Getting organised for life and for school is difficult—it’s easy to lose stuff, forget homework or feel overwhelmed. Learning strategies can help you feel more in control and more independent.
What are organisational skills?
The ability to:
- plan for the day ahead
- be prepared for specific tasks
- make sure you have the right tools for the job/ task
- effectively carry out the task
- complete the task in time
Sometimes straightforward ideas can help to make life easier, both at home and in school. It may take a bit of time and practice to find out what works for you. Putting in a bit of time and effort now to develop strategies will make your life a whole lot easier.
Feeling in control and knowing where things are can make everyday life easier and more enjoyable. Getting organised at home can be a good starting point and you can find some ideas here.
Building Independence for Secondary Students within the Home has lots of strategies you can use to support your organisational skills and independence at home.
You may want to complete the Building Independence worksheet by yourself or you could talk it through with your parent or teacher. They may be able to give you some other ideas to try, PLUS it’s always good to have someone to share your successes with.
Now that you are a bit older you will want to be more independent. This is a simple list of tasks that you might need to do every day:
- Packing/unpacking bag
- Being prepared for timetabled subjects
- Making sure that you have the required books for each subject
- Check that you have the required tools for practical subjects
- Following a timetable
- Managing homework
- Making sure you have what you need for lunch and travelling
You can also use these checklists with suggestions of strategies to trial for secondary students and sixth form students.
Homework is a necessary part of school life. You might find it hard going but learning to work independently and manage your time are essential skills for your future. No-one likes being nagged by their parents so learning to manage homework is important and can reduce stress. Homework can feel frustrating because it takes too long or simply feels too hard.
Talk to your parent or trusted adult about what you are finding difficult. It would be useful to talk to a teacher as well to see what can be done to help.
BBC Bitesize has some tips for improving study skills and the British Dyslexia Association has support resources to support with revising.
For more information, the University of South Wales produced Top Tips and Tricks with young people who describe themselves as having a neurodiverse profile. In this booklet, they share their own tips and strategies for managing everyday challenges, many of which they discovered they had in common when creating the booklet together.
