Jul 27, 2020
For All Abilities – The Podcast Episode Thirty One - Lisa Woodruff - Organizing and ADHD Part Part
In this episode, I continue my interview with Lisa Woodruff of Organize365. On the podcast, Lisa talks about her early years with dyslexia and her incredible career helping people get organized. We discuss her books on organizing and ADHD https://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Affects-Home-Organization-Understanding/dp/B07212S4Z9/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3JDUKPKJ99DER&dchild=1&keywords=lisa+woodruff+books&qid=1598842017&sprefix=Lisa+wood%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-2
and her new book on mastery paper organization https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Solution-What-Shred-Taking-ebook/dp/B081M7P9C5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JDUKPKJ99DER&dchild=1&keywords=lisa+woodruff+books&qid=1598842017&sprefix=Lisa+wood%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1
We also talk about the impact that her home organization program had made on my home and life!
To connect with Lisa and to find out all about her incredible home organization program and products go to https://organize365.com.
Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism.
Thanks for listening!
Betsy
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Full Transcription from Otter.ai
Betsy Furler 0:05
Welcome to for all abilities, the podcast. This is your host, Betsy Furler. The aim of this podcast is to highlight the amazing things people with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism are doing to improve our world.
episodes, because I knew we could talk a lot and she has so many wonderful stories and things for us all to learn. So Lisa, why don't you introduce yourself to my audience again?
Lisa Woodruff 1:14
Sure. I'm Lisa Woodruff. I am the founder and creator of organized 365 out of Cincinnati, Ohio. We help women get their home and paper organized in one year with functional systems that work. I have authored a couple of books, one being how ADHD affects home organization. And my next book will be out August 4, called the paper solution.
Betsy Furler 1:35
Awesome. So we left off last time after you told my favorite story about your kitchen counters and how not being able to put your groceries on your kitchen counters ultimately led to the organization and 365 business organized 365 sorry, and business and so I wanted to start off this episode. talking a little bit about how you think the COVID stay at home safe at home and order mandate. You know, suggestion if you're in Texas
Lisa Woodruff 2:14
Anyway, let's say you're in.
Betsy Furler 2:16
Yes. And how that has affected people with especially people with ADHD but all different types of neuro diversity as far as home organization, whatever you want to talk about about it.
Lisa Woodruff 2:29
Yeah, you know, it's so interesting. I, when we first got the stay at home order, I'm in the state of Ohio. So we were one of the very first states to shut down. Our governor was very proactive, and we were very positive about that in the beginning, but as Americans, you know, like our independence over time, we weren't as excited about it. I initially thought Yay, everybody's getting sent home. Yay. This is my super bowl like put me in coach. Everybody can get organized and I totally did not anticipate how mentally exhausted It would be for us to lose all of our habits, our structures, our routines, and to be constantly mentally trying to reorient our selves to what the new normal is. I mean, like, of all the words that we have in 2020, like new normal, he thought that was going to be for the stay at home order, and then you thought that was going to be for working from home, and then you thought it was going to be for racism, and then you thought it was going to be for politics. And it just seems like we're getting whiplash. Every other week. There's a new normal every single week. And as we've opened up, all these different ways of looking at everything that we took for granted or had routines and habits in place for almost all of our routines and habits are gone, almost all of them are gone. And if you don't realize that your life is a series of the habits that you have created over time, and if you didn't purposely create them, then they just happened like too much social media time or whatever too much Netflix time or if you purposely created them, even if you purposely created them with a morning routine and affirmations and going to the gym, a lot of those even positive routines that you had in place just got thrown out the window and taken away in the blink of an eye while you're trying to make sure you still have income coming in, and you'd have enough toilet paper and oh my gosh, now I can't grocery shop where I used to grocery shop. And my cousin was telling me, she's down in Cincinnati in the city. And when she would go to the store, they were only allowed to get to milk items. Like you could get milk and cheese but then you couldn't also get butter. So I was like, Are you serious? Like that didn't happen 20 miles north where I am in Cincinnati. And so it was just constant survival like we got thrown back to we need to have the basics. We need food, we need toilet paper, we need money we need we need rent and some of us are still in those basic areas. And I just want everyone to take a deep breath and recognize that this has not stopped like the amount of change that has come to your brain has not stopped And I have been more exhausted in the last three or four months than ever. Greg and I go to bed so early, and we sleep in and we take naps. And still we are just mentally exhausted. And I know that when you sleep, I don't know who said this. But I know it's true when you sleep. Your brain makes order of the day, like literally your little cells like detox inside of your brain when you're sleeping. And the file folders of all the paper of information, your brain gets put in little file folders in your brain tries to organize what you've done during the day. And there's so much change and so little routine that your brains are just exhausted trying to figure out how to get money, get food. We don't have this. We always said, Oh, if I got sent home for an extended period of time, there are all these projects I would want to work on. I would say just a small percentage of us or even to that point yet.
