1. Print the two week view in landscape mode. I recommend using as small a font as possible to give you the most space.
   
2. Fold the paper lengthwise along the top of the first row of dates.
   
3. Fold the paper lengthwise again along the second row of dates. You should now have a page that is 11″ long and about 4″ wide on one side and about 5″ on the other.
   
4. Fold the excess information at the top underneath so it is out of the way. You should now have two rows of dates, one for each week, visible as you flip the paper over and back.
   
5. Take a pair of scissors and trim off the hanging tabs at either end (they were the page borders)
   
6. Now just fold it on the line between Thursday and Friday (Days four and five depending on how you have your calendar arranged)
   

It should tuck nicely in the back of your planner for easy reference. Next step…monthly calendar origami.

Now, as most teenagers do, she carries a cell phone around with her almost all the time. Combined with internet access on the phone and you would thing she would be a perfect candidate for web based solutions she could access while mobile. But here’s the rub. School policy doesn’t allow use of the cell phone during class. I’m not debating the merits of that policy (that’s for another time) but it poses a problem. What is the easiest way to keep things organized when you’re NOT always connected?

I spend a fair amount of time with teenagers and have found (as many of us know already) they can be random thinkers, desiring to fit with others while stretching to show their own identity. Structure can be limiting and limiting means disuse. So what’s the solution?

A plain Moleskine (or inexpensive equivalent) is a great start. They have the freedom to customize the books however they like. They are not bound by forms and templates and can capture what they need to know and how they need to know it. I’m sure there are many who feel without structure the students will be lost and miss valuable information. Ah, but do they have to?

By teaching our students the value of just capturing information rather than getting hung up on the formatting and structure, we curtail the “Hunh? I don’t remember that.” When they ask, “When’s the test again?” you can respond, “Check your book. You did write it down didn’t you?” Some may argue it is coddling the students…I disagree. Far too many professionals in the “real world” can’t handle basic information management and consistent capture is the key starting place for this skill.

Here’s how it worked. We created the form in Google Apps using the New: Form option. It’s a basic questionnaire with only six questions. All but one question is a rating scale response, in this case a scale from one to four. The form was ready within 15 minutes and I created a TinyURL pointing to the form to be emailed to the survey respondents.

Here’s where we hit a snag. No matter how I set the access permissions on the survey it kept asking users to log into Google Apps to complete the questions. Now since this is NOT what we wanted we needed a workaround. Our solution was a hidden content page on the school web site with an embedded copy of the form (there’s a button that generates the Javascript for copy and paste ease) and then send the link to that page to the recipients. Bingo! Responses started to flow in.

I would be interested to see if anyone is willing to take a stab at creating a quiz or test for students using the same methodology (or has already and is willing to share).

There is a reason the word technology takes second billing in the phrase. Technology is a tool for helping deliver the education. The hammer and the pneumatic nailer are both tools that reach the same result. One is technical, requiring understanding and practice to use safely and at peak efficiency. The other is a hammer. Are we teaching our students and staffs how to use the nailer at the expense of the hammer or at the expense of being able to choose the right one at the right time?

Each new technology that comes down the pike with furor and fanfare will be replaced by another “superior” technology. Chalkboard to whiteboard to interactive multimedia presentation system. Has the message on the media changed or are we just pandering to a perceived short attention span mindset? “This is the computer generation people! They can’t learn without digital tech!” Funny, I still see groups of kids sitting around a teacher as she reads aloud and turns the pages of a (GASP) book! Why do we have such a hard time accepting the fact sometimes a teacher just wants to use a whiteboard?

Listen, I’m not damning all educational technology. You know me better than that. What I am challenging us with is getting off the high horse that technology is THE answer and look at it as AN answer. We must spend time working with our staffs and helping them think through their options. We also MUST be willing to accept part of a technology solution is the willingness of the user to use the system. We must also accept sometimes the most technical answer is not the best one.

Stop screaming in the echo chamber. Prove you know what you are talking about to people outside the technology field. Present intelligent discussion and options to your staffs and stop the Luddite branding if technology isn’t the chosen solution. In the end it’s all about Benjamin, baby.

Think I’m wrong? Bring it on.

1. You will have a better understanding of these virtual worlds and the types of interactions that can happen in them, both positive and negative.
2. You will be able to spend some time and observe his/her interactions with the games and see what aspects of them he tends towards.  Boys by nature gravitate to more action-oriented sections of games where girls traditionally gravitate to puzzles and interactive environments.  (Of course there are always exceptions to the rule).
3. Gaming environments can be very engaging, especially if a child has a vivid imagination or tends to get immersed in things easily.  Compare his game reactions to the reactions he has to movies and cartoons.  Are they similar, stronger, or weaker?
4. Look for common themes in the types of characters he/she chooses to play.  If he/she chooses one over another, don’t hesitate to ask him why.  There may be commonalities in his decisions, such as powerful versus weak, a specific look, gender association, etc.
5. This may be the biggest stretch for you…but ask him/her to help you set up your own characters and take you through the world.  Aside from it being good quality time you will be establishing credibility with him when it comes time to execute parental control on worlds and places he should not be entering.  Do not hesitate to try the sites he is visiting on your own when he is not around.  The more you learn about the sites the better off you will be.
6. Check in with him.  Every so often ask him/her how his characters are doing (make a point to learn the character names and the names he/she gave them).

