Time Management and Organization for Homeschoolers Â
The most common problems faced by the homeschooling parents are related to time management and ways of motivating the kids.
Getting Organized
Homeschool indicates that the house is being used for another purpose. The house being used for other purposes often leads to disorganization, clutter and chaos. According to Elizabeth Hagen, professional speaker and organizer, the advantage of being organized is that you can be more focused and not be preoccupied by the environment. Due to cluttering, there is loss of both emotional and physical energy, time in terms of looking for the object, peace of mind and even, money.
Hagen defines clutter as things around the house and activities that are not meaningful to your life. In a defined manner, clutter is anything that you possess, own and do and which does not develop your life, on a normal basis. Each area must be focused with adequate time in hand.
In order to facilitate the organizing process, Hagen developed the START method, where S stands for Sort, T for Throw, give or recycle, A for Appoint a home, R for Restrict to a container and T for Take Back Control. The process should be started with something simple. The best way is to work with such things that are only relevant to the organizational area. The START method should be availed till all the items have been gone through. This organizational method will provide a peaceful feeling. Thus, you need to go through every room or space marked on your list until everything has been reorganized, repurposed and sorted. For those who consider time management to be a problem, the idea of organizing can appear to be overwhelming.
Time Management
First, you need to find out your style of time management as usually, these styles can be modified but not changed. Accepting your styles will enable you to find systems, products and support that specifically suit your requirements.
According to Sunny Schlenger, the various categories of styles are:
Perfectionist Plus: People conforming to this style think that they are capable of doing everything but in the process of doing things right, they get so involved that they usually have trouble regarding finishing the task. Moreover, they are not satisfied with the result.
Fence-Sitter: These people leave everything to chance as they are apprehensive about making the wrong choice.
The Hopper: They frequently jump from one task to another, without bothering about the completion of the work.
Allergic to Details: They prefer to formulate plans instead of carrying them out and are usually weak in terms of following through the plans.
Cliffhanger: They tends to delay everything to the last minute because for finishing their task, they require outside time pressure. They mostly fail to finish their tasks on time.
Tips for Time Management
Schlenger provides tips for time management for each style. He feels that the Perfectionists Plus people should concentrate only on those things that gives them the energy to deal with other things and which they mainly enjoy doing. While planning for tasks, distinction must be made between low and high priority activities so that maximum amount of energy can be put in the long-term and high priority items.
The Fence-sitters should learn to assess their desires and needs so that opportunities can be recognized when they arise. Besides getting input from a professional or knowledgeable friend, paying attention to your instincts is also important. It is advisable that the decisions be divided into small steps with personal deadlines.
The Hoppers should try to eliminate interruptions and distractions, whenever possible. Tools like watch or alarm clock and schedule are not only useful in setting limits but also in creating more structure. The problem areas can also be minimized by working on the underlying cause of jumping from one task to another.
Allergic to Details type people must set particular dates for doing things and creating simple routines. The method of organizing materials and writing things down are a great way of improving their memory.
The Cliffhangers should take the help of backward planning and creating two deadlines for getting their work done, within the given time and including all steps. The first deadline should be for final checking and the other should be the absolute deadline.
Thus, identifying your style and modifying it to suit your work will help in maintaining a balance between what you like to do and what you must do.