Host Jennifer Hatfield discusses the #1 {foolproof} tool that will help students manage their paper better. Gone are the days of papers strewn about everywhere, lost homework and misplaced important papers. 

	In addition to the show, grab the FREE template that will walk you through selecting and using the tool with your student. 

	Like what you hear? Please leave me a comment, subscrive to the show here or on iTunes. I'd love a review too! 

	Don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list for even more great ideas!

Welcome to the Study Skills and More for Students podcast.

If you are a regular listener or used to be a regular listener, you'll notice that I've changed things up a little bit.

We are switching over to the new name so that we can more accurately reach our audience.

So the Study Skills and More for Students podcast is born.

I took some time off in 2015 from podcasting, just did a few episodes, but we'll be back every other week in 2016.

And just really excited at the changes, not only with the name, but I'll be offering a freebie download with each episode.

So basically a little roadmap or cheat sheet to go along with each topic that I discuss in the show every other week.

You'll be able to download these freebies if you go to www.therapyandlearningservicespodcast.com and it will be written like a blog post and then you'll have a button that you'll click to get the download.

So it'll have a little synopsis of the show, et cetera, et cetera.

So as always, if you like what you hear, I

It just helps us to reach more people, which is the whole point of me doing this.

I really wanna be able to help parents and students just be able to create what they want for their life.

And a lot of times that involves organizational skills and being able to reach their goals with improving those areas and study skills.

So we also have a great 2016 lineup that includes several amazing guests that I will be interviewing.

Most of the time we'll be sticking to the 15 minute time slot or time frame but I will do some longer shows when I interview guests so looking forward to that as well.

When I looked at that, I was like, oh my goodness, I've been doing this a while, even with taking time off in 2015.

So I'm happy to bring you episode 105, which is the number 1 paper management tool for students.

I will go down fighting that this is the number 1 tool that students should be using to manage their paper.

So I really, I don't know about you, but paper drives me nuts.

Probably because I often find that in my life, at different periods of time, when maybe my organizational skills were not as strong as they are now, Or even now, if I let my routines lapse a little bit, paper is my Achilles heel.

And it just, it builds up quickly, there's too much of it, it's visual clutter, it stresses me out.

And even though I have a kid in college now, sophomore

in college, and my daughter actually has switched over

to online high school, my son incidentally did that also from his sophomore year on in high school.

And we don't have to deal with as much paper.

from when they were in elementary and middle school

and just having to deal with all of that.

But 1 of the biggest struggles for all of us, my kids and myself, when they were in Brooks and Water School was finding a paper management system that was easy to use and maintain.

And I'm happy to say that even though my son

he does a really great job with paper management now because we were able to get it under control.

So this episode is for you, if you're a student or a parent or a teacher even, and you are tired of drowning in paper.

So I work with a lot of students and parents

the amount of paper that there is to juggle.

the locker are overflowing with papers, smashed, some trash and some not.

Everybody has that moment where you go and clean out the backpack at

the end of the semester, at the end of the year, at the

locker, and you're like, oh, there's where that permission slip went, or oh, there's that homework assignment that I thought I had finished but, you know, couldn't find.

Nobody can find anything when things are this way.

And then just when they think they found a new tool that works, right, because we are on a quest to find tools that help us become more organized, especially when we have kids who are not organized.

We try everything we can think of, and there

but when we find a tool, And we think, okay, this is gonna be the remedy for our problem, it doesn't work.

And if you've listened to any of my past shows, You know that that's where I focus a lot of my time and energy is making sure you are looking at what your needs are and for a tool before you ever purchase a tool.

Because if it's not right for you, it's not going to work.

And then you've lost the trust of your students and they're frustrated and you're frustrated and so once again, I'm going to say that you have to make sure you're finding the right tool.

Now, obviously today since I'm giving you the number 1 paper management tool for students, I have already done that hard work for you.

So I thought that there are 3 big reasons that students struggle with paper management.

