Laine

Spring into Action!

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Spring is officially here according to the calendar. Seeing the flowers start to peek out of the ground gives me the urge to finish up my winter projects so that I can get outside as soon as Mother Nature allows. One of my least favorite activities is “spring cleaning.”

As soon as the calendar said it was spring, I can remember my grandmother would start her spring cleaning. I don’t know how long she spent spring cleaning but she did things like washing walls, windows, and curtains, as well as, polishing the woodwork and furniture.

Spring cleaning dates back to the time when heating systems used coal and were not as efficient as today’s systems. The black soot that covered everything made it necessary to clean things each spring to get rid of it. I am sure that is when my grandmother started her little ritual. I happen to have a different idea of how to “spring clean.”

Now, if you’ve been following me for a while you know I often use the term “baby steps” because I believe that even baby steps in the right direction will still get you where you want to go. So in keeping with that theme, we are about to launch a month long action plan that will provide ideas for simple organizing projects that can be done in 20 minutes or less. Each week we’ll tackle a room together in short bursts. Check out my facebook page for extra tricks and tips during the week.

Organize your kitchenThe kitchen is often the busiest room in the house so we will start there. Take a look around. Is your kitchen a calm, organized gathering place, or is it a chaotic, cluttered mess? No matter what the state with a few helpful hints you can get it under control. Some common kitchen dilemmas are things either do not have a place or are not stored in a logical place. For example, do you have the things you use for cooking near the stove or do you need to walk across the kitchen to get them? Countertops are valuable “real estate” and should be occupied by things you use daily. Other less frequently used things such as the waffle iron, breadmaker or mixer should be stored in a cabinet or area away from the things used daily.  Dishes and glasses should be stored close to the dishwasher so that you can quickly unload them directly into the cabinets.

This week’s 20 minute action step is to clean out the refrigerator. Depending on the size of your family, clearing out the shelves in the refrigerator may take longer. Set a timer and work for the 20 minutes, if you choose to continue, fine. If not, no guilt. You did your 20 minutes. Check expiration dates and the state of condiments you don’t use very often. This is great to do the night before your trash day (just in case there is food that needs to go out). Wash down each shelf and then the sides and bottom of the refrigerator. Try to group things together when you put them back in. Make an area for the drinks, the condiments and the leftovers. If you are losing things in the back of the fridge there are plastic bins that will contain things and are easy to pull out.  Change the box of baking soda or whatever you use to keep it smelling fresh and you are done. There’s a short video on organizing your fridge at the Container Store. Check it out. Then join the conversation, what would you like to tackle this spring? Use the comment box below.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is coming….are you ready?

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Spring AheadDaylight savings time begins this weekend. That means the days will start off a bit darker but the afternoons will be lighter longer. That always seems to help my energy level. I must run on solar power.

We actually can lose an hour of sleep this weekend if we stick to our regular routine bedtime. Most people set the clock ahead as they are getting into bed on Saturday only to discover it is now an hour later than their usual bedtime. My recommendation is to set your watch (not all the clocks in your house unless you want to drive someone crazy) a ½ hour ahead on Friday afternoon so that you get used to the difference in the level of light. Check it several times and eat dinner according to the new time. Then on Saturday afternoon turn it back the rest of the way. Go by the new time as your bed time and keep the alarm set the same. You’ll actually sleep an extra hour and wake up feeling better instead of worse. I know most weekends you might not stick to your regular bedtime but by staying up longer or even sleeping in you can throw your circadian rhythms off. The reason Mondays are often so hard is because the circadian rhythms have been thrown off by two or three hours. That’s like flying back from California making Monday mornings feel like jetlag.

Now what will you do with your new found energy? First, change the batteries in your smoke detectors and then in your carbon monoxide detectors as well. You do have a carbon monoxide detector don’t you? These two simple actions can save your life. Please go do that now. The rest of the day is for you to do something that recharges your own batteries. Whether that is a walk outdoors, taking time to read a book or the Sunday newspaper…..whatever it is that will help re-energize you. Now go do that. Happy Spring!

Goal Setting for Teens IV

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Follow the road to motivation
Follow the road to motivation

Now that you have separated your goals into actionable steps and put them in your calendar, it is time to add in some reinforcement to help you succeed (please see previous posts). We all know how hard it is to start a new habit and maintain it. Sheer willpower does not work! You have probably heard the saying that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Writing down your action steps are the first step but that does not guarantee that when the time comes you will do it.  I think that by leveraging your environment you can increase your consistency and create a new habit in less time.

By leveraging your environment you can reinforce the habit you want to establish. The physical aspect of leveraging the environment would be putting things in place that would serve as reminders for the action you want to take. Reminder cards on your bedroom door, signs in the bathroom, or moving furniture around to better support your new habit are all examples of ways to use the environment to help you. You can color code your calendar or create a vision board that shows you and your life with your new habits established.

