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SPEAK is a weekly resource provided to Students, Parents, Educators, and Administrators. It allows all stakeholders to participate in the social, emotional, and academic well-being of a child and then in return apply the Knowledge to ensure a purposeful and successful school year with compassion. Therefore, I ask the question, “What are you SPEAKing to and with your students and children?” SPEAK to your children and or students about getting in the habit of daily routines, apply and practice them daily until it becomes a habit, and watch how your child develops into a successful student academically and socially. “The secret of your child's success is established in the daily routines that are in place. Establish purposeful routines that will lead to intentional success.” - Dr. Tasheka L. Green Develop a SLEEP routine with a consistent bedtime… The National Foundation of Sleep, depending on the child's age range, recommends anywhere from 8 to 13 hours of sleep per night. Discuss with your child to develop an established bedtime that allows him or her to have the recommended hours of sleep. Practice the bedtime 3-4 weeks before the start of the new school year. Adhere to the established bedtime every night, even on the weekends. The key is being consistent with bedtime seven days a week. Develop HEALTHY EATING habits… Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states healthy eating habits promote growth and cognitive development. Proper intellectual development results in your child performing at his or her greatest potential. Developing healthy eating habits includes eating a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as providing your child with healthy snacks and drinking plenty of water. United States Department of Health and Human Services and United States Department of Agriculture 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans at a Glance, emphasizes taking the recommended servings of fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy, grains, and oils promote healthy eating patterns. ELIMINATE the usage of television, video games, and technology… Monitor, limit, or eliminate television, video games, and pleasurable use of technology during the school year. The American Academy of Pediatrics provides recommended guidelines for screen time. During the school weekday, consider having your child eliminate the use of these devices and use them as a privilege or reward. Too much screen time during the weekday can become overstimulating, distracting, and replace the conversation needed with your child to promote higher levels of cognitive development. Develop BEFORE and AFTER school routines… How your child prepares for his or her day impacts what transpires throughout the day. How your child ends his or her day influences the behaviors that are exhibited at home. Develop, write, communicate, and post step-by-step routines for before and after school. Make sure the routines are concise and clearly communicate the expectations. Adhere and be consistent with the established before and after school routines. If the before and after routines are not working well, make the adjustments needed to ensure a smooth and effortless daily routine. Remember, routines build habits, habits build character, and character builds SUCCESS! To Everything There Is A Season Learning Academy and Consultant, “Where children grow and adults sow!” - Dr. Tasheka L. Green 
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 I think we all know the drill by now. After almost a year of surviving a global pandemic, we have learned to adjust to the new norms of social distancing, limited gatherings, sanitizing everything, and wearing masks. And while these are all important for slowing the spread of COVID-19, it is also important to recognize the negative impact that isolating behaviors can have on mental health. A report from the American Psychological Association noted that social isolation, especially over long periods of time can lead to loneliness, increased levels of stress, poor sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. Loneliness over time can also lower immune system functioning, and other adverse health outcomes. In an effort to minimize the erosive effects that isolation can have as the global pandemic stretches on, we may have to be a little more creative in the ways that we choose to connect with each other. The world is changing, and that simply means that we have to change with it. Here are three ways that each of us can curb loneliness and stay connected in a world of social distancing:  Phone a Friend One of the unique aspects of living through a global pandemic, is that to some degree we are all experiencing this together. Whether you’re working from home, taking care of kids who attend school virtually, or minimizing contact with the public for health reasons, you may find that keeping in contact with friends and family requires some creative effort. It may even fall lower on the priority list. But you may be surprised at the benefits taking just five to ten minutes to talk with a loved one, over FaceTime, or Zoom or by other means. When we are isolated, it can be easy to think that we are the only ones feeling what we are feeling. It can feel as though everyone else has it together, and we are the only ones struggling. By taking a chance and opening up to someone about the challenges you are facing, it’s likely that their experience will mirror yours in some way. This crisis is still ongoing and we are all handling it in the ways we know best.  Join a Facebook Group or Community If you were not aware before, Facebook has public and private groups that you can join for just about anything. There are groups for specific interests and hobbies, groups that discuss popular television shows, groups for singles, men, women, groups for those who want to advance in their career, and the list goes on! Some of these groups have thousands of members and host weekly activities, discussions, and virtual meet-ups. Whatever your interests are, there is probably a Facebook group for you! Though it is not the same as meeting people in person, these are often great forums for community, connection, and learning new things. If you don’t like Facebook, there is also an app called Meetup which used to be for in-person gatherings based on interests, but many of these groups have transitioned to virtual meetings.  Host a Watch Party
Many streaming platforms have introduced features that allow you to stream movies and television shows simultaneously from separate locations. Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix have a “Watch Party” feature where you can invite other subscription holders to watch content with you at the same time. There is also a browser extension called “Sceener” which includes special features like video chatting, easy transitions between streaming services, and a feature that allows you to “pass the remote” to another user. For those who want to host a watch party for people who do not have paid accounts, you can host a watch party on Zoom by sharing your screen.  Hi and welcome! I’m a professional organizer in San Antonio, Texas with some not so ordinary tips on getting your life a little more organized right now. I don’t know about you, but all those lists of life hacks, organizing hacks, things we should be eating, not eating, and cleaning, not cleaning, wear me out. They have great intentions, tend to be very specific, short and sweet, but it is overwhelming to think I need to add more things to my “To Do” list. While thinking of how to approach this blog post, I thought and thought about what advice a professional organizer had to share that would help you spark some joy in your mind and in your spaces. That’s when it hit me. I spend hours and hours with clients undoing what they have done. The messes they have are often a reflection of what they feel inside. This can be anxiety, depression, it can be a battle with ADHD that limits their ability to focus on cleaning up one area for more than a few minutes. Whatever the reason is, for our spaces to go from clutter to clarity again it sometimes takes a professional organizer to help sort it out.
