Staying organized is not an inborn skill rather it is learned over time. Many children are initially disorganized, less focused, fall to chaos and failures so it is extremely important to help your child learn to stay organized.
Here are few tips that can help you in your mission:
Prefer Breaking Tasks into Small Chunks
Teach your children to break or design every task into three steps; beginning-middle-end. Breaking the tasks into small tasks increases your level of concentration and interest in the task. For example, when solving a numerical problem, teach your child to write the given material first, the procedure, and then the conclusion of it. It is also an important and effective remedy to Motivate yourself to accomplish your goals.
For more tips to stay motivated read Stay Motivated
Prepare a To-Do List
Teach your child to prepare a ‘to-do’ list to have all the tasks and projects on the board. He or she can also prepare a calendar and mention all the tasks date-day-wise. This list should be with the child every time so that he should know what to do next. Taking the importance of final steps into account, he will learn to get things done properly. The list can be on a notepad, on a page (printed form) pasted on the wall, or even on the mobile phone.
Learn Time Management Skills
If your want your child to be organized and stay organized always, you must make him learn time management skills to avoid wasting time and investing the time in the right and right direction. Ask him to prepare a digital calendar for listing the important tasks. He should estimate the time of each and every task to avoid wasting time. He should also know to do adjustments and compensation if his time has been wasted due to any valid reason. He should keep in mind the deadlines and due dates. You can also try pictures, clocks, regular schedules such as homework, or some other time management strategies to help him stay organized.
Create and Organize Ideas
Creativity is the key to organized behavior. Encourage your child to carve new ideas and then organize them in a good way. Brainstorming is an essential way to improve the learning abilities of your child.
According to an experiment in a school in Kuwait, there was a significant difference between the two groups of students ( one with brainstorming training and the other control group).
Source: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1083780
Use outlines and graphics for convenience. Practice again and again because practice makes a man perfect. It will also improve the focus. Make them think and ponder about everything.
Set Priorities
Every successful person in the world knows his/her priorities. He knows the things that should be done in the first place and so on. If you want your child to stay organized, he should also set his preferences in the form of less important and more important things in his life. For example, setting a limit on daily screen time. You should allow your child or he should know himself that to how many time he should have his screen time daily.
Try to Learn Things With Fun
Children always learn in a comfortable and happy environment easily. Make the methodology of your teaching the new things funny and interesting. Use mnemonics for the things that are hard to learn in the beginning. Try the color-coding method, it is an effective technique to improve the focus and interest of your child. The child also loves to do such interesting things which eventually make their learning process easier. For example, assign a copy of a particular subject with a particular color i.e. red for English, blue for mathematics, etc. It will be a great technique to help them stay organized.
Spare a Space for Your Child
Spare a separate room or space for your child that is comfortable, peaceful, and easy to concentrate on. Space should be free of any possible interruption especially in the case of study. Some modern education systems are now introducing Project-based learning to solve real-world problems. If your child is learning it, you must give him a separate space to make him stay organized.
Pre-bed Routine
Teach your child to recall everything before going to bed daily. It will make him able to get relief from the tasks that have been completed and to make himself ready for upcoming tasks. It is really helpful for the child to stay organized.
Set Expectations
You should make them know that you expect good manners from them. Setting expectations will not boost their confidence level but they will perform even better to be right on your expectations.
Weekly Clean Up to Stay Organized
Arrange a weekly clean-up of their room and home. It will give them a sense of responsibility. They should clean their space, organize all the things and put them in the right place.
Give Tasks of Categorizing
Give your children tasks of categorizing different things such as making lists (like a grocery list), arranging things or events, collecting items of their interest, and classifying objects. It will provoke their sense of organization and stay organized.
A Trimonthly Check-Up
Spare some of your time and arrange a check-up of your children after every three months. Play some puzzles and psychological games with them to make sure their normal mental development. If you note any abnormality in the behaviour of your child, make an appointment with your psychologist and arrange a healthy session for him. To read more about child psychology
visit https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-88211-000
Things The Parents Should Do
The parents should always be a supportive pillar for their children. They should encourage them and make them feel comfortable. They should be as flexible and friendly during the training as they can. Try to forgive your children so that they could also do the same. Give them respect, teach them good manners, set a rule of Please-sorry-thankyou, praise, and admire them to make them confident. Spend time with them, give attention, be clear, and do not nag at all. If your child forgets to do something, make them remind instead of scolding them. All these efforts of the Parents will prove fruitful in order to help their children to get and stay organized.
Conclusion
The ability to get and stay organized is a skill that is learned over time. Some people are really good at it while some require proper training from childhood to be a well-organized person. This training can be done with some tips that are discussed in the article such as time management skills, setting routine, scheduling things, etc. Parents should help their children to achieve the goal by supporting them. It will help them to get and stay organized.