OHIO

OHIO - of course, it is the name of our great state, but it is also represents a saying - "Only Handle It Once."  This is an organization and time management saying that can be useful to use and adopt into our daily lives. 

The basic concept is that whatever you're dealing with such as a piece of paper or an email message that you should only handle it once.  For most of you, the ways that I see this playing out poorly is when you are working on assignments in class and you have notes, textbook, and a handout such as a lab paper out when the bell rings and instead of placing the notes and handout back where they belong students will grab the papers all mixed together and shove everything into their backpack before rushing off to their next class.  This happens in class after class throught any given day.  And then, as a result, you are forced to spend more time later sorting through all of the materials in order to re-organize and separate the information for each class.  Even though it may feel as if it would take a minute or two longer to put the material from the class into the appropriate folder before heading off to your next class, in the long run, only handling the material once will save you time.

Now, please let me clarify, that doesn't mean you should only spend one moment working on an assignment.  If it is something that you are working on in class that doesn't mean you don't still handle it and deal with it at home if the work needs to be completed for the next day of school.  It's just the organization side that will hopefully be streamlined.

Also, if you are working on some assignment, look at it and figure out if you have everything you need -for example, do you have the notes, resources such as textbook, posterboard or supplies for projects, if there is help that you need - for example, do you need to get clarification from a teacher or classmate or assistance from your parent on the work you are completing, or anything else that you'll need to successfully complete the assignment.  Gather those items ahead of time so that you don't end up wasting a bunch of time starting and stopping your work.

And while I know that you don't all spend a lot of time on emails, I can assure you that email is a part of your future and the Only Handle It Once strategy is a great approach for managing the "easy" emails.

So, as you go through these final 2 weeks before spring break I hope you will try to work towards establishing the positive organization strategy of OHIO and Only Handling It Once!