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Diaries vs. To-Do lists: How should students organise themselves?

What's the best way to help students to overcome organisational barriers?

Author

Ollie Lovell
August 25, 2023

Next year at my school we’re going to deliver an explicit program to students called the Effective Learner Program. The aim of this program is what it says on the box, to help students to become more effective learners.

In Term 1, the focus is going to be organisation. That is, we’re going to aim to give students the knowledge, skills, and processes they need to avoid some of the common student organisation pitfalls such as:

  • Forgetting to bring the required equipment to class

  • Arriving with a flat laptop battery

  • Forgetting to do homework

  • Forgetting when important assessments are on

  • Losing files either in hard copy or on their laptops

If we can manage to crack this challenge, it has the potential to lead to serious decreases in student and teacher frustration, and serious increases in learning time. I’m excited!

But the first challenge is, we need to design the program!

The natural thing that immediately came to mind was to get students to use their diaries. They already have one each, some teachers already emphasise their use, and some students already use them quite well.

But we didn’t want to rush to any conclusions.

One of my favourite questions whenever embarking upon a new project is, ‘What do the experts do?’ and so, the first step to program design was to discuss how we, the design team (made up of five well organised people with multiple complex roles and tasks that we juggle) organise ourselves.

We went around the circle and shared.

In this process we discovered that for most of us, our organisation system centred not around the use of a diary, but rather a to-do list.

A second interesting insight was that none of us house our to-do list on paper. We all used digital apps.

To me, this was fascinating. When I was at school, as well as in my current school, the emphasis on student organisation centres around the use of a physical diary. But, as adults, we mostly use digital to-do lists!

After this, I was feeling a bit stuck. And what should one do when feeling stuck? Create another list of course! The first biggest question is to emphasise a digital or a paper-gased approach. Here’s what I came up with.

Digital

Pros

  • Free (often)

  • Can be backed-up

  • Easily shared with others

  • Aligns with what adults use

  • List items can be easily transferred, edited, ranked, and prioritised

Cons

  • Tech learning curve

  • Can lead to distraction (e.g., log on to check your to-do list, end up on YouTube)

  • Can run out of battery

  • Can be used as an excuse for accessing tech (‘I wasn’t playing a game sir, I was just checking my to-do list. Honest!’)

  • Tech issues not uncommon

  • Can’t be introduced in contexts where tech isn’t available or appropriate (e.g., young students or where students don’t have 1-to-1 devices)

Paper-based

Pros

  • Easier for teachers to check at a glance (e.g., ‘Leave your diary open to this week and at the top right corner of your table for me to check’)

  • A visible, tangible reminder of the importance of organisation

  • Robust (e.g., won’t run out of battery, won’t break if you drop it)

  • Easy to standardise

  • Appropriate for all age-levels and in diverse contexts

Cons

  • Easy to lose

  • Easy to forget

  • Inflexible and more time consuming (e.g., can’t easily move a to-do from one list or week to the next)

  • Not as good a simulation of what students will likely use as adults

I must say, before I made these pro and con lists, I was feeling quite torn. However, after doing them, I’m feeling like the clear way to go is to emphasise a paper-based approach. It’s just so much more simple avoids many of the challenges that commonly come with technology in the classroom, such as digital distraction.

But this leads to the next challenge, what’s the system that we should teach our students?

If you have worked this out, please do message me and let me know!

So far, the most promising lead I have is the Bullet Journal approach. I haven’t used this myself, but if someone as switched on as the Thesis Whisperer uses it, then it must be good! Suffice to say, I’ve ordered the guide to bullet journalling, it’s arriving today, and plan to devour it over the weekend.

On a more personal note, I am keen to find a way to move some of my organisational processes from digital to paper-based. The reason for this is modelling for the little munchkin pictured below.

“Munchkin” at her first wedding (out of the womb, that is)

I want to teach Ada to be organised from a young age and I don’t want that system of organisation to be based upon technology. I know I’ll be fighting an uphill battle with this if my own system at that time is phone based…, ‘Dad, why do I need to use these dumb bullet journals when you get to use your phone?’

So, it looks like some sort of paper-based to-do list is the go. As I say, if you’ve already worked this out, please do let me know! If not, please wish me, and the Effective Learner Program design team good luck!

Announcements and Opportunities

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They’re coming to an Instructional Coaching Intensive this October!

Find out more about this unique day of training by clicking Perth, Melbourne, or Sydney.

Other threads to pull on…

  • One simple article this week that I really enjoyed recently. An excellent summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear (which we did as a reading for the planning group for the Effective Learner Program)

Wanting to learn has no direct impact on learning*

Daniel Willingham - Outsmart Your Brain

*Instead, we must do things which are under our control which have learning as a by-product.