Yep. Now make sure so hang on. Which which of you is Dale? Dale on

the I'm Dale. Oh, that's what I thought. Sorry. I didn't even know.

Yeah. Sorry. I'm certainly worried about getting. Le Corder.

Courte. Sorry. Yes. Okay. I'm down. This is all. Sorry, Amanda. I had a bit

of an interview, but I just thought I'll double check. No. Thank you. Alright. Are

are you ready to go? Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Alright. Alright,

everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. Episode number

353 with Amanda Lacorde. How are you,

Amanda? Great. Thank you for having me today, Dale and Paul. No

worries. Now you're the founder of organizingschools.com.au. You have two

sons. We both have two sons. So got a little bit in common. Now

you've also been recommended by Lauren Monday from think think set go.

I think I get that wrong every time. I do. You have to answer them.

I do. I can't spit it out. It's always nice when you get recommended by

someone. And more importantly, we really resonated with, you know,

what you're doing around organizing students and equipping students with the tools and

skills, strategies they need to succeed both in life and at school, which

is so important. I think the big one there is that life, you

know, that we're equipping with things that they can take in life, that the things

they learn at school is so important, and I wanna get into that. But most

important question, Amanda, what's been your highlight so far from

2025? Twenty '20 '5. I

guess just getting back into the routine of, you know,

supporting these kids. That's, you know, making a difference. And that's really what

it's about for me and my fellow coaches. Like, you know, we don't like to

see kids struggle. Tools and

strategies so that they don't struggle and don't get that stress and overwhelm. And

obviously, most kids start the year with a positive attitude generally,

right? Because no one wants to fail. Like, generally, they want to do the best

they can. But we're probably coming into that period of time,

start to have that little

dip going on, and we wanna get them up and and and out of that.

So, yeah, it's really that's probably the main thing. And for me, and I think

I mentioned to you, Dale as well, I had knee surgery last year.

So my other big highlight is starting to walk again

and having my independence and being able to drive my car for the first

time. That's a good fit. One of those one of those things

that you don't realize how much you you miss or you need until it's gone,

I'm guessing. Yep. Exactly. So that's the How long how long you off the road

for, Amanda? How long were you not driving for? Three months.

Oof. Yep. I'm doing well. You know, and to rely on everyone else, which is

you know, my family's been great, but, you know, it it just is

nice to be able to just do it by myself again. Yep. I like it.

Hey. Can I back pedal a little bit, Amanda? You said you've got two sons?

Yep. How old are your sons? Yeah. So they're 19

and 22 now. So Alright. Okay. We're in the thick of it.

Dal Dal more so than me. We both got two sons. Mine

mine have just turned seven and five, so I've got a seven and a five

year old. Dal's a four and two. Very good point. Thank you. Taking

note of interest in your family. And Dale's in the thick of

it a lot more. He's in the trenches taking grenades at the moment. And then,

like, literally, he's ducking for cover. And I've got one in

one in prep and one in grade one, and it's an awesome experience. But please

give us a little bit of good news that it gets easier.

Or No. Don't don't say it doesn't mean.

I'm not sure. And, look, it's an interesting thing. And I I guess, you know,

from my own experience with my own boys and then obviously the kids in that

that I've worked with over the the many years, I think looking back,

to be honest, I think whilst it's challenging and I completely

appreciate that that's where you are right now and you're in the trend you described,

but I think little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems.

And I know. And so it's it's just different. And I'm

not saying that to scare you or anything like that, but I just think there

are, you know, other challenges that sort of come into play,

unfortunately. We've got through that. Love it's not these love on those. We're gonna scare.

We're not gonna get rid of them.

Man. Yeah. And you do think that, you know, you just wanna support them. Right?

And that's, you know, and you'll support them regardless of of what happens.

You you you you you're comfortable with You, you're sitting there and you think, man,

I got this look like, this is coming like heart heartbreak and love

and, you know, mate ship problems, all those things that we've got coming

up that haven't hit us yet. That's gonna be an interesting thing to navigate is

those things and not getting selected for certain sport sides or, you know, whatever it

might be, whatever might come. But, yeah, you're right. The problems just change

in nature, I guess, don't they? But you've still gotta be there emotionally for them

and and support them. But, And and as a parent, right, you

just do the best that you can. It's like even what I do and what

you guys have done in your careers and things as well. I think, you know,

we don't get a manual for this. Right? So it's about just

doing the best you possibly can at the time. And hindsight's a wonderful thing,

but, you know, we all just, yeah, just work it

out as we go. Yeah. You do, Nadia. Alright. That's so true. And I I

think that's the, the hardest thing that in life, man, that there's

sort of manuals or books on how to do everything, whereas there's a lot of

parenting books, but there's not one size fits all. And nobody can tell you how

to do do it, and you've gotta figure it out. And but that's why it's

so rewarding as well, and I love that. So when, obviously, you know, with

your work and things, how is, you know, been a been a mother,

been a parent affected, I suppose you'd probably be quite

empathetic, I'm guessing, most mothers are towards students

and, obviously, dealing with stress and pressure and anxiety.

