Organizing

I always thought I was an organized person--until I became a teacher. Suddenly my piles of papers and colorful post-it notes became cumbersome and time-consuming to shuffle through. I would love to say that I found a solution and became highly organized while teaching, but that wouldn't be true. The closest I came to being organized was using small notebooks, one after the other, (with a liberal number of colorful post-its) to keep track of everything I needed to remember. Then I would leaf through the notebooks in search of whatever I needed.

After a challenging first year teaching, I took time off, and my new supervisor let me in on her organizing secret: the Franklin-Covey planner. What makes the planner different than my series of little notebooks is: 1) it's a binder, so pages can be added in-between other pages; 2) for each day the left-hand side has a to-do list and appointment space; 3) the right hand side has space for notes; 4) there are monthly calendars and planning calendars, an address book, and a finace section; 5) there are five sections for project planning and/or committee notes; 6) each month of notes has an index page.

That last feature is what has saved me the most time. Instead of leafing through many, many notebooks, I refer to monthly index pages that point me to the day I made the note I am looking for. (This could even be made even more useful by creating an index for each school year or each semester.)

You could create the same sort of organization within one of the small notebooks I used to use--or even better a small binder. It's up to you. It's possible to recreate many of the features.

For more information on Franklin-Covey planners, visit http://www.franklincovey.com/