How Teens Can Get Organized for the New Year

New Year = New You!

You know you’re going to see that phrase all over the TV, your Instagram feed, and from well-meaning people in the next few weeks. As if the calendar changes and a new person comes to take your place.

While you may not create an entirely new person, you can make some positive changes in your life. Listen, many teens struggle with organization. But that struggle with organization can cause problems – you can’t find your homework, which clothes are clean?, you don’t study for a test you didn’t realize you had, you miss commitments.

Getting organized for the New Year will help you with all those situations. Maybe this list looks daunting. Tackle one to two at a time. Once you have systems to organize your time and your digital life, move on to your bedroom.

If you’re looking to make some formal resolutions, head over to my post and download the FREE New Years Resolution Workbook!

How Teens Can Get Organized for the New Year

Take control of your schedule

Ever sit around thinking,” I think there is something I’m supposed to be doing right now, but I don’t know what.” Raise your hand because we all have. But if this happens all the time, you need to take control.

Get a planner. Paper or electronic, it doesn’t matter. You need to know what commitments you have, assignments that are due, and when you have free time. That way you can go for a run or watch Netflix without guilt

For directions on how to set up your planner, check out my post here!

Paper monster

When you were a kid, you might have thought there was a monster in your closet. Well, you do have a monster in your room – it’s a paper monster. It’s made up of all the papers you received last semester, last year, or in elementary school (depending on your level of hoard.) Now is the time to go through it and start recycling what is unnecessary.

Keep notes, tests and quizzes, and homework from any current class. If you’re in college, keep the same from any class in your major. Otherwise, toss it. After MANY years of school, I learned that I never looked at my old notes or notebooks. Never.

For the papers that you are keeping, separate them into piles by class. Then find an old binder and place them in there. Make some quick dividers with regular paper and sticky notes.

Clutter

Can we talk about all the other junk taking up space in your room? The New Year is a great time to get rid of old stuff and start fresh. And you probably have some extra time on your hands right now 🙂

Get 3 boxes or bins and label them Keep, Donate, or Trash. Start with the closest pile of stuff and categorize them into those three bins. (Hint: You want to place more items in the donate or trash bins than the keep bin.) For your clothes, if you didn’t wear it in the last season, it’s time to give them away!

Also, clean out all the containers and furniture in your room once it’s empty. Grab some rags and spray cleaner! My mother once made me paint my clothes closet. I was so annoyed with her at the time, but she was right. It felt so much cleaner and fresh afterward.

Digital

During this organizing spree, let’s not forget your digital files. Yes, those. The ones labeled “paper 1” that you hunted for 30 minutes to find. Head over to this post for some help organizing those digital files. There’s even a sweet download for you to clean up that terrifying desktop on your laptop.

Also, take a look at your cell phone. If you’re like me, there are apps hanging out there that you haven’t used in a long while. Delete them. While you’re there, turn off those pesky notifications. I went into my FB app and turned off almost all my notifications – I get interrupted a lot less and spend more time doing other things I enjoy more!

If you want a bit more guidance, try out my FREE online course, Organization Jumpstart!