How has that played a role in, obviously, your business, but also, you

know, in what you what you deliver? Yeah. Look. I think one of the

key things that I pride myself on and, I guess, my fellow coaches,

is building rapport with these kids. And to be honest,

I get really quite sad when a lot of them move on. And I outdo

out myself out of a job, right? Because the goal is to give them the

independence to manage ultimately. And that's like as a parent too. You just

want to give them the tools and skills so they can succeed. And so it's

always a bit sad when kids move on because you do become part of

their their life. But at the same time, it's that rewarding, you

know, nature. I think one of the biggest things for me, and not that not

that I go on about it, but I do have a lot of I go

on about it, but I do have had a lot with my own

children. I've had some really impactful experiences

that have helped me do what I do and be better at

what I do with supporting other students. So

you know, we were very fortunate that it was not not too big a deal

and it was dealt with quite quickly. But I do talk to parents a lot

about that experience and trusting your gut instinct kids

better than anyone and you generally know when something's not right. So I

learned a lot from that experience. And I also had a

child on the back of COVID who had a lot of sort of school refusal,

school can't, which I guess is the word that's happening now.

Relation to, chronic sleep issues that he was having.

And he actually didn't end up finishing secondary school. And again, I guess

the biggest thing that I learned out of that is that, like you said

before, I think Dale, that there's no one size fits all.

And it's about doing what you think is right at the

time and not being dictated by society. Because I think that is the

big thing. And I was sort of probably falling into a little bit of the

trap. I've got friends saying he's got to finish school and he's got to do

this and do that and at the end of the day,

he didn't have to. He's gone to university. He's just got a different

pathway. And, you know, his mental health is intact and

that's been the most important thing. Yeah. And I love that notion, and

there are so many educators who listen to our pod and so many parents who

listen to our pod. And I think that that's the most important part

there is. It's not a one size fits all. The most important thing don't be

prepared. The most important thing is is don't fracture your relationship with your

with your child over trying to fit into societal norms.

Right? Because that's if you lose them and that trust is gone, that that relationship's

fractured, it's hard to build that background, especially as they go into young

adulthood. But if you support them and you give them what they need in that

moment in time, when they get through that tough that

tough period, then they're gonna follow their dreams. Right? And the beautiful thing about today's

day and age is you can follow your dreams through so many different pathways.

You don't have to get VC. You don't have to get an 80 on your

Atasc or on VC anymore. I love that. It it

does baffle me how much pressure we put on students with that ATAR and VC

and all sorts of bits and pieces when you simply don't need it.

And most of the most of the most successful people in the world nowadays

didn't do incredibly well in year 12. Right. You know what I mean? So yeah.

And I think I think you're right. And I think the the the thing there

is, you know, I'm not backwards in coming forward sometimes when I have to educate

parents as well. So, you know, there's been times where I've had to tell parents,

you've got to pull back. You've got to change your approach here. You've got to

do it differently because your relationship is getting is ruined.

And, you know, when you have a child come to you and say, you know,

all dad talks to me about his school and, you know, there's

nothing else. It's like, well, that's not right, and and and they are gonna

ruin it. And I guess I wouldn't have a business, to be honest, if kids

listen to their parents because

oh, they did the exact same thing, but coming And I was the same

with my own boys. Right? So, you know, it's like I even when I worked

in corporate many years ago and I worked in legal and law firms and and

what have you, and I was in the marketing side of things. And I remember

going and talking to some of the partners and saying, this is what you need

to do and blah blah blah. But then the minute you get a consultant in,

they'll they'll do it. And it's just like, well, I've just been telling you that

for so long, and it's the same thing with what I do. Right? So

yeah. Yeah. It's just the way it goes. It is. And it's the same thing

what we do. We say this so so many teachers say, do we even tell

them that for years? They listen, but someone new comes in,

someone external, and they take it on board. It's, it's a funny thing that human

nature part of it, isn't it? It is funny. Different voice. So,

obviously, talk us through. How did, organizing students come about? Was there,

like, a light bulb moment or did you go through something

or, like, how did it happen? Because I love the way businesses start. They

don't there's no it's like parenting, Amanda. There's no right or wrong way to do

it, but just starting is really powerful. How did it all come for you?

