My two oldest boys are in middle school. This new phase of life has been a learning experience for everyone. As they have been learning to navigate new hallways, new curricula, and expanded responsibilities and opportunities, I am learning…well, I’m learning a whole new language. I now know words like “rizz,” “skibbidee,” and “cap.” In addition to getting grammatical lessons (“rizz” is a noun and “skibbidee” is an adjective), I have also learned about the organizational habits of middle schoolers. Y’all, they’re not good.
Their Organization Can Only Be Described as Chaos
Every year, I gleefully shop for school supplies for my boys and send them off to school, fully stocked for 180 days of academic success. Binders, folders and packs of lined paper burst forth from their lockers. And gather dust until locker clean out at the end of the year. “But what do they use instead?” That’s an excellent question!
Instead of using the plethora of supplies I dutifully purchase each year, my sons cram every paper they think they may possibly need again from every class into their school-issued laptop case. So basically, they have a school-issued Trapper-Keeper (yes, I know I just dated myself). I don’t remember my organization system as a middle schooler, but I can I assure you that the adult mom in me is just crying inside every time they open their laptop cases and I see a ream of paper frayed from the cases’ zippers.
How Does My Organization Differ?
I would love to say that I am the polar opposite of my kids, as far as organizational habits go. But one look at the state of laundry around my house would out me as a liar. However, I have made some really important strides at keeping my thoughts, assignments, and projects more organized since starting school.
Lining Up My Academic Ducks
The course I’m currently taking exposed me to some new technology (well, new for me, maybe not for you). One of my favorite organization tools has been notetaking app called Evernote. I use Evernote more like an academic organizer than for taking notes. In fact, I planned this entire blog project using Evernote – from blog drafts, content organizers, and website clippings. This is not a method I would have used previously. I would have relied entirely on word processing documents and my laptop’s local hard drive. I also used Evernote to plan a project for the Macomb Mustangs, the youth football and cheer club for which two of my boys play (it’s my youngest’s first year!).
The most refreshing thing I have learned about this new technology is how to integrate it into what I already know works for me. For example, I really enjoy this new notetaking app, Evernote. It has allowed me to centralize what would have been numerous standalone documents and lots of physical pieces of paper into one cohesive repository. Although one of the components of my Evernote project notebook included a project timeline, I quickly found that aspect of the app to not be as useful to me as my trusty three-ring binder style planner, standing at the ready on my office desk. Each day when I sit down to work, I consult my planner to see what needs to be done for that day and the next few days so I can get everything done as efficiently as possible.
This hybrid approach to maintaining organization is hardly novel, I’m sure, but it has really been working for me so far in graduate school (and in other arenas of my life), so I’m content to keep using these strategies for the time being. It is never too late to learn or integrate new tools and strategies into the way that we do things. Not every new tech tool will work for everyone, but I’m sure glad I found this one. And I’m sure glad I haven’t given up on a good, ol’ classic planner.
Or paper books. If you know me, you know that a solid, hefty, paper-and-glue book will always be my first choice. But we’ll get to that another day.
Pixabay. (2016, March 23). White and brown duck with yellow and black ducklings walking in gray floor during daytime. [Photograph]. Pexels. Retrieved April 16, 2024 from https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-brown-duck-with-yellow-and-black-ducklings-walking-in-gray-floor-during-daytime-64225/