Number 1, like we've just talked about, they don't have a tool that is right for their needs.

And that can be a reason for a lot of things,

things that students struggle with with regard to school and study skills.

And the second thing is that they don't have a system for using the tool.

You find these tools and you think it's the next best thing, but if you don't have a system to use the tool, it doesn't work.

Another thing that I love to say with my coaching clients, if it ain't easy, I'm not doing it.

If I have to think too much about a filing system for paper, or this goes here and that goes there, and where did I put that filing system?

So it has to be easy from all directions, all angles.

So because of this, because study skills tools or tools that we buy at Staples or wherever we buy our tools, our organizational tools for school and for our kids, they don't come with these plans attached like here's how you use this.

So I've created a roadmap for you that will help you walk through the steps of selecting the best tool for managing paper, okay, and learning the system to use the tools.

So, make sure you listen to the whole podcast though, okay?

We've only got about 6 minutes left, so, and because I really want you to learn this tool and how to use it and take care of that paper about once and for all.

And once you get that under control, you really will not believe how much your child can improve with school and how much less nagging you do and there's less stress and anxiety for everyone.

So I'm going to walk you through the steps of this here on the podcast, but then that freebie is available for download if you go to www.therapyandlearningservices.podcast.

If you get to my main page, just look under

And just click on that and you will find episode 105, the number 1 paper management tool for students.

And you will be able to find the big yellow button that you can push and you will be able to download all of the tips that you need.

The number 1 tool for paper management for students is an accordion file.

Because instead of having a folder for each class, and teachers if you're listening, please, if you can, please stop asking students to have a folder for each class or each subject.

That's so many things for these kiddos to keep track of in elementary school, middle school, high school, it's too much.

And for even a typical student, if you add in a student who we know has attention issues,

little disorganized, even not formally diagnosed with anything, it's too much.

It's too much if we have to have so many things like that to keep track of.

So if we use 1 accordion file, which can have up to 20 files inside, But the ones that I like for students generally have about 10 to 12 file slots inside.

And this is 1 tool that they have to carry, 1, besides their book, right?

So They would be able to go between classes, if they're in middle and high school, grab their accordion file and their book for the class and they're good to go.

They don't have to waste time in front of the locker remembering which folder goes with which book and you know what I'm saying?

Okay, I don't even need to spend a lot of time on that, right?

So it's 1 tool that if you look under the hood allows the student to have every class folder with them all of the time.

1 tool that allows them to not only have enough space for each of their classes, but also space for extra paper, supplies, important papers like permission slips and receipts that they get maybe for a book rental or whatever.

They have a place for their assigned homework.

They have a place for their completed homework.

All they have to remember, like I said, is grab their book and their accordion file and they're all set for class.

That's all they have to remember at the end of the day is which books to grab and grab their accordion file.

If they are using this tool properly and using the system, they are in and out quickly.

No more having to take the kids back to school to get forgotten homework because they forgot their math folder.

You need to have that system for using the tool.

the show, tools don't magically fix organization issues.

Just buying that tool doesn't fix anything.

You have to develop a system or for lack of better a habit so that you'll use it.

So once you purchase the best accordion file for your paper needs.

And on my cheat sheet that you can download, I walk you through what you need to consider when you're purchasing.

OK, I'm not talking about that in the show.

You've got to download the cheat sheet to find out those extra tips, OK?

You need to sit down, and you need to label it, first of all.

Label it with the classes and whether you're gonna have a homework in and out and extra supplies.

And then you need to set the intention that this is the only place that you will put papers for school.

And if you're a student listening, or if you're a parent listening and you're telling your students, you have to say to yourself, when a teacher gives me a paper, I'll put it where it goes right away, not later.

You're not gonna be stuffing these papers into just the front of the accordion file.

You need to put it in the proper place right away.

When you have paper in your hand, you need to make a decision.

That is 1 of the number 1 organizational strategies is not to put off dealing with paper.

It takes less than 10 seconds, right, to file it in the proper space.

