Kids need to get organized, but many of them fail to see and meet that need. As a result, they do just about everything the hard way. Their lack of organizational insights and everyday practices stands in the way of efficient school performance. They may not even know what it means to be organized, so they lack goals for becoming organized.

Four principal modes of organization can lubricate a mind's gears to help smooth out any academic challenge. The slightly overlapping organizational modes include: 1) the management of time; 2) the management of material; 3) the use of strategies; and 4) the integration of multiple tasks and task components. Some students make use of these organizational modes independently, spontaneously, and adeptly, while, for others, one or more of these ways of getting one's act together comprises a serious obstacle to quality schoolwork.

The Management of Time
Students vary widely in their appreciation of time and how it works, especially when it comes to meeting demands related to school. Some individuals seem afloat in a misty time warp! They have trouble allocating time, estimating time, meeting deadlines, knowing when they are running behind or ahead of time, and contending with schedules. In short, they lack time management skills. They are apt to do too many things in a shoddy manner in a panicked frenzy at the last minute. They run out of time. They run away from time.

Students who are well organized in time are able to plan their week in advance. They can stage their work output appropriately. For example, a student with good timing knows when he needs to start reading a book in order to finish it and write a report to be submitted on a specific date. She seems to have a clear sense of what to do when. Such a child or adolescent can work with schedules and calendars and can pace herself when she takes an exam, studies for a test, or writes a report. She is unlikely to procrastinate.

The Management of Materials
School has an abundance of tools and wares that kids need to track and coordinate. Pencils, assignment pads, calculators, textbooks, worksheets, and folders are among the plethora of scholastic props that need to be reckoned with. Some students agonize over these threatening objects; they are overwhelmed and stymied by these material entities that seem to engulf and sometimes maliciously play hide and seek with them. These are kids who keep losing things, who have trouble organizing a desk surface, a locker, a bookbag, or a loose-leaf notebook. They seldom seem to have what they need when they need it. Their rooms at home may seem to have been impacted by a powerful tornado.

Children who are managing to manage materials seem to know where they have left things. They have set sites for the temporary storage of various objects and they are able to foresee and plan for instrumental needs. Thus, prior to leaving school such a student is aware of what papers, books, and other tools are necessities for tonight's homework assignments. His materially-at-loose-ends friend, on the other hand, is taken by surprise when he sets about doing the work.

The Use of Strategies
Strategies enable students to think about the best way to do something prior to undertaking a complicated or demanding task. The right strategies in the right hands make school much less of a challenging ordeal. There are some students who appear to be born strategists, while others appear to have no methods at their disposal. They just do things, deploying the first thing that comes to mind.

A student's study habits represent an important repertoire of strategies. Knowing how to go about preparing for a test makes the process more effective and efficient. This entails knowing how to organize the material you are studying and also knowing how to organize your mind so you are most likely to retain what you have to learn. Making lists, drawing diagrams, using mnemonic tricks, and finding clever ways to test yourself would be tactics used by a good student strategist. Non-strategic kids would simply go over the material in a random disorganized manner. Strategies also help to complete projects, learn new concepts, and master rules. They have endless applications, they save time, and they get results. They also get students to focus on how they are doing things instead of just trying to get them over with.

The Integration of Multiple Tasks and Task Components
There are many tasks and activities in school that require students to integrate smoothly multiple different components. Some kids find this challenge easy, even pleasurable. For others task integration results in utter disintegration! They are able to meet expectations when assignments are straightforward but not when they entail organizing a crowd of parts. A science project might consist of downloading relevant articles from the Internet, drawing several diagrams, making a plastic replica, writing an accompanying report, listing references, and preparing an oral presentation of your work. Such a multiply demanding expectation overwhelms some students. They may be able to read well, copy from the board accurately, and complete math assignments as expected, but tasks such as report writing may seem to them to have too many loose ends that defy organization.

Many students experience frustration with the multi-tasking, an ever-growing demand as kids progress through their school years. They need to satisfy requirements imposed by multiple teachers, their parents, their recreational activities, and other commitments. This requires judicious resource allocation, prioritization, and planning. Kids who are easily overwhelmed in the face of multiple demands may come apart at the academic seams, especially in secondary school.

Students who are effective with task integration are adept at tying together the loose strands to compile a report, project, or challenging problem solution. Characteristically they employ a systematic stepwise approach, one that eludes those who lack integrative techniques and so feel defeated and depleted when asked to tackle a complex academic task.

Getting Students to Get Organized
There are many children and adolescents who require support and instruction to become better organized in school. Many lessons in organization can be woven into the everyday life of a classroom. These activities should be made explicit, so that kids learn about organization at the same time they are getting organized. For some these lessons are particularly hard to learn and apply. They require concerted attention before they become disheartened in school.