There are systems available that can be used to filter web sites from kids (we use one at the school called OpenDNS [http://www.opendns.com] that is free and provides a great deal of control at the machine level.  However, no technological solution can replace building the understanding between you and he as to the types of things you consider appropriate and not.

The sites he/she has identified so far are known kids sites and many have protections in place for child safety.  (Gaia is targeted for PG-13 so I’d recommend against that.)  Most sites that draw kids will have some sort of parental information available easily from their home page.

He/she will want to explore and try new things, that is a given.  Working with him/her is the best solution in preparing him/her to be responsible as he/she grows on the internet.  I equate it to when he/she starts to drive.  The driving lessons will be invaluable since at some point he’ll have to leave the parking lot.

Decide what time interval is most important.

Some people live their lives one day at a time, some live from weekend to weekend, and some live a month in advance. Each breakdown of our lives has strengths and weaknesses we need to account for when setting up our planners in the most efficient manner for us. If you run a very hectic life or are responsible for tracking the lives of others (Moms and Dads, you know I’m talking to you) a daily planner can get you through the schedule planning with a minimum of muss and fuss. Some challenges do arise with this however.

How do I put more than one person’s schedule on a daily calendar?

I have seen lots of advice on this matter but the two most effective methods I’ve found are color-coding and the column approach. If you are able to keep more than one color pen with you at all times (one of those nice multi-function pens may do the trick) you can color code the entries in a way that jumps out at you on the page. My personal preference is the column method. This approach breaks the daily calendar into two or more vertical columns, each representing the schedule of one person. In my case with three kids and a spouse I wind up with five columns. The next step is where personal preference starts to kick in. You can create rows across the columns to designate each time slot or use the columns as designated lists. The upside of this technique is being able to see all the schedules at a glance. The downside is if you have a small notebook it can become very cramped if you have lots of entries. This is where again I suggest you deviate from the norms…if you have a grid layout book turn it on its side (landscape mode for the techies out there) and create the columns across the page.

Do I need to fill out a year’s worth of daily calendar pages in my planner?

NO. As much fun as it may seem to sit for an evening drawing lines and numbering pages (what? I think it would be fun.) you don’t need to go that far in advance. The question becomes…how far DO you have to go? Take a look at your current schedule. Count how many items you have booked for next month already. Do the same for the month after that, and so on. What you are looking for is the month where you drop below 15 items already planned. That is how far out you need your daily calendar. From that 15 event month on you can use a monthly or weekly layout for your capture (I’ll explain how to do this later) rather than all the numbered pages. The catch is once you cross that 15 entry line you will want to create a section for that month on a daily basis in your planner. Ok, so where did the magic number 15 come from? In most pocket planners you can comfortably write 15 lines of text. 15 also happens to conveniently work out to about half a month of events. Nothing mystical…just an easy to remember line in the sand.

So how do I reschedule something in this mess?

It really isn’t as hard as it would seem. Rather than erasing entries and trying to make the page look pristine, just draw a line through the entry and make a small note as to the day it was transferred to, or as I do, the page number of the calendar the entry is now on. Make sure you jump to that page and record the new entry though. The benefit of this method is when the day comes around the event was originally scheduled for you can still see it; it acts as a tickler for the event without any effort at all.

But I don’t have enough stuff for a daily calendar…or…I have a calendar at work that’s separate from my personal one.

In either of these cases, when a large block of your time each day is spoken for by another calendar or your activity load isn’t that heavy, you can use a weekly or monthly calendar to the same effect. One of the things I have adopted is the transfer of the first meeting or event for my next work day into my personal calendar for that day. Why? Because when am at home I can quickly open my planner and see what the first thing is on the agenda for the next day at work AND when I need to be there. Stress, at least the early morning kind, be gone!

It all sounds a little too easy. How do I handle repeating events?

Ah, the classic territory of the electronic organizer. One of the most touted features of smart phones, PDAs, and online calendars is entering an event once and having it fill in on every occurrence. This can’t be done with paper you say? Nay, Nay I Say! (Thank you John Pinette.) Here’s how it works:

Create a page that is just for the recurring event…let’s say soccer practice (or a business meeting…whatever example makes you feel more at home) On this page write down the frequency of the occurrence (Every Wednesday from 7-9pm) and other vital information (address, contact numbers, things to bring, etc.) Note the page number of the page you wrote the information on. Now all you need to do is go to each day it should occur on (again, every Wednesday) and make a note of that page number. If you want to get even fancier use different shapes or symbols along with the page number to identify different people.