You can also link a new habit to something you automatically do now. For instance if your morning routine of getting ready for school is the same each day then you could link your new habit to some part of that routine that is already automatic. For example if brushing your teeth is automatic, you could review flashcards for those two minutes. By hooking something new to something already established you increase your odds of doing it.

You can also use your family and friends to help you. By asking for them to call you at a specific time or meet you somewhere only if you have done your action helps you become accountable. Just that little added pressure of having to explain your action to someone makes you more likely to do it.  That is one reason why coaching is so effective with teens. If you’d rather keep track of your progress yourself, then I recommend using a simple chart you can check off or what Darren Hardy calls a rhythm tracker. This will allow you to see how you are doing. Sometimes we give up because we missed one or two times. A rhythm tracker gives you the bigger picture. Save them so you can compare and try to increase your consistency each week.

There is also the use of technology to help you stay on track for working on your goals. Using your smartphone for alarms and reminders from your calendar or devices such as a Time Timer (clock that shows the passage of time in a more visual way) or MotivAider (vibrates like a pager but goes off as frequently as you want) can supply the external reminders you may need to establish that new habit. I know that if you take the time to think about ways you can put reminders out there, you can come up with those that will work for you – and that’s what’s most important.

Don’t try to do it on willpower alone. Put at least two of these accommodations into effect and see the impact they have. I’d love to hear about it. Please use the comment box below.

Goal Setting for Teens III

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setgoals1Now that we have determined how to set a SMART goal(please see previous posts) it is time to take it to the next level and actually design a plan or strategy for achieving it. Take a look at your goal, if you have followed the steps in the previous two posts then your goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time specific.

Next, determine what needs to be done to attain that goal by breaking it down into actionable steps. I use a big blank piece of paper and just start writing all the things I feel are involved in that goal. As you are brainstorming this part you’ll notice that certain steps seem to go together, write them in the same area of the paper. You’ll end up with a “mind map” or “web” with key steps grouped together. Make sure to break each idea down until it is a specific step. Going back to our example of raising a grade to an 83%, we can see that a step such as, “studying more” is much too general. Break it down until you can get to the specifics involved (it helps to answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions). Is your goal still realistic and attainable given all these steps?

Now before we go further, take a look at what you have written down. Do you see any potential obstacles, roadblocks or challenges that could occur to stop you from achieving your goal? If you can foresee the obstacles before they occur you can design strategies to overcome them before they happen. Knowing your plan if “x” should occur will prevent you from giving up on your goal because one thing went wrong. I am assuming you have had this goal before but did not achieve it. Einstein is known for his definition of insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.  What will make it different this time?

You should take a short break at this point and let your brain process all this information. Often new ideas or strategies will come to you while you are doing something else that is less brain intensive. Come back and reread what you have written, is there anything to add?

The last step for today is to prioritize your steps and actually put them in your calendar. You do use a calendar don’t you? Mark out where and when you will do step a, b and c, etc. I would suggest you double the time you think it is going to take to do the step, until you get a better idea of the actual amount of time you will need for each step. Is it still realistic? What can you do RIGHT NOW to keep the momentum going? DO IT!

Next post will cover ways to leverage your environment and track your progress. Please feel free to post your questions or goals in the comment box below.

Goal Setting for Teens II

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In my previous post I mentioned that SMART goal setting for teens can provide a direction, focus and a measurable path for achieving the success they want. Whether it is to make the team, ace a test or make the honor roll a teen can benefit from clarifying what it is they really want rather than just making a general (and often empty) statement. We have already mentioned that a goal must be specific (S). The easiest way to do that is to answer the “wh” questions of who, what, where, when and why. The answer to the “why” question should resonate with your teen and not with someone else’s wishes for them.

A SMART goal is also measurable (M). In the case of improving grades it would be easy to track the progress on a simple chart. If a teen was trying to make the varsity team, they might want to track their practice time, workout time or the amount of weights they are lifting. This works for tracking a new habit as well. Darren Hardy, Publisher of Success magazine uses a rhythm register to track his new habits throughout the week. Having your teen track their progress makes the intangible, tangible. Now they can see the effort they are putting in and judge whether or not it is enough.

The next two letters (A & R) go together. A goal must be attainable (A) and realistic (R). Aiming for the honor roll is wonderful but it may not be realistic if grades are low or tests are few. It is wonderful to aim high but when forming goals they should be out of reach enough that you would need to stretch yourself and not so easy that you could attain it with minimal effort. Keep in mind that the further you have to go to reach your goal (especially academic ones) the longer your time frame needs to be. In our example of raising a grade by 12 points to an 83%, if only one more grade was added it would need to be a 91% or better. That may not be realistic. If instead there were three or four more opportunities to be graded, then the goal would be much more realistic and ultimately more attainable.

