a very large part of the solution for me has been the "tickler file." If this concept is new or if you would like a refresher, here is a very old post from this blog which is right on point. Ask the question, "When do I need to see this again?"and file the paper for that day. Waiting on someone else to get back with you before you are able to move forward? Estimate when the person will be getting you the information and file the paper for the day afterward. When the paper resurfacing, you have the information you need to take the next step.

Do you have lots of slips of paper laying around or Post-it notes stuck to the computer monitor? Use your signature tool, explained in this post from a year ago, holds it all for you.

The picture to the right is the desk of a former workshop participant who put his tickler files to work!

Anyone have a photo they would like to share of their desk? I would love to see the good, the bad, and the ugly! Click here to e-mail an attachment.