There are even more tips I’ll share over the coming weeks but I don’t want to short change the other topics I started with in Part 1. Next up, tracking passwords and accounts.

Your capture tool should suit the environments where you are capturing information. I shall explain. If you are a highly mobile individual, one who could be anywhere at any time, your system needs to reflect that level of agility. A locked down, desktop-computer based system will not be your best option on its own. On the flip side, if you are a dedicated desk worker a pocket sized system for the professional road warrior also may be less than optimal. So how do you choose what is the right fit for you?

I have been changing from notebook to notebook, capture system to capture system for years now always in search of the “perfect” one. The one system that will make me more efficient, less likely to procrastinate, and look more professional having the information I need right at my fingertips. I haven’t found it yet, but I have come up with a number of observations about ways to “write it down.”

Don’t let it get away

Every idea, commitment, promise, thought, or task is a candidate for capture in your paper system. While I don’t believe you will ever achieve the “mind like water” goal as preached by other systems, I do believe you can reach a level of mental peace knowing the details of your activities are kept safe and accessible when the memory is called to doubt.

As an extension of the classic educational concept, memory is reinforced through writing learned items down. But how much is enough? Do you capture every possible thought or only the ones you think you might forget? How do you recall ideas from your system when you can’t remember having them in the first place? How do you organize a task list spread across fifteen pages on ten different topics? There are some tips and tricks I’ve gathered from around the web as well as through my own experiences you may find helpful.

Index of Contents

As any good librarian will tell you the two most powerful parts of a reference book are the table of contents and the index. My recommendation: merge the two. This should work for any type planner, be it three-ring, spiral bound, fully bound, or index cards.

At the back of your system select a few pages to set aside for your “Index of Contents” (notice the catchy little hybrid there?) Since I hate to waste paper in my planners I do a little math to figure out how many pages from the back my index should begin. Take the number of pages in your book and divide it by the number of lines on a page if you are using a ruled book. If you prefer a blank book you just need to guess how many lines you could write on a page. The number you are left with is the number of pages you should count back from the back cover to begin your index. In concept if you were to title every page in your book and enter a line for each in your index you would have just enough space.

Give yourself breathing room

One of the biggest jumps I made in my system was to give myself permission to have one topic per page. For some reason I got it into my head I needed to fill every open inch or line on a page so I wasn’t “wasting space.” The trouble trying to organize this mash of topics and notes caused far outweighed the benefits of condensing the content. By using a page per topic I can group and mark items as they are needed, something that lends itself to some of the other reference features of my system.

For example, I needed to keep a copy of my daughter’s soccer schedule for the fall with me so I knew when her games are. My initial options were:

1. Load the schedule into Google Calendar and access it from my phone. Result: useful but slow to access. The SMS reminder was convenient for the gentle “poke” but the calendar was inaccessible when there was no cellular service at the time.
2. Write the game schedule on each day a game is planned in the correct time slot on the page. Result: Time consuming and not easy to update when there were schedule changes. It was nice when looking at a specific day but it made things tough when planning for several dates.
3. Make a list of the dates and schedule on one page. Result: a master list for the soccer season I could jump to just by using the page numbered reference in the index (let the cat out of the bag on that one.) The problem arose when trying to see what was happening on a given day. I had to jump from list to list to list to make sure I caught everything.

My final result – a combination of options two and three. Here’s how it works:

1. I created a page in my planner for the soccer schedule and noted every game, time, and location.
2. I noted the page number and title in the index at the back of the planner.
3. I then noted on each day a game was scheduled in the calendar section (I’ll discuss this later) with the notation “Soccer 92.” The number is the page number of the game schedule. This way I can quickly see what’s on a given day while also have a master list for reference.

So far, this technique has been working well for anything that has multiple occurrences. It also works out well for noting a work history or task history (I’ll discuss these later as well.)

The saga continues

In cases where the notes for a given topic continue on past one page, I do not see a reason to create line after line in my index for the same item. I have adopted the technique of “previous, next” on my pages to continue the story easily.

At the bottom right of the first page on a topic in my planner you will find this: “à ##” which is the number of the page where the notes continue. On that second page you will find “## ß” in the bottom left and “à ##” in the bottom right. This tells you how you can find the previous page of notes and the next page. I repeat this over and over for each additional page. I may add an additional title and index entry if there is a substantial subtopic in the main one.

Scribble, scribble, scribble

So what is my requirement for whether or not I capture something? It’s a simple question I ask myself about each item. “Might I need to know this later?” It sounds almost too simple but it is easier to capture things you eventually don’t need rather than miss the things you do. When I have idle time (it sometimes happens) I flip through the pages and as I find entries I know I absolutely don’t need any more I draw a single line through them. Visually when I scan a page I’ve taught myself to skip those items with a strike-through and move on quickly.

So what now?

I’ve been capturing furiously, noting everything I think I might need. So now what do I do with all this? How do I keep it organized and make it useful? That comes in part three.