Professional organizers work hard, entirely packed dirty garages to tidy, functionable-garage hard. We earn a client’s hard-earned money to undo their messes and while I love what I do for them, I may be able to save you from ever needing one just by tweaking the way you think about a few things. I am challenging you to create your Undo List with the help of some undo items below. My message to you this week, this month, and this year, is to spend some time undoing for yourself, so you don’t have to hire someone like me when you are overwhelmed. Here’s how... Undo item #1 In your space right now, you likely have 5-10 one-minute tasks that will undo the tension that comes with the burden of too much stuff being around and being too busy. Look around, I’ll wait… Does the mail need sorting? Does that broken toy need to be tossed, batteries replaced? Start a donate bag and add to it daily for a month to undo the excess. Can you go through one drawer and pull out what you know can be tossed/donated and nothing else for 1 minute? Go ahead, set a timer! Answer that one email that’s nagging you. That top shelf in the hall closet, find 2-3 things that can be moved on. Your tasks may look totally different, but you get my drift. Everyday spend some time tackling those tasks that literally take one-minute and undo them, roll them back to when they were not on your mind, nagging your anxiety, and get them off of that dreaded “To Do” list. Be a rebel! Undo item #2 I like to shop, and Costco is truly my second home. Don’t @me with your Sam’s membership because then we can’t be friends. When I come across a new treasure at Costco or anywhere that I think I must have, I make myself imagine the exact spot it will go in our home. No place for it, no purchase. If it has a place, I ask myself, how many times will I actually use it this month? This year? For it to come home, it must have a place, and a purpose. If I don’t think I’ll use it monthly (I’m looking at you waffle iron, Vitamix, and Himalayan salt lamp) it’s not a purchase to be made. Undo your clutter right at the source. Talk yourself through a few things to be sure it has a place in your home, has a purpose, and will enhance your life. Otherwise you are looking at money wasted, and time spent later trying to find it a new home with someone else or worse, sending it to a landfill. Undo item #3 The most common thing I hear about cluttered spaces is, “I’m so overwhelmed I don’t know where to start.” I will tell you where to start… the bathroom and laundry room. These spaces rarely have anything that is sentimental to slow you down, they are small, therefore relatively quick, and you can use the momentum from those areas to carry into other more important areas. Group like items together, all the lotions, make up, hair accessories, etc. Keep them together in bins by category. Toss anything expired or unusable. Always make 4 piles, a trash pile, a keep in this room pile, move to another room pile, and donate pile. Shelters and foster families can often use unopened toiletries, laundry soaps, etc. or make Kind bags (example below) with those items and pass out to homeless. Use drawer organizers and bins to put things back nicely and maintain it! Undo your clutter in these two spaces and carry it on to a bigger project later.
Undo item #4 I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the right tools to stay organized. Those junk drawers in your kitchen, nightstand, and desk, need drawer organizers. These are game changers worth their cost because they undo a whole lot of frustration, save you time, and money. When you clearly store and can see everything you won’t re-buy unnecessary items. A big rule of thumb, once something is full (shelf, drawer, cabinet) you cannot buy anything else for that category. Don’t even think about it!  A Lazy Susan is a great addition to your medicine cabinets, under sink cabinets, refrigerator, office and pantry. Find one that can be tossed in the dishwasher when needed. Use a partitioned one to store kids’ snacks, medicines, office supplies, and toiletries. You likely spend a lot of time in your kitchen. Shelf risers in your cupboards can save you headaches with your dishes. Undershelf baskets are a dream to store those top-heavy water bottles laying down. Over the door systems by Elfa can work for anything from wrapping paper storage to entry way drop everything station, to pantry. They are very customizable and almost always on sale in January and February!
Undo item #5 Paper clutter is my nemesis. File cabinets are my kryptonite. While I love doing paper clutter for clients, I am always shocked at what people keep. Families tend to have a lot of their kids’ artwork, school papers, report cards, and projects saved for way too long. There are apps like Keepy that store photos of all those wonderful creations in a timeline for you to look back at later. You can also comment and share with friends and family.  For the love of baby Jesus, undo your adult paper clutter. There are many programs that work securely to scan and store documents online, so you only need to host the bare minimum in your home. Some great options are OneDrive, Google Docs, and Drop Box. Here’s some practical but tough love advice for your relationship with your file cabinet {insert side eye}… Keep forever:
If you made it this far, thank you for reading my blog post! I hope you found some useful information to help undo what stresses your spaces, your minds, and brings back that spark of JOY! Get that Undo List started and watch your mind go from clutter to clarity right along with your spaces in just a few minutes a day.
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