Then, better yet, you want to develop what's called an anchor that will help you further develop the habit, okay?

So if you, you know, like an anchor would be like if you're sitting in class and at the end of class, the teacher announces all the time, okay, time to clean up.

When you're cleaning up, When you hear that anchor, time to clean up, you want to make sure you have looked for all of your papers on your desk, filed them appropriately, and then off you go, okay?

Then, okay, so that's the system for helping you on a day-to-day basis.

Then you need to have a system that keeps you running smoothly for the long term.

The tool, you use it with a system, but then if you don't have a long-term management system, you fall off the wagon, right?

And I don't want that to happen to you because this is like 1 of the most important parts of having a good organizational system.

So I can't tell you how many students I see who go through the hard work of the first 2 steps, all right, getting the tool and having a system, but then they abandon it because they don't have that routine to maintain it over the long term, okay, and keep it running smoothly.

So to find out how to do this, okay, to have that long-term routine, you need to download the cheat sheet that you can find at therapyandlearningservices.com podcast.

All right, you're going to click the big yellow button and I'm gonna walk you through each step of having that long-term routine for helping you keep it running, okay?

Now 1 thing I wanna leave you with here because we're out of time is that developing new habits takes time.

So if you're a parent and you're going to implement this, use this with your kids, please be patient with yourself and your student.

If something doesn't seem to be working, go back through the steps on my cheat sheet that you're going to download and tweak the steps.

Okay, make sure that you haven't missed anything.

Make sure that you didn't gloss over the setting up the system and being clear in your mind and setting the intention of what that system would be.

Don't be afraid to make the system work for you and your needs.

You may not need 10 to 12 slots in your accordion file, okay?

Really think about how you need, what space you need and how you need to use it, okay?

Please resist the urge to stop using the system just because you may hit

Because I'm telling you, this is the best solution for paper management.

I use an accordion file myself as a traveling coach and therapist.

I used to have a binder that I would keep for each of my clients.

Not only was that crazy because I traveled to 2 different offices, you know, as far as space and just weight of things that I was carrying,

I didn't wanna take the time to open up the binder, unclick the rings in the middle.

I'd stuff all of my papers in the file, or the folder in the front.

And then I'd have to schedule a time to put all of those in which let's face it, I really didn't do that on a consistent basis, okay?

So I thought, duh, I'm gonna use my accordion file.

I have the initials of each of my clients on the file tab and I have

everything right there at my fingertips because as a traveling coach in therapy, sometimes I need to access my notes from sessions and whatnot, and I'm on the road.

So it's a great way for me to be able to keep things organized.

right, so don't forget to download that freebie at therapyandlearningservices.com podcast for episode 105.

And please, if you liked the show, please share.

I really would appreciate it because I am trying to reach more people.

And if you would review the show on iTunes or on Blog Talk Radio, but preferably on iTunes if you're listening from the feed there.

If you review, not only does that give me really great feedback on, you know, hey, how did I do?

It also allows us to rank higher, which allows more people to find us, okay?

And it's really my passion to be able to reach students that need help at middle school and high school level and help parents too to help their kids, okay?

So I'd really love that if you can leave a review, subscribe to the show, share it for me, whatever you feel comfortable doing.

If you have time to do all of those things, that would be great too.

All right, so I will see you back here in 2 weeks for our next podcast and everybody take care, alright?


Speaker 0: Blog Talk Radio Good morning. Hi, I'm Jennifer Hatfield. Welcome to the Study Skills and More for Students podcast. It's great to be back. If you are a regular listener or used to be a regular listener, you'll notice that I've changed things up a little bit.

We are switching over to the new name so that we can more accurately reach our audience. So the Study Skills and More for Students podcast is born. And it's great to be back. I took some time off in 2015 from podcasting, just did a few episodes, but we'll be back every other week in 2016. And just really excited at the changes, not only with the name, but I'll be offering a freebie download with each episode.

