Well, hello there, top teachers. We are your host, Bridget Spackman and Michelle Emerson,

and we are here to make your life easier by helping you master your time, organization, and

productivity as a teacher. You've likely started the school year at this point and quickly

realize that you are having to manage a pile of papers and to-dos. In this episode, we want to share what are systems and

why you should be using them to help decrease that overwhelm. But first, let's hear a TSAH from

Melanie. Melanie says, although I prefer to do most tasks digitally, I typically bring a notebook

with me to meetings. However, sometimes I use the same

notebook for multiple meetings or have multiple notebooks going on at one time. And in both cases,

I can never find what I'm looking for. And I spend a lot of time trying to sort out what I wrote.

Yeah. So, Melanie, I feel like I am a little bit like you as well, because I do enjoy

having a notebook. And especially after reading the getting things done, was it the getting things done,

Michelle, that we read and he was like, have kind of like a dumping ground or something to that extent?

I believe so. That's ringing a bell.

Yeah. So I think I started carrying a notebook at that point because he was like jot down anything

that comes to your mind, especially if you're in a meeting. And I never want to be that person

that's like on their phone at a meeting like because I'm like trying to put in like a to-do or I'm trying to write a note or something because then it makes it look like I'm not paying attention. So I don't know. It's all in my head probably,

but I keep a notebook. But one of the things that I found is exactly like you is that if I just let

my notebook sit, then I'm not doing anything with it and I'm going to let things fall off.

So what I have to do is I have to come back, take a seat, and then process the information.

And so what I mean by process that information is that I transfer over any to-dos to like my

digital piece. I will take any like screen shots, which actually now I have a

rocket book that I'm using. And if you're not familiar with a rocket, I know, but if you're not

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