If you’ve read the blog for any length of time, you likely know I have an addiction.
Organizing.
I love to organize pretty much anything and everything, but especially paper. At home, Luke is afraid to leave me alone for too long, for fear that he’ll return to an overly organized office desk. He piles, and I sort. I guess opposites attract.
Anyhow, don’t laugh at me. I’ll bet when you read “paper stuff” in the post title, you knew just what I was talking about. A boatload of paper gets passed around schools far and wide, and I’m sure you’ve got no shortage of it coming straight your way.
But! With the right mindset, paper organizing is fun and rewarding work, that can make you a happier and more effective coach :)
Let’s take a tour of the “organize your paper stuff” system, shall we?
Whenever any kind of paper comes my way, it goes straight to the In-Box. This is your paper organizing system home base.
Whenever anything comes “IN” you have to decide what to do with it. I’ve found that my papers go in typically one of five categories, which you can see outlined above.
I found these cool hanging wall files on Amazon
Once I process, and decide which “bucket” my papers go in, I take it a step further and organize my buckets.
So within each of my wall files, I have labeled file folders naming the different areas/categories particular to that bucket.
For example, in my “Active” bucket, I have my folders for teachers I’m working with, a PD folder, and another project folder for Video Coaching which is an area I’ve been actively learning about. These are folders with papers that I need quick and easy access to, without having to dig through my “Reference” bucket.
My “Later” bucket, contains a labeled folder for each day of the week. Any paper/work I’ll need on a specific day of the week will go here.
And lastly, my “Out & About” bucket is where I throw reminders and other papers I need to pass on to others. Anytime I pop out of my room, I’ll check here to see if anything needs to be delivered.
Any papers that I need to visually see more regularly, get put on my cork board, such as my End of Day Review sheet. I need this right in my face to remind me of what I need to do at the end of the day, so I can start off tomorrow on a good note.
And there you have it! Paper Stuff Organizing made fun!