So basically a little roadmap or cheat sheet to go along with each topic that I discuss in the show every other week. You'll be able to download these freebies if you go to www.therapyandlearningservicespodcast.com and it will be written like a blog post and then you'll have a button that you'll click to get the download. So it'll have a little synopsis of the show, et cetera, et cetera. So as always, if you like what you hear, I

Speaker 1: would appreciate that you share and

Speaker 0: It just helps us to reach more people, which is the whole point of me doing this. I really wanna be able to help parents and students just be able to create what they want for their life. And a lot of times that involves organizational skills and being able to reach their goals with improving those areas and study skills. So we also have a great 2016 lineup that includes several amazing guests that I will be interviewing. Most of the time we'll be sticking to the 15 minute time slot or time frame but I will do some longer shows when I interview guests so looking forward to that as well.

So let's get started. Today is episode number 105. When I looked at that, I was like, oh my goodness, I've been doing this a while, even with taking time off in 2015. So I'm happy to bring you episode 105, which is the number 1 paper management tool for students. And I completely believe this.

I will go down fighting that this is the number 1 tool that students should be using to manage their paper. So I really, I don't know about you, but paper drives me nuts. Probably because I often find that in my life, at different periods of time, when maybe my organizational skills were not as strong as they are now, Or even now, if I let my routines lapse a little bit, paper is my Achilles heel. And it just, it builds up quickly, there's too much of it, it's visual clutter, it stresses me out. And even though I have a kid in college now, sophomore

Speaker 1: in college, and my daughter actually has switched over

Speaker 0: to online high school, my son incidentally did that also from his sophomore year on in high school. And we don't have to deal with as much paper. I don't miss those piles of paper

Speaker 1: from when they were in elementary and middle school

Speaker 0: and just having to deal with all of that. But 1 of the biggest struggles for all of us, my kids and myself, when they were in Brooks and Water School was finding a paper management system that was easy to use and maintain. And I'm happy to say that even though my son

Speaker 1: being in traditional university,

Speaker 0: he does a really great job with paper management now because we were able to get it under control. So this episode is for you, if you're a student or a parent or a teacher even, and you are tired of drowning in paper. So I work with a lot of students and parents

Speaker 1: who, like myself and like my kids,

Speaker 0: just can't keep up with

Speaker 1: the amount of paper that there is to juggle. The backpack and

Speaker 0: the locker are overflowing with papers, smashed, some trash and some not. Everybody has that moment where you go and clean out the backpack at

Speaker 1: the end of the semester, at the end of the year, at the

Speaker 0: locker, and you're like, oh, there's where that permission slip went, or oh, there's that homework assignment that I thought I had finished but, you know, couldn't find. Nobody can find anything when things are this way. And then just when they think they found a new tool that works, right, because we are on a quest to find tools that help us become more organized, especially when we have kids who are not organized. We try everything we can think of, and there

Speaker 1: are a lot of great tools out there,

Speaker 0: but when we find a tool, And we think, okay, this is gonna be the remedy for our problem, it doesn't work. And the cycle continues, right? And if you've listened to any of my past shows, You know that that's where I focus a lot of my time and energy is making sure you are looking at what your needs are and for a tool before you ever purchase a tool. Because if it's not right for you, it's not going to work. And then you've lost the trust of your students and they're frustrated and you're frustrated and so once again, I'm going to say that you have to make sure you're finding the right tool.

Now, obviously today since I'm giving you the number 1 paper management tool for students, I have already done that hard work for you. So I thought that there are 3 big reasons that students struggle with paper management. Number 1, like we've just talked about, they don't have a tool that is right for their needs. I just said that, right? And that can be a reason for a lot of things,

Speaker 1: you know, a lot of

Speaker 0: things that students struggle with with regard to school and study skills. And the second thing is that they don't have a system for using the tool. And I'm gonna say that again, okay? Because that's really important. You find these tools and you think it's the next best thing, but if you don't have a system to use the tool, it doesn't work.

