The value of a schedule prepared yourself

When working with uniquely-abled folks, people on the autism spectrum, or people who are trying to get more organized, the place I always start is with creating a clear and fair schedule.

By clear, I mean a daily/weekly/monthly schedule that isn't neccessarily "to the minute," but rather one that is realistic and is written down somewhere, and viewable and usable by more than just the person themselves...it often helps to have a partner/parent/teacher/mentor/etc have access to the schedule and see what the time usage chunks are, and to be able to offer input on events that the person may have overlooked, like standing commitments, family events, or appointments they may have forgotten. As these events are absorbed into the ongoing schedule, it starts to become more of a "living and breathing" document, and also has the advantage of having folks work on predicting what is coming up in their lives and having control over what is coming, rather than being surprised by events they perhaps should have been aware of but were not, either because someone else handled making the event and was going to get them there or just because the person does not have experience being responsible for time-planning.

By fair, I mean a schedule that does not seek to program every single minute, but one that is able to label significant events in a day and give them the needed time, and allow the person to have a working understanding of what the day expects of them in order to allow them to plan what materials might be needed when they leave home, allow sufficient travel time between events, predict how long a task or appointment will take and have the schedule reflect that, and see how larger tasks that have a "done date" in the future have been broken down into smaller tasks that are more immediate and that allow the larger task to get done efficiently and with a lack of procrastination and hassles.

A person that is familiar with scheduling will instinctively know that a schedule involves a lot of small preparation parts that they do when seeing a certain appointment on a schedule, but for people with organization deficiets or those just starting to work on scheduling, thinking about what goes into preparation for an event on the schedule is crucial. For example, for someone with experience with scheduling, seeing a math class on a schedule will trigger "Oh, for that I have to have my calculator, my textbook, my notebook, sharp pencils, and the tape recorder or cell phone that I use to record the lecture." This person might lay these materials out the night before, know to gather then before leaving the house, or check their backpack before leaving home that all these things are present. For a person with organizational deficiets or just getting going with scheduling, maybe scheduling 10 minutes the night before to assemble a list of what's needed will be helpful.

Overall, helping people take ownership and responsibility for their own schedule will pay many dividends as this skill develops, and give the person an enhanced sense of personal control and self-awareness and self-confidence as they grow with this skill. It doesn't happen all at once, and it doesn't happen without some effort, but it can happen with just a bit of support and guidance from a teacher, mentor, or other helpful person.