Yeah. So a couple of sort of stories, I guess, going back about fifteen

years ago, a girlfriend said to me, you're a great organizer.

You've got those natural ability of skills of organizing time management, all

that sort of stuff, project management, whatever. There's a body of professional

organizers out there. You need to go and start doing this. So I started helping

people in business and homes predominantly. And then a lot of

families were getting in to help them so they didn't pass on their bad

habits to their children. And I thought there's a bit more in

this. And so my business back then was called Organizing You, and that's sort

of where I started. And then I my children were going through

primary school and approaching I think my son was in grade five at the time,

and I thought, I think there's a real need to start talking to kids here

about organization and time management. And what

better way to do it than to tie it in with transfer of year six

to year seven to starting secondary school? And so I approached the

local school and said, can I run a workshop? They were wrapped, ran the workshop,

got great feedback. And that's where organizing students was

born.

Still do those today, in schools, as well and

at grade six, but also in year seven. And then from there, it just

sort of evolved. And then I started working one on one with students, and now

I do workshops all over, you know, for from year six through to year

12. You know? And now we work with kids in university, and that sort of

just evolved as well because a lot of our students and parents wanted us to

help them with that transition. So it's just sort of evolved over the

last, you know, ten, fifteen years. Well done. Is there a cultural

is there a cultural thing in there? Like, I imagine you spoke before, I used

to be an AP at a school that was very multicultural and the

you know, that Indian in particular, that Indian culture was very academically

focused and there was a lot of stress placed on young people. Do you find

that as well is is there certain cultures that are a bit more, I

guess, pressuring young people with school? Look, I see that. I

don't experience that firsthand, to be honest, because I obviously

don't I don't seem to attract that those cultures Yeah.

To to what I do. And, you know, I guess, you

know, rightly or wrongly, however they approach it and and and what they do,

that's just, you know, who they are and what they want and what

Everyone generally wants the best of their kids, right? So I get that.

But, we tend to support,

probably half of our business is is NDIS, you know,

related kids with learning challenges, you know, disabilities,

which I don't really like the term disabilities, but that's the the correct

term, I guess. But, you know, they have all these, you know, ADHD, autism, you

know, what have you. So we have a lot of those sort

of, students, but we also just have general everyday

kids, who just don't have the necessary skills.

And and and it's about giving them the skills. And most parents,

to be honest, that we get and we attract are

not those parents that are helicopter parents or, you

know, again, obviously want the best for their kids, but they want them to have

balance too. So which I think is really important. And I guess that's where I

like to come from too because it isn't just all about like, we've touched on

school work. It's just having that balance, which is really, really

important as well. You probably need to come to our house. I mean, we're we're

we're a very relaxed parent. You are. I'm gonna I'm

gonna read through all those lines around and go, those relaxed parents, and they they

just fly by the same with their hands. So relaxed. Don't

come to my house at the moment.

So I wanna go back a little bit. Organizing you.

I'm I'm so intrigued here. So you were obviously helping families with

your organization. So you were obviously going and helping them declutter

their homes is one thing I've read in your website. I just I just

instantly picture Hoarders, the TV show Hoarders. Did you have you

seen some incredibly craziness in your time of

people's homes? Yeah. Look. I certainly have. And

I didn't really focus too much on the hoarding side of things because there's more

there were people that are more specialist in that space because that link to

a mental illness generally or what's behind that. So so

it's yeah. And and you can do more damage than good if you

don't go in, you know what I mean, in the right the right space and

Okay. And strategies. So but, yeah, look, I have seen all sorts

over my my time, and that's what I say to students. Like, one of the

things when I work with students, when we do our initial assessment, I do ask

for photos of their bedroom and their desk space. Right? Yeah.

Most of our business is online, and but it's good for me to get a

sense of what's going on for them in those spaces. Now we're

not there to judge by any means, but, again, you you see, you know, you

see the most organized bedroom to the most disorganized bedroom.

And, you know, again, sometimes that it probably

worries the parents a lot more, to be honest, than the child.

And so that's why I'm really interested in it because

is it impacting them and their ability to do their schoolwork?

Or if it's not, then sometimes we just have to let that, you know what

I mean? Let that go. Some some kids can be really, really messy

and still know where everything is in that space. Mhmm.

