Best Results Organizing

According to the Einstein page at Stanford University covering questions about Special and General Relativity:

This new reality was that space and time, as physical constructs, have to be combined into a new mathematical/physical entity called ‘space-time’, because the equations of relativity show that both the space and time coordinates of any event must get mixed together by the mathematics, in order to accurately describe what we see. Because space consists of 3 dimensions, and time is 1-dimensional, space-time must, therefore, be a 4-dimensional object. It is believed to be a ‘continuum’ because so far as we know, there are no missing points in space or instants in time, and both can be subdivided without any apparent limit in size or duration. So, physicists now routinely consider our world to be embedded in this 4-dimensional Space-Time continuum, and all events, places, moments in history, actions and so on are described in terms of their location in Space-Time.

Whew. That’s a lot. But I’ve got good news. This won’t be on the test! (We’ll leave it to the physics majors.)

But as a professional organizer, I often have to solve problems that involve time (and the management of tasks) and space (and the excising of clutter and the rearranging of the molecules of what remains). So, in this second week of looking at solutions that help our students go back to school, I’m sharing two products I praise often for handling the “time” part of the equation, and a few new delights for the space aspect. 

TIME AND RELATIVITY

Getting firmly back onto “clock time” is key to the back-to-school process, and not just for little kids. Parents, teachers, and college students are just as much in need of time management support as little ones.

Getting control over the clock, especially after the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer (and whatever these last 18 months have been) means really having a sense of time as it passes. Getting the “feel” of how long a quarter hour or ninety minutes really is can be hard, not just for kids, but for people with ADHD and various executive function disorders, and for any of us who’ve had a “flexible” relationship with time over this recent while.

It’s not just kids (or adults working in loosey-goosey fields) who have trouble with time. I’ve worked with engineers and scientists — professionals for whom precision is essential — on their productivity skills. We’ve started with an exercise where I tell them to begin a task we’ve discussed, and I will stop them after they’ve worked for eight minutes. I’ve seen two things happen.

When doing administrative work, like expense reports or employee reviews, these clients struggle. 90% of them have looked up at me early, insisting that surely it’s been eight minutes already. For about a third of those, they are certain at least that much time has passed before even the five-minute mark! They may as well be kicking the back of my seat and whining, “Are we there yet?”

In contrast, when these same clients are set free to work on their passion projects, to delve into whatever science-y, engineering-y thing they love (think: the Professor from Gilligan’s Island), they are often shocked when I call, “Time!” Sometimes, in just eight minutes, they’ve forgotten I was even there! (I try not to be offended by this.)

I guess Einstein was really right about time being relative, eh?

When you’re not “in flow,” when you’re focused on the time but not enthusiastic about the task, time passes slowly. If you don’t get into the flow state, into the groove, you’re constantly checking on the time and not embracing the task with your whole heart and mind, a recipe for dissatisfaction and unfinished work.

Or, you find ways to self-soothe, to do anything but what you’re supposed to, and you get into a flow state but doing the wrong thing. An analog clock, one that shows you the time as it passes, can be a comfort, to assure your “monkey mind” that you won’t be forced to do something boring and distasteful forever. The clock makes time a concrete concept; if you can see that you only have to do your workout routine for 20 minutes, your brain will back off of the obsession with how long it’s taking to do those downward-facing dogs or lunges or whatever.

Conversely, if you are in flow (on work or homework and hopefully not scrolling through social media), it can be hard to effectively transition from what you’re doing now to what you’re supposed to be doing next. Again, an analog clock with a gentle alarm can help you do this.

Also, friend-of-the-blog Dr. Melissa Gratias has a great post, “What is a “Task Transition” and How Can It Make Me More Productive?” on this very topic, and while the advice is geared for grownups, you can modify the instructions to help students get better at transitioning between projects.

For more on flow, check out the “Sidebar on Flow and the Unpronounceable Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi” in my post from last March, Flow and Faux (Accountability): Productivity, Focus, and Alex Trebek or watch Csikszentmihalyi’s superb TEDTalk, below.

Longtime readers know how much my profession loves one particular kind of analog clock/timer.

Time Timer

Time Timers aren’t just clocks. They have three important features:

• They’re analog. Most clocks and timers these days are digital, and for a lot of people, digital time is pretty amorphous. 11:12 and 12:11 don’t feel appreciably different.
• They’re visual. Digital clocks don’t show you the passage of time, they just show you numbers. You can ask Siri or Alexa to tell you when 45 minutes are up, but depending on where you are in the flow state, not really sensing the passage of time can lead to anxiety. But all of the Time Timer products (including the Original, the Plus, the Mod (my favorite!), the watches, and the apps) have a colored disc that shows the passage of time so you or your kids can have a more sensory experience and see time passing.
• They’re not distracting. You don’t hear Time Timers tick like most analog clocks or timers. There’s an optional audio alert when time is up, but otherwise, there’s nothing to steal your focus.

