In Order to Succeed

Beyond Marie Kondo: Next Steps for Student Organization

There is no doubt about it: Marie Kondo has revolutionized personal organizing. Her calm, relatable, and judgment-free methods—as well as her assertion that our possessions should “spark joy”—have clearly resonated with tens of thousands of people. 

While most of Kondo’s fans are adults, children and teenagers can benefit from her methods. However, helping young people get organized presents unique challenges. If you’ve tried to “Kondo-fy” your child with little success, here are some practical suggestions that might help restart the process.

The Well-Organized Aren’t “Born That Way”

While well-organized adults are surely well intentioned, we often forget that we were not, to paraphrase Lady Gaga, “born that way.” We have all developed organizational methods that work for us over a lifetime of trying, failing, and trying again. 

And even though those methods might indeed be wildly successful for us, we cannot—and should not—simply try to force them onto others. Instead, we must help the young people in our lives to discover what works for them.

Keep on Movin’

I’ll give you an example: organizing your child’s workspace can be one of a parent’s most aggravating tasks—but not if you let your child put things at hand by him or herself.  Research teaches us that many children literally cannot learn while sitting still.

If you decide to undergo a workspace reorganization with your child, don’t just think about the desk in front of her. Look at the walls in her room. 

Making Marie Kondo’s Methods Work for You

For example, her suggestion to organize by groups of items is great. If you have a teenage daughter and a garage full of athletic equipment, what better way to spend a Saturday morning than sorting her stuff into four piles: keep, donate, hand-me-down, and toss? 

Marie Kondo’s principles of organization are wonderful places to start, but that’s what they are: starting points. Each of us responds best to our own methods, and for young people—who are still learning what works for them—it can be important to test different methods. 

How To Organize Your Inbox Like Marie Kondo

We’ve been big fans of Marie Kondo ever since listening to her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, on Audible back in 2015, and we’re thrilled to hear so many of our clients and friends love her Netflix show.  We love to see people focusing on whether or not their possessions “spark joy”, but we have to ask: what about your inbox?? Does it spark joy?

Here are some practical suggestions that will help love your inbox a little more or at the very least stop being stressed out by it.

1. Set Aside Time to Go Through Your Emails

Raise your hand if you tend to respond to emails a few at a time whenever you have a spare moment. (We’re guilty too.) That is counter to the Marie Kondo method of simplifying.  Instead, establish an inbox routine so you can get in the inbox zone. Maybe you check and respond to all emails first thing in the morning and then again at the end of the day. Or maybe it’s at Noon. Figure out the best time for you to manage your inbox and then stick to it.

2. Turn Off Your Email  Notifications

Does your iPhone dinging every time you receive an email spark joy? Probably not. In fact, if you’re like most people it likely takes your focus away from whatever you were doing and may even create some anxiety. Now that you’ve set aside certain times of each day to go through your emails there’s no reason you need to get notified each time you receive an email. Turn off the notifications. If it’s really urgent someone will call or text you.

3. Don’t Create Too Many Categories

Your inbox needs only three categories.

You need to respond to or act on

You’re waiting on someone else to respond

You don’t need anymore (archive) or delete