So sometimes it's about trying to find and and pick your

battles as a parent. And and what the what the

impact is. So, like, my children I mean, my children are pretty organized,

you know, but like teenage boys, you know, young adults, they've got floor

robes happening in their bedroom and

stuff. But every now and again, they'll clean it up. So I just turn a

blind eye to it. It's like, I'm not gonna nag them over it. You know?

Really, what's it gonna do? You know? Yeah. That's it. And we've

all been there. As as young men, we were once young men.

Speak to yourself. I I love to be honest. We've we've got a my wife

I shoulda. I've got a bench seat in our bedroom, Amanda, and,

it's a it's a horizontal surface, and it's mate, I can't get my clothes from

the washing basket onto the bench here. My wife folds beautifully already to put away.

Mate, I just that's my drawers now. And then and then once in a while,

I'll clean that bench seat up and she She's like, you're on?

Oh, god. Yeah. I can't seem to get them from the bench seat to my

drawers. I love that, though. I think it like you just said to me, and

it's like, are you wasting energy on something that doesn't really matter? Do you know

what I mean? Like, you get so caught up on it, but then that negative

energy flows in and affects probably something that didn't need to be affected

because you started a battle. Just because you may not be

feeling well, you don't like it at the time, it doesn't mean that that's okay

to bring that up with somebody else. I'm just thinking, like, you know, that

pick your battles, that perspective doesn't really matter. How hard is

that to become good at? Because I'll be honest, I am not good at that.

Like, I'm really, really struggling. I've got no doubt people listening to

this struggle as well. Is that something you get better at, or

is this just, no. You have to work at it? Look. It you do get

better at when I when I talk about organization and time management and, I guess,

executive function skills, which coordinates all of this in our

brains. Right? You know, for for young people, our brains

aren't fully developed till the age of 25. So

as I you know, in the the kids that we work with, as you can

imagine, they're they're still struggling with a lot of these concepts and things. It

doesn't mean, as you said, that they can't learn them and they can't put tools

and strategies in place to help them, but it is generally a

little bit harder. So you do need to you do need to

understand it, and you do need to work at it. It doesn't

just happen, you know, overnight. Even when you turn 25,

it's like, miraculous. See, right now, I'm gonna organize, and I'm gonna manage my

time. It that's not what it's about. It's about, yeah, putting in a

little bit of work along the way to to get there.

Just as an example, one of the key things and I was just looking up

there at the moment because, you know, clocks, and you can probably see I've got

clocks around me. You know, one of the things that's a real challenge

at the moment in society is we're surrounded by this digital time.

Right? And analog clocks are disappearing

at a fast rate. Yeah. Now that's not helpful

to teach kids the these skills because

the purpose of an analog clock is to see time has a

beginning, a middle, and an end. Right?

And you've gotta see time passing to manage it.

And if you can't see it, you can't manage it.

That's very true because you don't see it on the screen. You you do. You

don't you don't see it pass on the screen at all, do you? And you

are spot on. I'm thinking back to the last few schools I worked at. Definitely

last one. 50 percent of the clocks in the wall weren't were were not even

ticking. They weren't even ticking. It was the wrong time. No one bothered to fix

them because we've all got time on our phones. Man. Smartwatches

and devices. Interesting. Yeah. So if if if

I give you another example, so this happens a lot with kids. So when, you

know, we're we're all struggling with technology and and the use of technology and

how much our kids use, and you're probably right in the thick of this right

now. And so, you know, you say, right, you can have half an hour on

your device, so you can have an hour on your device, whatever. Now you're probably

having battles getting your kids off it because they say, I haven't had an

hour yet. That is because they only see the

current time. They don't see that time passing, and

that's why you have that battle because they don't realize they've been on there for

half an hour or an hour. I love learning things. Amanda,

thank you. This is amazing. I don't have one analogue clock in my house. Actually,

I'll lie. I've got one, but it is stuck on ten past two, and it's

been stuck ten past two for for a long time. He's always late. Right. He's

always late. Always late. He's always

incredibly early. But and my wife

and I currently had the conversation about getting especially, like, for shower times. Right? They

they you wanted to have a four or five in the shower. They'll they'll happily

be there for twenty five minutes. They love it once they get in. And we're

currently talking about getting a digital timer that we can stick on the wind

like, on the shower screen or that we can make portable anywhere. So when

we do give them that, iPad time or shower time, whatever it might

be, we can set the timer and go, right, five minutes on

the timer. When that counts down and that goes off, that should time it.