Okay? And we have to make that system easy. Another thing that I love to say with my coaching clients, if it ain't easy, I'm not doing it. I'm not using it. If I have to think too much about a filing system for paper, or this goes here and that goes there, and where did I put that filing system?

It's not going to get used. So it has to be easy from all directions, all angles. So because of this, because study skills tools or tools that we buy at Staples or wherever we buy our tools, our organizational tools for school and for our kids, they don't come with these plans attached like here's how you use this. You just come as a tool, right? So I've created a roadmap for you that will help you walk through the steps of selecting the best tool for managing paper, okay, and learning the system to use the tools.

So, make sure you listen to the whole podcast though, okay? We've only got about 6 minutes left, so, and because I really want you to learn this tool and how to use it and take care of that paper about once and for all. And once you get that under control, you really will not believe how much your child can improve with school and how much less nagging you do and there's less stress and anxiety for everyone. So I'm going to walk you through the steps of this here on the podcast, but then that freebie is available for download if you go to www.therapyandlearningservices.podcast.

Speaker 1: So you are going to find that.

Speaker 0: If you get to my main page, just look under

Speaker 1: the blog and there will be

Speaker 0: a separate page for podcasts. And just click on that and you will find episode 105, the number 1 paper management tool for students. And you will be able to find the big yellow button that you can push and you will be able to download all of the tips that you need. Okay, so let's get started. The number 1 tool for paper management for students is an accordion file.

And here's why. Because instead of having a folder for each class, and teachers if you're listening, please, if you can, please stop asking students to have a folder for each class or each subject. Think about it. That's so many things for these kiddos to keep track of in elementary school, middle school, high school, it's too much. And for even a typical student, if you add in a student who we know has attention issues,

Speaker 1: okay, or just is a

Speaker 0: little disorganized, even not formally diagnosed with anything, it's too much. Think about ourselves. It's too much if we have to have so many things like that to keep track of. So if we use 1 accordion file, which can have up to 20 files inside, But the ones that I like for students generally have about 10 to 12 file slots inside. And this is 1 tool that they have to carry, 1, besides their book, right?

So They would be able to go between classes, if they're in middle and high school, grab their accordion file and their book for the class and they're good to go. They don't have to waste time in front of the locker remembering which folder goes with which book and you know what I'm saying? Okay, I don't even need to spend a lot of time on that, right? So it's 1 tool that if you look under the hood allows the student to have every class folder with them all of the time. 1 tool that allows them to not only have enough space for each of their classes, but also space for extra paper, supplies, important papers like permission slips and receipts that they get maybe for a book rental or whatever.

They have a place for their assigned homework. They have a place for their completed homework. All of these nicely organized in 1 tool. All they have to remember, like I said, is grab their book and their accordion file and they're all set for class. That's all they have to remember at the end of the day is which books to grab and grab their accordion file.

If they are using this tool properly and using the system, they are in and out quickly. No more forgotten homework. No more having to take the kids back to school to get forgotten homework because they forgot their math folder. It's in the accordion file. So that's number 1.

That's the tool, right? You need to have that system for using the tool.

Speaker 1: As I said earlier in

Speaker 0: the show, tools don't magically fix organization issues. They just don't. And that's why we fail. Just buying that tool doesn't fix anything. You have to develop a system or for lack of better a habit so that you'll use it.

So once you purchase the best accordion file for your paper needs. And on my cheat sheet that you can download, I walk you through what you need to consider when you're purchasing. OK, I'm not talking about that in the show. You've got to download the cheat sheet to find out those extra tips, OK? You need to sit down, and you need to label it, first of all.

That's the first step, okay? Label it with the classes and whether you're gonna have a homework in and out and extra supplies. And then you need to set the intention that this is the only place that you will put papers for school. And if you're a student listening, or if you're a parent listening and you're telling your students, you have to say to yourself, when a teacher gives me a paper, I'll put it where it goes right away, not later. You're not gonna be stuffing these papers into just the front of the accordion file.