So you can see how important it is for a goal to be “time specific” (T), which is the last letter of the SMART acronym. Have you ever noticed that when you had a deadline coming up that your adrenaline kicked in and you were able to focus and get it done? Perhaps you have joked about “working better under pressure?” This is what happens when you set a time frame for accomplishing your goal. The impending deadline creates all kinds of action in the brain and kicks you into overdrive. It provides the motivation you need to get it done. Use it to your advantage.

A great time to set goals is at the beginning of the school year, but each new term brings another opportunity to create, review or revise them. February brings the start of term three in most schools and this is a great opportunity to prove to yourself what you can do. Start today to create two or three SMART goals. The more practice you have at setting and reaching for goals that meet the SMART criteria, the more likely you are to experience success. Celebrate the direction you are going and the changes you are seeing and let go of any guilt or negativity. Share your goals in the comment box below.

Next time we will take the goal setting to the next step of goal attaining.

Goal Setting for Teens

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GoalsMany adults begin the new year with high hopes and new resolutions. When I asked several middle and high school age students what their New Year resolutions or goals were, they said, “better grades.” When asked to elaborate though they were at a loss as to how they planned to reach that goal. Students are doing what they feel is the most they can do and then just hoping that it is enough to raise their grades. Sometimes they are surprised when it is not.

What is a Goal?

How can we help them set and attain a successful goal? The first step is to make sure their goal is a SMART goal. By that I mean it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time specific. (My apologies to the creator of that acronym). Let’s talk about the first two today. So, how do you make “better grades” more specific and measurable?

What does that look like?

First, define which grades they would like to improve and by how much. If your student is bringing home C’s and B’s, then honor roll is not out of reach but some subjects will need more work than others. For instance,” bring my science grade up from a C to a B” is more specific than “improving my grade”. From this point they can find out what their numeric average is and actually calculate how many points they need to raise it up a grade.

Next, make the goal measurable by using the average they are aiming for. For next term, I will raise my science grade by 12 points to an 83% in order to get a B for the term. Now they can actually figure out the specifics they need to raise that grade. If they studied for an hour for a test and received a 75%, would two hours be enough to bring their grade to a 91%? That’s right they would need a 91 in order to bring a 75% up to an 83%.  A low grade takes extra effort to raise their average by a few points. Homework also has an effect as it often throws students a curve ball because they do not understand the impact  one missing homework can have.

If your student would benefit from help with goal setting, time management and organization skills, then check out our upcoming class, Super Skills for Students.

Image thanks to Pixabay

Happy New Year!

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new year magicI wish each reader a happy, healthy and prosperous new year where all your dreams come true! I love the start of a new year (new month and new weeks work for me too). I feel like it’s a chance to start over with a fresh, clean slate and wide open, empty calendar spaces.

Part of my “getting ready” process is to go through the past year’s planner and transfer any important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, milestones, etc. into the new planner. While I am going through each month I also see what was actually planned and what was accomplished. Most years my plans are overly ambitious as Super Woman couldn’t complete my lists even if she never slept.

This year though, I want to stay more positive and so I’m not berating myself about what didn’t get done – I am celebrating what did. Jack Canfield’s recent blog mentioned a Wins List. He listed a number of questions to get the reader thinking about specific kinds of “wins” they had throughout the year. I started doing that and noticed that not all “wins” were simple. Some were the results of derailments or serendipitous experiences that weren’t planned for. Had I stuck to my (often) rigid plan I would have missed these surprises and the delight they brought to my life.

For example, the 5pm phone call that led to dinner out with friends at 5:30pm and a lead to an administrative assistant who is now working with me. Or the rescheduled haircut appointment that coincided with a long lost college friend’s appointment, giving us time to catch up.

Life is unpredictable and the tighter we try to control it, the more it seems to throw at us. Loosen up and enjoy the ride….that’s what I’m aiming for this year. What will you do differently this year? Let me know by adding a comment in the box below. Thanks for reading.

Six Tips for Making the Most of Study Time

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September is back to school and that means studying and homework for many children and some adults.  To start the year off on a positive note here are six tips for making the most of your study time:

1. Clear off the top of the desk to provide enough space to fit an open book and a notebook. Remove unnecessary objects to eliminate visual distractions.

2. Keep all frequently used supplies within arm’s reach either on top of the desk in an organized holder or in a nearby drawer. Keep pencils sharpened and ready to go.

3. Set a daily study time and make it a habit.

4. Use a quiet timer (analog for young children or use a time timer) and set it for 30 minutes of working time. Then take a 5-10 minute break. This helps the brain process information, maintains motivation and improves the ability to focus. Most adults can only focus for 90 minutes without a break.  Work smarter not harder.

5.  Check to be sure the desk and chair are ergonomically correct for the user. If a child’s feet do not touch the floor when the chair is raised to the appropriate height then add a footstool for support. Also be sure to check for proper lighting to reduce eye strain. The light should not be coming from behind as it casts a shadow.