Is that an okay way to go about it, or is an analog

clock better than a countdown digital timer? Generally,

look, thumbing is better than nothing. Right? Okay. So, you know,

I think having a timer is useful, particularly if I can see it counting

down. Yep. Okay. I don't think that's too bad. But one of the things

that I use a lot of these, and you've probably seen them, you know, throughout

your your time of these Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Digital time timers. Right? And

then what happens is you, you know, you set it for a certain time and

then just obviously works backwards. So key you know, kids can really see

that time. And these are

really, really important for, in in so many

ways, particularly with a lot of kids who have challenges, you know, autism

and ADHD and a whole lot of other things. And some kids that I

work with have them in every room in the house, to be able to help

them with that time. Now you can go the other extreme

where they they have an impact on you

know, kids can get anxious by time too, so they don't suit everybody.

So it's trying to find the right tool that's gonna work for for that.

But I always use that analogy, Paul, as well in that when I'm

talking to parents that, you know, in the shower, you know, they're yelling at their

teens to get out of the shower, but they don't know that I mean, they

know they've been in there a long time. You you got a general sense. Right?

But they don't know The water bill they do. Yeah. They can't see

that they've been in there for fifteen minutes. They don't really know that, you know,

that's how long they've been in there. Yeah. Amanda, that is so I've literally written

countdown timer analog in my name, and I'll be buy I'm buying a couple of

episodes ago this podcast. Sure. I reckon I'll sell them on Amazon,

the video. %. We're not we're not selfish, but One of

the things about and you've you've pointed it out as well, Paul, is that that

clocks often don't work. And so I'm a big one when I go into a

classroom because I always anchor myself by the clock when I run a workshop. And

so when they're not working, I find it really hard, and I always try and

get teachers to to make sure that they are working and they're not on

daylight saving time or whatever it might be. And then

the other thing that I'm trying to educate teachers is is is sometimes, you know,

even using something like this in the classroom. And I have seen classrooms

use it really well, whereby they might say to the kids, you know,

you've got twenty minutes to complete this task. So they will

set a timer for twenty minutes. So, again, kids can sort of see

and and it just helps anchor them and ground them and and and, you

know, know how long they've got to go. It's such a simple

life skill. Like, we're going forward about what you do and, like, what those life

skills I know life change. I know life change. As simply as that

to using and we've and as educators, they've got a bit of a bit of

a responsibility to teach them life skills, not just their academic side of things as

well. Right? And that's a really simple way that is it's gone. Like,

you are correct. That that one last skill of understanding time is definitely

disappearing because analog clocks aren't anymore. Super powerful. It's

so simple. With that with that, Amanda, so when, obviously, we run our workshops,

we normally just play I love we love music. Obviously, music makes you feel good.

We normally say one for this song, you're playing the game. Once the song's done

because that'd be another good way in the shower. You've got this song. Oh,

yeah. Where is that? That's just how I think. Yeah. You can have

playlists and things like that that work really well. And so I know students

who do have playlists, for instance. And then we don't

necessarily encourage music with words, by the way, when kids are studying because that's another

whole, you know, whole aspect. But sometimes they do have their playlist

so they know that, you know, three songs is fifteen minutes

or four songs is twenty five minutes or whatever it might be. So they know

that that's, you know, how long they need to sit down and do what they

need to do because some kids do need that noise in the background. Yep.

Yep. Phil is in a bit more about lyrics in songs. Why is that a

no no? Because it again, it depends what you're doing.

Right? So for instance and there's a lot of studies out there around it. If

you're doing creative drawing or you're I don't know. You're trying to be

creative about doing something, music's really not gonna matter so much.

Right? But if you're there trying to write an essay or you're trying to

learn your words for business management or, you know, do your

math homework or whatever it might be, it does

compete subconsciously even. So you're

not you're not taking enough of that in going into your

memory where you want it to be while you're doing it. And that's

that's the real challenge, and and kids say, oh, it doesn't matter. I'm you know?

And I mean, these days, you've got kids watching YouTube even trying to do their

homework and stuff. But I mean, you know, it just is not

helpful. No. And you see students in study halls all the time, AirPods in. So

they're they're studying and trying to get memory retention, but they're obviously listening to

a whole lot of rap and who knows what's going on in their ears. But,

yeah. Interesting. Okay. So I I used to listen to a lot of,

like, mood or brain music where it's just A bit of Enya. No no

song. No words. It's like these beats and, like, chimes and

stuff. And I used to follow myself, I'd get in the zone. Like, is that

okay? Explain so.