There are many different ways to corral the benefits of analog clocks, especially the Time Timer, into your back-to-school process. For example:

Busy parents are trying to get their kids up, get themselves put together, make sure some kind of breakfast is attempted, pack lunches, sign permission slips, and get everyone out the door. That’s a lot to do, and mornings can be a slog. Setting up a colorful Mod in the high-traffic kitchen keeps everyone’s eyes on the prize.

Got tiny humans who take way too long on morning grooming, meaning that making the bus is an iffy proposition? Setting the Time Timer PLUS 20 Minute on the bathroom counter will let them see that washing the breakfast off their faces, brushing their teeth, combing their hair, and getting dressed need to be accomplished in a bit more orderly fashion and look…that’s another five minutes or more of the red disc disappearing! It’s helpful at both ends of the day, because an orderly bedtime ritual (with a combo dry-erase board and TimeTimer) can make mornings flow better, too.

Note: I’m not sure what kind of societal norm we’ve developed to keep clocks out of bathrooms, but Paper Doll is coming out firmly against that. As someone who has occasionally been known to hold a book in my left hand while lackadaisically holding the hair dryer in my right hand, I think an analog clock, particularly a Time Timer, belongs in the corner of any bathroom countertop to keep our attention where it belongs. (Speaking of bathrooms, last November, when we were in the thick of the pandemic, I wrote Organize Your Health: Parental Wisdom, Innovation, and the New Time Timer® Wash. Given Delta, Delta+, Lambda, and whatever Greek letters might come our way, it’s worth revisiting.) 

Are your older students (in high school and college) going to be taking standardized tests this year? SATs? ACTs? GREs? LSATs? M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-Es! (Sorry. Got carried away for a minute.) These timers are ideal for practicing timed sections of those exams.

And, of course, Time Timers are a great way for high school and college students, as well as office workers, to get (and stay) in the flow when using the Pomodoro Technique, whether you’re using the standard 25 minutes of focus/5 minutes of break method, or a modified 45 minutes of work/10 minutes of break approach.

For more ideas, check out how the Time Timer can be used:

• In education (for students, teachers, and administrators)
• At home
• At work
• In “special needs” circumstances

Academic Planner: A Tool For Time Management®

If you’ve been reading Paper Doll for even a little while, you should be familiar with the Academic Planner: A Tool For Time Management®, the brainchild of my colleague (and fellow Cornell University alumna) Leslie Josel of Order Out of Chaos. Last year, when Leslie’s latest book launched, I interviewed her for Paper Doll Peeks Behind the Curtain with Superstar Coach, Author & Speaker Leslie Josel.

Back in ye olden days (that is, when Paper Doll went to school), middle and high school students didn’t generally have planners. The more organized of us had top-bound spiral notebooks, as though we were junior reporters (or youthful spies) and we used them as assignment notebooks. Teachers recommended faithfully copying down each assignment before leaving the classroom. If these instructions were followed, you’d get home at the end of the day with a page or two of clear notes of what pages you had to read, what problem sets you had to complete, and what essays needed to be written.

Unfortunately, assignment notebooks are like to-do lists. They tell you what to do and when it needs to be finished, but provide no context. (Maybe students should read my post from last month, Checklists, Gantt Charts, and Kanban Boards — Organize Your Tasks?)

So, somewhere in the 1990s, middle and high schools started giving out school-themed paper planners for students to track their projects. It was an improvement, just like planners adults used. Those planners gave kids space to write due dates, but no guidance for keeping track of all the granular details of a complex teenage life—not just classes, homework, projects, and exams, but extracurricular activities, part-time jobs, and family obligations!

This is where the Academic Planner: A Tool For Time Management®, a Family Choice Award-winner, comes in. Leslie’s patented calendar layout helps students see their school assignments right along with their after-school activities so they can plan when they have time to get work done and not merely know that they have to get it done. 

© 2021 Order Out of Chaos

The planner has a wide variety of features and benefits:

• Instead of having to write course names over and over as assignments come up, the planner has unique subject pages at the front and the back so students only have to record class subjects (for which 7 subject boxes are provided) once! If it’s written once and always there, you can’t forget it!
• The planner has oodles of space to enter all Monday-Friday school/after-school activities from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. as well as weekend obligations. This makes it easier for students to plan and manage their time and tasks.
• The pages of the planner line up with the grid of classes on a class-by-class basis, so it’s easier for students to record their weekly schedules and review them. (This is a plus for all those schools that use those weird modules so that every week’s schedule is different!)
• The planner lays out the days of the week horizontally across the top of the weekly two-page spread instead of putting half a week, stacked, on either side. This is much more like the kind of layout most adult paper planners use, and the grid format makes it easy to enter and view assignments and due dates.
• Because a weekly view gives a pretty constrained sense of what needs to be accomplished, the planner also has monthly pages and large pages for writing complex assignments and activities.

See it in action:

In addition to the planner itself, there are a variety of downloadable extras, including a project planning guide, a study planning guide, printable academic planning worksheets, and an accessories pack with a page marker, a monthly tab sheet and a sheet of student stickers.

The whole kit-and-caboodle is $19.99. (If you’re in the US, be sure to use the code FREESHIP60 when you check out to get free shipping on all orders above $60.) You can also get a pack of extra stickers and accessories for $10.79, if you’re so inclined.