6.  When all work is completed be sure to put back all items that were used. Put books and homework into backpack or briefcase and set it by the door. By cleaning off the desk and putting everything away, you are completing the task, saving time in the morning and preparing your work space for the next day. Happy Studying!

NEW! Learning Logistics Class starts October 18th. Improve your grades and learn easy strategies for tackling your homework efficiently. Call (781) 659-0513 or email laine@laineslogic.com

Quick tip: Create “in” boxes for each member of the family. Use baskets, bins or magnetic magazine holders. Children can put papers that need to be seen or signed in the parent’s box. After reviewing, the parent can place them into the student’s box. Be sure the student empties the box each evening and puts everything needed into the backpack to return to school. Placing the backpack (fully loaded) near the door used will reduce the last minute morning rush.

Three Tips to Tame Time

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It is back to school and back to juggling multiple activities and schedules. How is your stress level?  Since we can’t stretch time, and we really can’t “manage” it either, we have to learn to “manage” our choices and ourselves. Here are three tips to help you take back control.

How is your relationship with time?  Do you manage it or does it manage you?  We all know what it is like to be running non stop throughout the day only to discover that we have accomplished little by days end.  Often it is one little unplanned “glitch” that sends us spinning out of control.  To manage ourselves is to make choices and influence the course of our day to include what matters most so that each day is satisfying and rewarding.  Here are some things to consider:

1. Are you realistic about the amount of time a task takes? Estimate how much time you think a task (not a project which is more than one step) will take and then use a timer to check your guess.  This is a great strategy for kids to use with their homework too.  Simplify household tasks and/or get the family involved to reduce the amount of time needed.  Get creative to trim time.

2. Do you schedule more tasks than can be accomplished in the allotted time? After you have a realistic idea of how long each task takes, simple math will tell you whether or not you can fit those three tasks into the hour you have allotted.  The idea is not to fill up each available minute but to focus on the things that are meaningful to you – make sure you add those in before the less important tasks.

3. Do you plan for the entire task, including preparation, completion and clean up, as well as, allowing for travel time or interruptions? Whether you use a “to do” list or a planner your list of tasks often runs together without separation.  Instead of listing the big task, try listing the next action step and include a space for preparation time and clean up.  For example, if you have a report to complete, gathering the information might be the next action step rather than “write report,” which involves multiple steps and makes estimating an accurate amount of time to allow, nearly impossible. For students, they often see “science project” as a single step activity. Help them break it down and plan out when to work on the pieces of the project and you’ll have fewer last minute dashes to the office supply store for poster board.  Also, don’t forget to add in travel time and leave several blocks of 15 minutes free throughout the day to handle the unexpected or to give you time to catch your breath when tasks take longer than expected.

With practice you will develop a more realistic idea of the time needed to accomplish the things you need to do. To truly feel in control of time you need to start with what’s most important to you and be sure to put that in first.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. Carl Sandburg US biographer & poet (1878 – 1967)

Summer Learning is Fun

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summer learningSummer is a great time to help your kids strengthen their learning skills. The more they use them the less they will “lose” them. Summer learning doesn’t have to be pages and pages in a workbook but with a little creativity you can have fun and learn at the same time.

Most schools now expect students to read one or more books over the summer. Whether your child is just learning to read or reading to learn, finding books that interest them is key. Don’t just send them to their rooms to read but show you are interested in what they are reading. Be curious and engage them.  Have them summarize, compare or simply talk about what they liked about the book (don’t just accept it was a good book). Reading increases vocabulary, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, comprehension and increases their knowledge base. I think it is the number one skill for learning. If your child is a strong reader, then they can learn anything.

Reading and math skills can be used; while “playing” school, planning a vacation or a day trip (give them a budget and have them make a plan), grocery shopping or making something in the kitchen (with supervision of course).

One of my favorite activities was a competition with my Dad and my sister to list the 50 states in five minutes or less. We still talk about those nights at the dinner table racing to see who could list them the fastest. We also tried the capitals, countries and the presidents (which I did not do well at). The ideas are unlimited.

For outdoor fun, try geocaching. Geocaching is finding hidden “treasures” that other people have hidden in local parks and recreation areas. Google it and you can get coordinates to use with a gps (or smartphone) or written directions to use for a treasure hunt walk. Take along the digital camera and have the kids photograph plants, bugs and wildlife that they can identify once they get home or to the library. Play tourist in your own town, or head into Boston or south to Plymouth and make history come alive. Have your kids send postcards to their friends.

Using math and reading skills throughout the summer will help to strengthen your child’s skills but it will also show them how often we use those skills in the “real world” and not just in school.

I’d love to hear what you do to make learning fun over the summer. Please use the comment box below to let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.