How to Improve Organizational Skills, Time Management, and Planning Skills

Do you work with students who have deficits in the areas of organizational and planning skills? Many students with ADHD struggle in these areas. Here are 4 evidence based suggestions on how to improve organizational skills in your students with ADHD.

What Does the Research Say?

Many children and adolescents with ADHD exhibit deficits in executive functioning, including planning, organizing materials, and time management. There are various strategies that have been shown to be helpful for these students.

Step One: How to Improve Organizational Skills – Educate!

Research indicates that when you educate parents and teachers on how to manage and even reduce ADHD symptoms. Parent trainings and classroom management techniques have been developed for many years and are well established as treatment options to help.

Step Two: Set Goals

It can be motivating to students to set goals to help improve executive functioning. Parents, teachers, and the students can work together to establish goals for helping with organization, time management, and planning.

Step Three: Teach New Organizational Skills

This is a critical step in how to improve organizational skills in your students. These skills may need to be explicitly taught and individualized for the student (check out these practice activities). Don’t forget to allow for practice time.

Here are several examples of skills that can be taught:

• recording assignments
• reviewing and documenting due dates
• organizing school papers into binders
• creating or following checklists
• use assistive technology tools such as reminders, alarm clocks, visual schedules, etc. These can be low tech (visual schedules) or high tech (smart watches).

Step Four: Develop Compensation Strategies

When teaching students how to improve organizational skills, remember these suggestions should be individualized for each student. There are different types of strategies. For example:

• establish daily routines
• use graphic organizers
• break up assignments into smaller chunks
• packing backpack the night before when not in a rush
• planning the school outfit the day before
• clocks in every room

These four evidence based strategies may help students with ADHD improve organizational skills, time management and planning.

Reference: Wennberg, B., Janeslätt, G., Kjellberg, A., & Gustafsson, P. A. (2018). Effectiveness of time-related interventions in children with ADHD aged 9–15 years: a randomized controlled study. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 27(3), 329-342.