…but it works for me. I always feel like at any given moment I have a billion thoughts flowing through my head at one time!!  I am so distracted by my own thoughts I often have several unfinished projects or tasks or books or hairstyles or folded clothes or whatever. 

So to help me focus I use prayer and lists. 

Lists like these:

have kept me sane throughout the summer. 

Functioning without a dinner menu wasn’t possible for me this summer either:

So I’ve already developed 4 different menus for the school year: 

And it’s not just my personal life in which I need mental organization. 

I need different calendars for the different aspects of my professional life:

And I like to have, if not all, majority of my resources in one easy to get to place. That’s why I developed this over the summer.  It’s a flexbook textbook created using ck12.org. It’s my own personal one-stop shop of concept development tasks, practice activities and center activities. My hope is, as the school year rolls through, I can just pull tasks and activities from here to implement in my classroom. I did this so I won’t have to scramble for ideas during the heat of the moment. I thought carefully and purposefully about everything I placed into the flexbook, ensuring I chose items that were meaningful, engaging and met the level of the standards. 

When I tell people about it, it sounds crazy and overwhelming. The truth is, as thoughts came to me, I was able to insert it into my flexbook and ease my mind and eliminate unnecessary thoughts. This actually made it better for me because while I was spending time with my family, I didn’t have to think about school stuff. I was able to be present in each moment. Even better, it’s less work I’ll have to do as the year begins because the hard work is done.