I am a fairly well-organized person. I know what has to be done at work and when it needs to be done, and I can multi-task and prioritize, and take care of requests that interrupt my work with a minimum of fuss.
I think I have always been this way. In school, I always turned in my assignments on time. I don’t think I ever misplaced anything, although I could be mistaken. However, my grades in school (As and Bs through college) would tend to bear out that I was on top of my school work.
That said, I am dealing with an alien intelligence in my home. My 14-year-old, Ivyboy, is definitely not organized. He will do his homework assignments, then leave them at home. His backpack is a disaster.
This is a real concern to his father and me, because we got both the kiddos into private school this year, and unless he gets good grades, he will not be eligible for a scholarship to attend next year, and we can’t take out a third mortgage on the house for tuition. Ivyboy is aware of this situation, and declares he loves the school and wants to go next year. He’s on the golf team and even ran for class secretary (which he lost, btw.) So I know he’s really into school.
His test grades in one of his classes are the second highest in the class, but he was failing because he wasn’t turning in the homework assignments. He is an incredibly bright outgoing kid. He got moved into Honor English after four days of school, and I read one of his poems that I thought was full of wonderful imagery you may be lucky to see at a college level. (No, he is not ADD or ADHD.)
His father and I have gone over this with him repeatedly. Right now, we will be checking his “homework folder” each night to make sure his completed assignments are there. He will be meeting each morning with his academic advisor who will do the same thing.
But, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Since my son was apparently born without the organizational gene, how do I teach him this necessary skill? And for those Dopers who aren’t organized, how do you manage?