1. Alarm watch. I set this for three separate times so that I will not be late to (or forget entirely) serving students.

2. School calendar. I have a calendar of ONLY school obligations on my desk. Each page is a week. I made the pages on Excel. Keeps me straight.

3. Personal calendar. The August to August calendar from Mixed Role Productions of Eugene, OR, is the best. Cute, too. Mine is always collaged, front and back, with the covers changing in the spring when I've gotten tired of the ones I made back in August. (pic soon)

4. Putting things in my way. When something needs to be dealt with, be it a bill, a sack of clothes for Granny's Attic (the island thrift store), or my cell phone, I put it where I will be unable to ignore it in the morning. Usually in a pile of stuff by the door, next to or in my backpack, or hanging from the doorknob.

5. LISTS. I am famous for these. The only problem is that I have them everywhere, and sometimes forget to look at them all. But if I had one big list, I'd faint from the overwhelm.

6. Metal clips (magnetic). These hold various frequently-used items at school, such as schedules, lists, student contact info, and the like. Urgent or current items get a metal clip. One metal clip is reserved for the school pictures of my nieces and nephew.

7. Bulletin boards. These don't really organize me, they just hold all the shit I'm not wanting to handle, but that I know I'll need to refer to at some point. My bulletin board at school holds the school calendar, professional development calendar, the state salary allocation model, and a picture of myself in a preschool observation in 1968.