Our brain biology and all its brilliance comes with instinctual reactions, which often have devastating effects on those all-important long-term goals needing accomplishment. Sprinkle in some psychology with learning deficits, behavioral issues and hyperactivity, and we begin to see a strong correlation between emotions and learning. Backdrop our environment as the playground where biology and psychology meet, and you complete your trifecta.
One must organize and prioritize in order to maximize positive outcomes. Here are three great ways to begin to accomplish this essential balance:
- Keep things clean and clear. Don’t have too many distractions on a workspace. Structure the physical arrangement to increase appropriate behaviors, such as focus and engagement, and decrease the probability of challenging behaviors such as Facebooking and Internet surfing.Facilitate smooth transitions among activities (e.g., organizing the location of materials on shelves), and arrange materials to promote engagement, mastery, and independence development (perhaps color coding for quick reference and “easy on the eye” identification) to promote a climate that is developmentally and individually appropriate for all use.
- Create calendar organization and “To-do list” structure. Use a large dry-erase calendar or pegboard to help keep important things organized and directly in front of your visual stream. Even if you are not a “list” maker, having important functions, deadlines, and desires listed at a glance helps one to increase self, life and overall productivity. If you do well with list making, write a concrete list of priorities and use the 45/15 minute rule: 45 minutes of focused work followed by 15 minutes of rest and mental wandering. Learn how to develop better workflow, even from a young age, by creating charts to track projects, keep studies on track, post deadlines and stay specific. Mental organization helps with prioritization!
- Implement Rules, Rituals, and Routines; a critical component of the environment that decreases the likelihood of challenging behaviors and emotional disruption. Know your learner: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Rules are most appropriate for preschool and elementary-age children, whereas rituals (songs, rhymes, games, kinesthetic movements or any other activities used in a predictable and repeated pattern over time) and routines are more applicable to older children and adults. This establishes structure for everyone involved and helps to communicate values, foster community, or remind children, in particular, of behavioral expectations. This important component provides verbal and non-verbal cues for appropriate behaviors, stability and consistency, and is also an effective way to ease transitions and reduce stress, which leads to lessening of mental fatigue.
Organize Other Household Elements
Plan a week’s worth of meals in advance; delegate specific household tasks to other family members; and create a master household calendar where all appointments, events and schedules are posted in a color-coded system. This approach will streamline your life and make life less stressful.
Remember: Stressful environments are counterproductive because they reduce one’s ability to learn. Our goals through organization are to decrease wasted time, increase efficiency and improve overall mental functioning. If you begin with maintaining a space that is engaging and developmentally appropriate, you will foster productivity and improvement in all aspects of life. This will also prevent many challenging behaviors from surfacing and keep brain fog to a minimum. When we understand what is expected and are provided the opportunity and support to engage effectively, we increase self-esteem, enhance the opportunity for greater efficiency and thus create a stronger confidence toward our future endeavors.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Lauren Capitini MS, LMHC is a Licensed Mental Health Therapist and owner and CEO of Therapy By Dezign, a company that provides not only individual, group and family counseling on a private level but also serves businesses with consulting and organizational services to better maximize time, efficiency, productivity and profit. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Santa Fe College teaching psychology courses. www.therapybydezign.com.