School Smarts

Follow the suggestions below and your student will clean out their clutter and make phenomenal progress during their school year.

You need easy access to all of your creations and digging through high heaps won't give that to you, even though a messy room is the sign of your creative mind?

As a time management technique, I advise students to clear out the clutter in their rooms throughout the school year which is always accompanied by mounds of stuff.

You've got to use textbooks and papers, and if you de-clutter your personal space and desk, you'll have the room for the necessaries; but, in addition to de-cluttering, kids of all ages will get ahead of the game by using smart organizational tools to help them economize on time and stay calm when clearing out the mess.

Because of the experiences I've had in coaching thousands of both adults and teens about increasing productivity to achieve the goals they've set for learning, lifestyle, and business, I am very aware of how a study space that is organized can promote enjoyment, achievement and success.

Here are 5 Quick Tips To Clear Out the Clutter.

1. Get it Out of There. Imagine the building is on fire, and you have 60 seconds to grab whatever you can carry and make your escape. What would you grab? Consider those items your essentials and everything else potentially expendable. Get rid of the clothing that no longer fits you. Throw away the papers you no longer need or want. Lose those unmatched socks and you will create more space in your room during the school you before it's demands overwhelm you.

2. Enlist a Cruel Friend. Breaking the "pack rat" habit can be difficult for people of any age. Your friends will not have the sentimental attachments you do to your clutter, and they will help you let go of your excess stuff that you know should be thrown away. It could be a fun game with their nudging.

3. Control Your Stuff. Control your stuff, or your stuff will control the time you spend stumbling over it. My advice is to find affordable bins or boxes with secure lids that stack inside a closet, that fit under your bed or under your desk, and then toss everything inside those containers. Next, take ten minutes every other day to go through a box to pluck out what's expendable. Then, toss it. It's a smart system to cycle through the clutter and make more space inside those same containers for truly useful items.

4. Don't Fall Into The Granny Trap. I call it the 'granny trap,' because kids and teenagers can also fall into the trap of keeping too many of what my grandmother called knick-knacks without real value cluttering up shelves and table tops. Unless you're a serious adviser, toss it. You're young; stay portable.

5. Fake It. At a minimum, you can keep un-sorted excess stuff out of sight in those stackable, hide-able bins or boxes until you find ten minutes to clear out the clutter from your personal space. You could give up ten minutes of text messaging your friends, and you'll have instant, if temporary, new floor space and stave off complaints from surprise visitors.