Oh, I'm learning some of these men every day, and it explains so much.

So, generally, background music, which is probably more what that is

or music that's very familiar to you. And I have this argument

a little bit with students sometimes around when they say, Oh, but I've listened to

that song with words, you know, millions of times I don't listen to it

anymore. But you still sort of are, whereas

background music, like what you're talking about there daily is

is generally a little bit more acceptable. But but it's

only if you really need like, again, I have this discussion. If you really need

it to help and you think it helps you, fine. But if you're just doing

it for the sake of doing it, give it a go and try it without

it and see if it makes a difference. So that's where for what we

do, it's trying to get the gains and give these kids the tools

and skills and, you know, just getting them to change it up a bit.

And they generally will realize that, hey. Yeah. That does work.

Yeah. Interesting. What would be what would be your

one go to tip? Let's go for parents and for

students. So two two different tips that you could just don't give anything too much

away or what you I want you to business manager. Yeah. I want people to

come to your workshops. But what one let's hook them. Let's get them a hook

here, Amanda. What's one thing that you could say to hey. Work on this with

your kids, or here's a a verbal cue you can give, or what what's something

you what's your go to? The other one is obviously, the

time management one, which obviously I've already talked about, but the other one is

around organization. Now the big thing with

organization is, again, you need to see time and

tasks to be able to manage it. And everyone thinks, oh, I can

remember that. You know, teach classic. Kids give teachers give kids homework in

class. I'll remember that. I'll do that. You know? And then by the time the

end of the day, they've had four or five teachers. They've had four blocks of

homework. They haven't recorded anything. Something is gonna

get missed. Right? It's just you know, I say to

kids, keep your memory for your learning and write things down.

Right? So that's a that's a big thing. But it's in terms of the

other thing that's gone missing in schools and, you know, is

diaries. So yeah. And

so paper diaries, I think, you know, have have moved away. Now I'd

be a billionaire if I could have solved this in the last ten or fifteen

years as to what do we do for kids. But I'm

very big on kids still need to use something or

or everyone needs to use something generally, and it's not just kids. So and

parents can be modeling this, you know, as well at home. So

it's about finding the right tool that's gonna work for

the individual. Yep. So whether it be a paper diary, whether

it be Google Calendar, whether it be whiteboard planner, whether it be a calendar

on the wall, like an app, whatever. There's so many things out there.

It's finding the right tool that's gonna work for you so that you can see

your time and tasks, and then you can manage them. And how

often you you you guys are probably gonna nod your heads when I say this.

Like, how often have you, perhaps in the past,

gone like, turned up at school, say, on a Monday morning and thought

and hadn't looked at anything or weren't prepared for something, and you got a math

test, but you didn't have it recorded anywhere. And so now you're saying, oh, no.

Now I've gotta do that. So, you know, you don't want surprises. Right?

So you've gotta always be looking ahead as to what's coming up as

well. Yeah. You're spot on. And and the thought the

word all fell down was we the diaries fell away

because mobile phones came in, and every student started making their notes in their

mobile phone. And then, obviously, the government banned mobile phones in schools,

but we didn't reinstate diaries, and we still haven't in

the education system. And, yeah, you're right. That's such a

simple way. Writing them down. Yeah. Yeah. Because you know what? Every single teacher still

has their chronicle. Every teacher. Oh, yeah. %. We

both, you know, we both got our diaries that we religiously write everything down into.

So once again, it's another last skill that students need to learn that to do

because they're not keeping diaries and they get the workforce. Being able to write. You

know what I mean? The the skill of being able to write. That's Yep.

Important. Like, you're not just gonna have the device all the time.

It's really interesting. Yeah. I'm running I'm running a workshop, on Thursday

for, some this is the first time I've done this. I'm running a

workshop for grade five and sixes, and I'm focusing

on this school in particular uses a a paper

diary, and they have a they have projects every month that they've gotta

manage. And so they want to try and get the kids to use the

diary a little bit more to help them manage, you know, that those projects and

other things that they've gotta do throughout the year. And I've put together a

tip sheet for parents on what parents can be doing at home to help the

kids do this as well. And so that they can learn

these skills, then then they can transfer them because they're gonna need them

when they go to secondary school, which we all know, and and and help

them with that that process. So I'm really

excited by what I've put together that, you know, to help these kids.