You need to put it in the proper place right away. When you have paper in your hand, you need to make a decision. That is 1 of the number 1 organizational strategies is not to put off dealing with paper. It takes less than 10 seconds, right, to file it in the proper space. Then, better yet, you want to develop what's called an anchor that will help you further develop the habit, okay?

So if you, you know, like an anchor would be like if you're sitting in class and at the end of class, the teacher announces all the time, okay, time to clean up. When you're cleaning up, When you hear that anchor, time to clean up, you want to make sure you have looked for all of your papers on your desk, filed them appropriately, and then off you go, okay? Then, okay, so that's the system for helping you on a day-to-day basis. Then you need to have a system that keeps you running smoothly for the long term. Again, this is where we often go wrong.

The tool, you use it with a system, but then if you don't have a long-term management system, you fall off the wagon, right? And I don't want that to happen to you because this is like 1 of the most important parts of having a good organizational system. So I can't tell you how many students I see who go through the hard work of the first 2 steps, all right, getting the tool and having a system, but then they abandon it because they don't have that routine to maintain it over the long term, okay, and keep it running smoothly. So to find out how to do this, okay, to have that long-term routine, you need to download the cheat sheet that you can find at therapyandlearningservices.com podcast. All right, you're going to click the big yellow button and I'm gonna walk you through each step of having that long-term routine for helping you keep it running, okay?

Now 1 thing I wanna leave you with here because we're out of time is that developing new habits takes time. So if you're a parent and you're going to implement this, use this with your kids, please be patient with yourself and your student. If something doesn't seem to be working, go back through the steps on my cheat sheet that you're going to download and tweak the steps. Okay, make sure that you haven't missed anything. Make sure that you didn't gloss over the setting up the system and being clear in your mind and setting the intention of what that system would be.

Don't be afraid to make the system work for you and your needs. You may not need 10 to 12 slots in your accordion file, okay? Really think about how you need, what space you need and how you need to use it, okay? Please resist the urge to stop using the system just because you may hit

Speaker 1: a bump in the road,

Speaker 0: all right? Because I'm telling you, this is the best solution for paper management. I use an accordion file myself as a traveling coach and therapist. That's how I keep myself organized. I used to have a binder that I would keep for each of my clients.

Not only was that crazy because I traveled to 2 different offices, you know, as far as space and just weight of things that I was carrying,

Speaker 1: I didn't wanna take the time to open up the binder, unclick the rings in the middle. So what would I do?

Speaker 0: I'd stuff all of my papers in the file, or the folder in the front. And then I'd have to schedule a time to put all of those in which let's face it, I really didn't do that on a consistent basis, okay? So I thought, duh, I'm gonna use my accordion file. So that's what I do. I have the initials of each of my clients on the file tab and I have

Speaker 1: everything right there at my fingertips because as a traveling coach in therapy, sometimes I need to access my notes from sessions and whatnot, and I'm on the road. So it's a great way for me to be able to keep things organized. All

Speaker 0: right, so don't forget to download that freebie at therapyandlearningservices.com podcast for episode 105. And please, if you liked the show, please share. I really would appreciate it because I am trying to reach more people. And if you would review the show on iTunes or on Blog Talk Radio, but preferably on iTunes if you're listening from the feed there. If you review, not only does that give me really great feedback on, you know, hey, how did I do?

You know, do you agree, Do you disagree? Do you like the show? It also allows us to rank higher, which allows more people to find us, okay? And it's really my passion to be able to reach students that need help at middle school and high school level and help parents too to help their kids, okay? So I'd really love that if you can leave a review, subscribe to the show, share it for me, whatever you feel comfortable doing.

If you have time to do all of those things, that would be great too. All right, so I will see you back here in 2 weeks for our next podcast and everybody take care, alright? Great to be back in the saddle. Have a great day.

Speaker 1: Transcribed by https://otter.ai

See all Study Skills {and more} for Students transcripts on Googlepodcasts

Episode #105: The #1 Paper Management Tool for Students