Personally, I think adults would get more enjoyment out of their paper planners if they felt at ease buying stickers. In a cool stationery store in London in 2019, I bought a packet of stickers with motivational messages and cool graphics, like luggage tags to mark vacation days. Adult coloring books became a self-care powerhouse. Why not stickers?

Finally, as we wrap up the “time” section, I want to point out again that Leslie’s book, How to Do It Now Because It’s Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done is top-notch for high school and college students needing support on time management and productivity. It’s one of only two books I recommend when parents ask for organizing advice for their students. The other is Donna Goldberg’s classic, The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond. It’s also superb, but was published in 2005, so unlike Leslie’s book, there are few tech solutions. (It’s also much more geared for tangible organizing vs. Leslie’s, which focuses on tasks, time, and overcoming procrastination.) 

SPACE: THE FINAL (and limited) FRONTIER

Last week, in Vibrant and Vertical: Organizing Paper for Back-to-School, we looked at products for helping students of all ages manage their paper. Today, we’re focusing on organizing space, particularly for college students in dorm rooms, where space is in short supply. 

Flat-Plug Power Strips and Surge Protectors

If you’ve moved a college student into the dorms, you’ve probably noticed two things about the space. First, it’s at a premium and you can’t afford to waste an inch of it. Second, the room wasn’t designed by professional organizers, which means that it’s not optimally functional.

For example, the built-in heater is right next to the desk, putting the expensive new computer at risk. The short cord for the mini-fridge limits where in the room you can actually put it. And the electrical outlets are all behind desks and beds, so a traditional extension cord plug needs up to two inches of space to accommodate the plug head!

Aha! But did you know there are power strips and surge protectors with flat-head plugs, so instead of poking straight out, they extend to the side, taking up minimal room, allowing furniture to sit, if not flush against the wall, much closer?

I like this tiny Anker Power Strip with USB PowerExtend. Not only is it designed with a flat plug, it has a 5-foot extension cord, two outlets, and two USB ports.

At only 3.3″ long and 1.8″ thick, this isn’t going to power everything in the room, but it’s ideal for bed-side or desk-top items you need to charge, and at $12.74 from Amazon, it’s an inexpensive solution to the “I can’t plug it in!” frustration.

The Anker Power Strip comes in black or white, and in 5′, 8′, and 10′ lengths, but for some reason, the black versions are more expensive than the white ones at every length. 

If you want an actual surge protector and one that accommodates charging multiple devices, there are a variety of options. I like the style and functionality of this Tessan Power Strip Surge Protector.

In addition to the flat plug, it has nine AC outlets and 3 USB ports, and a 6.5′ cord. But what appeals to me in particular is the functionality of the design in how the outlets and ports are laid out, with three outlets on the two sides and top of the surge protector, and the three USB ports on the small front end. By not squishing everything on the top surface, there’s more room to use those occasional oversized charging plugs. It’s $19.00, and in the reverse of Anker’s odd pricing, the white version is more expensive, at $24.99.

USB-USB-C Adapters

I recently purchased one of the gorgeous new 24″ iMacs. When I got it, I was so focused on the front:

that I didn’t really pay that much attention to the specs or the photo of the rear view:

If you’re an old-time iMac user, you may (or may not) peek at the lower left corner of the rear of the computer and see the problem. You see, on my old iMac, I had four USB ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and an ethernet port. On the new iMac, I have just two itty-bitty, teeny-weeny USB-C ports and two ittier-bittier Thunderbolt 3 ports. 

The problem? Computers don’t come with CD drives anymore, so I have an external one with a USB connection. And I have a 2TB external hard drive for backing up locally, also with a USB connection. I have a USB Fitbit charger, a little USB fan for hot days, and a USB podcast-quality external microphone. And now none of them fit my new computer!

Now, this isn’t a tragedy. I use an old-timey Space Bar monitor riser with two front-facing and three rear-facing USB ports, and two front-facing USB charging-only ports, and I just need to plug the new iMac into the old riser. But during the transition, I really need something to make everything fit in a tiny, tidy way. (And the Space Bar monitor riser is ancient, so I can’t count on it forever.)

So, if you’ve got a high school student or college student with a new computer and a lot of (slightly) older devices and chargers, you don’t need to rush to purchase a desktop space-hogging USB hub adapter. Instead, get a sense of how much your student needs to modify the space part of the space-time continuum.

There are miniature adapters, sans cables, you can plug in to the USB-C ports of your new devices and plug your older USB items into them. I purchased a Syntech USB C to USB Adapter 2-pack in Rose Gold (to coordinate with the purple iMac, of course) for $10.99.

Instead of shelling out for a big hub that I probably don’t need, for a little more than $5 each, these little 1.08″ long x 0.65″ wide x 0.32″ high doohickeys save space and minimize the number of cables in my space. 

If you’ve got a dorm-based student, looking for space-saving items for electronics, check out the wide variety of tiny USB-to-USB C options.

I hope you and your families have a great school year. Good luck taking up your share of the space-time continuum!

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