And so I think I think there's still a place for kids to use paper

diaries to learn, Right? Whether they go on to do that down the

track doesn't matter. But schools what

schools have done is they've gone to the school portals, which is sort of

replaced diaries. But I don't

think there's not many schools that I have seen yet that have it

managing consistently and really well. So for

instance, they might have a calendar online, but often it's got,

you know, all sorts of things on there. And they they they find out things

about year twelves when they don't need to know about this or they don't need

to know about that. And so there's too much information going on. Sometimes you

can filter it. But again, they need to get a little bit better at how

kids can use them to help themselves. And university same.

Some universities I was online yesterday with a student, and they've got four subjects,

for instance, which is just like high school. And they've got their

assignments for each individual subject, but this university

in particular doesn't have all the assignments in one calendar.

So I, you know, I say to kids, you've got to have it in one

calendar to manage it because you can't manage it within four different places.

Yeah. And that's the same with Compass. A lot of schools using Compass for their

learning tasks. They're gonna be submitted, but you get into term three. And if a

kid hasn't kept fully up to date with it, it becomes overwhelming because you've

got red crosses and green ticks galore, and they're like, where do I even

start? Well, how do I filter this into it? Anxiety. Yeah. It's a great to

do list, and it creates anxiety. Right? But your good old to do list is

you transfer. You cross them out, and then you make a new to do list,

and it keeps it. It's rewarding. It's rewarding too when you do a to do

list and you cross them all. Like, celebrating it. Smollett. Yeah.

See? It's very funny how we've done like a big have you do

you reckon this is how do you end it? We've done this big full cycle.

We've gone behind. We'll do everything, and now we're realizing, no. We need to go

back to clocks. We need to go back to writing down, like, back

to the basics. Like, we really do. They need to bring back this is off

topic, if that's it. They need to bring back textbooks. Like, all every kid's

textbook is on the computer nowadays, and and I know it's better for the environment

for the trees. I get it. But interesting to say that because I just had

that discussion with a parent this morning Did you? About textbooks. Because

the what's happening as well is kids aren't necessarily using the textbooks

in the way that we would have used when we were educated. Right? And so

this kid in particular is just taking it by gospel that

what the teacher is teaching is all he needs to know in the class.

Yeah. Yeah. He's missing, you know, some of the

key elements and the more detail perhaps because teachers don't have the time to go

through the full, you know, detail. So when you get to your year 12 exam,

of course, the examiners are gonna use all that information in that textbook,

not the components that teachers pulled out or highlighted in the class.

Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And teachers human nature of teachers is they generally

verbally teach the content they're really comfortable with, that they know

inside out. There's parts in those textbooks that they don't fully understand yet. Trust me.

I used to be one of them. Not me. I I would have known it

so I love reading. That's human. I feel

so good. Students. I was like, that's me. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

You're right. So they are missing out on, I'd I'd say, comfortably, thirty,

forty, 50 percent of really important content to be honest with you. It's not just

a little bit. It's a lot of important content. But just that skill still

of opening a paperback book and reading and researching and learning

and getting that content stuck in. Yeah. And once again, get them off

their screens a little bit more. Get that blue light out of their heads and

dezombify them. Yeah. Yeah. It what Dallas said, I think

that strikes a chord in me, Massively. I think we need and we're not going

to, but I think we need to go back And we would be able to

bring back some simple practices Yeah. Analog clocks, keeping diaries, text

anyway. Finding the balance. Right? It's having the balance again. Like, what we always

started when we're talking about balance. It's finding, you know, the

balance that's gonna help these kids. Not necessarily

not necessarily take more time for teachers, and I'm I'm very big on that, and

I, you know, appreciate that. Like, I wrote a blog recently

about, teachers and how it would be useful

for them to adopt assistive practices

in the classroom because teachers are under

you know, they don't have a lot of time and time for and all of

those things. But what's happening is they're like, well, we've got these three or four

extra students who need, you know, more support in the classroom. And they're they're

looking at it from the point of view of, I need to do all this

extra work to support those four kids. Whereas I'm coming at it from

the other angle and saying, what you do for those four kids is gonna

benefit that whole class. Look at it quite differently

and put some of those strategies in place because it's gonna benefit everyone by

doing that and be less time consuming.

Yep. And and that's a positive on everyone. It's not singling out for

students. You know? And then I think we get that all the time as well.

Like, people say, oh, what happens if someone doesn't wanna join in or whatever? I'm

like, well, what about the 99% of everyone that does wanna join in? Do you

know? And it's very similar, isn't it? You focus on try and

focus on the positives, I guess. And if you can make those four students feel

like they're not extradited and they all fit in, it's the same with everyone that

they use are just strategies and practices that we use as a class,

not as a collective. Yep. And society as a whole. Right? You

know? Look what's going on in society at the moment. I mean,

when society is breaking down in so many areas, and I mean, we all know

we're not here to discuss that. But but it's the same thing that's going on

where, you know, different minorities and groups are being singled out. And

why? We're all human. We're all people. We're all equal.

Yep. Doesn't matter what's going on. Yep. I love that. So,

Amanda, people are listening here. I know these are it's probably like

mental health at the moment, like, where everyone talks about it, but it doesn't seem

to be improving. And I'd say from the simple things that I've spoken about

today, they're very basic, but they're not improving either. Do you know what I mean?

Around, you know, being able to read a clock. Like, I think that's one of

the most simple things in the world, writing things down, handwriting, keeping track of

things that are your own responsibility. But for some reason, with all

technology and all the information we know now, it's not working as well.

So where can people go if they wanna, obviously, you know, if schools are

listening or parents or students, where's the best place to go to,

obviously reach out and learn more? Yeah. So definitely our website, which

is

www.organizingstudents,1word,.com.au.

And so I've got a we relaunched our website last year,

and so it's quite detailed. So there's a section for parents, there's a section for

schools, you know, there's a section for teachers, and so forth as

well. So, you know, one of the the key things I love coaching one on

one and supporting kids, but I think, you know, obviously, I can do

more value and provide more value by, you know, talking in

bigger, you know, classrooms or to parents or to teachers and and so forth

and and helping more kids, you know, put these strategies in

place. Because we wanna take away that stress and overwhelm and

and and things that you're talking about. And, you know and and the

other big one, actually, that we haven't sort of touched on, and and

this this is another whole challenge that I see day in, day out is

motivation, which sort of links in with a lot of this as well.

And so many kids are just saying, you know, they're not motivated to

do their work or to do this. And so

it's trying to work out, well, what's actually going on for them and what's

causing that lack of motivation or or what have you. And sometimes it's lack

of skills and and ways to do things or, you know, they see

this as all too hard when really it's not that hard. It's about putting simple

things into place that are gonna, you know, study smarter, not harder, make it

easier by doing something now that's gonna set you up for

later. Yeah. And I I massively link motivation

through purpose and goals. So many students, or even

adults, but young people in particular, who are lacking motivation,

generally have no purpose. They have no

true no no goal to work towards, and that's where their that's where the

motivation doesn't come from. Right? But the young people that know

where they wanna get to, who they wanna be, those sorts of things, that that

develops intrinsic motivation. So I think, yeah, if any parents out there are

educators who are struggling who have got kids who are struggling with motivation, look at

that as well and go, right. What are you working towards? Because they

need something to work towards. It's human nature. We need something to work towards, massively.

And the, before we wrap up, the one thing that I really resonate with me

as a parent, for your parents out there is if your kid's room is messy,

pick your battles and challenge your kid, go in and say, right. Where's this? And

if your kid can tell you if the kid can if the kid knows where

everything is in that messy room Well done. Let it go. I I

wanna second that that, your website, I've obviously had a good look at it,

man. It's a very nice website. And people it is clean. It's not messy.

I could find things on it. It's not my website. But it is very nice,

and it it is very appealing for all those different demographics that we've

spoken about today. So if you are a parent that is listening, obviously, you can

take things away for yourself, but you can also take things away for your kids.

If you're a school, go on there as well, and you can obviously get things

you'd like. We will have the show notes for episode number

353 where we'll have a link so you can obviously reach out

and and touch base with Amanda. But more importantly, I think I've just really enjoyed

the chat, Amanda. Bye. I So have I. Been like that. A little bit selfish

in a way that we sort of ask questions that we wanna know, and that's

and I've really enjoyed it. So But if we if we wanna know them, I

guarantee they're right. That's how selfish it is. That is how they have the same

question. I don't care. I'm I'm actually thoroughly enjoyed this. I'm saying don't enjoy every

podcast, Amanda, but, thank you so much for your time and the work you're doing

because those tips and tricks are things that we all need. It doesn't

matter who you are. Everybody can get better at organizing some

aspect of their life. So thank you so much. Awesome. Amanda,

lovely to meet you. Thank you so much. We'll cross paths again, I'm sure. Yeah.

No. I've enjoyed it too. Thanks. Awesome. Take care.

Bye. Bye. Alright. Let me know how to stop this.

Stop. No. It's not on that. It's on here.