Betsy Furler 5:52
Yeah, it's been really interesting. I know I've been I found it very interesting on how I have I handled this it's been hard really, really hard. Being home with everybody in the family 100% Sure. And I like I said earlier I kind of are on the other episode. I have a tendency when I'm under stress either to get super disorganized, or like ridiculously over organized. And when this first happened, I did too. I did one of my crazy things when I get super stressed as I get, I start inventory things and I don't inventory at any other time. But I enjoyed all of our food. Like, member because remember back in March, when Ohio shut down, I was like, Oh, no, Texas is shutting down. I'm better get I better get it together. Remember, back then we didn't know we knew there was a toilet paper shortage already. We didn't know what the rights was going to be like, where are we even going to go the grocery store where they're going to close the grocery stores now. Right and I inventories I have this inventory I mean it's like seven pages of everything and what shelf it's on So, like Eric will say, you know, I don't think we have Italian dressing I'm like yes we do. It's on the second shelf from the top and the pantry.
Lisa Woodruff 7:15
I did the same thing I went to the grocery store and everyone should know I don't cook like as soon as you listen to one episode of my podcast, you'll know that I don't cook. So I went to the store I bought beans and rice, like literally black beans and bags of rice. And not that I would even know how to cook this. And I said to myself, well this seems like a beans and rice moment I was ever gonna have beans or rice. This is when I would have it. Just so you know. My favorite restaurant called verse fast food never shut down. So I continue to drive there and get my onion rings. They were masks it was fine. And we continue to get takeout or Greg cooked and then the other ridiculous thing that I do every time something like this happens I did it when my dad died. I did it in 2008. As I like to think that I'm going to grow a vegetable garden, like I don't even cook but I think I'm going to grow a vegetable garden. This time instead of just starting a vegetable garden outside because it's March in Ohio, I bought one of those awesome hydroponic tower gardens like that you see at Epcot for $1,000. I made four salads I had $250 salads because like after I had like four salads I'm like I'm done with this and the whole thing died and whatever. But yeah, we just we go to this survival instinct, but yet we're not survivalists. So we do it in a weird way.
Betsy Furler 8:30
What when, when Henry had his autoimmune encephalitis and it was really really severe. Um, and my audience on is Henry's been been medically fragile his whole life but the autoimmune encephalitis was like a whole new thing and very, like awful. And you know what I did? I inventoried all my clothes. I took photos of all of them. I remember that every I don't plan it planning. It's so it's just oh my goodness. I just want
Lisa Woodruff 8:59
Can you can Troy What are you in control?
Unknown Speaker 9:01
Oh, yeah.
Betsy Furler 9:05
Yeah, so what are you in control of So, um, so I do think though, that having a system like organized 365 has helped me through this pandemic too, because I have had moments where I've decluttered and I've lost 20 pounds.
Lisa Woodruff 9:22
I don't think I told you that I'm saying you look fabulous, Betsy. Congratulations.
Betsy Furler 9:27
Thank you. So I've, I've had to spend I've gained it. No, just kidding. I have spent so much time outside because it's in the house. It's like where do you go? Well, it's safe to walk around outside. So anyway, I am so now I've gone through all my clothes again, because you know, none of them fit me anymore, which is a really fun problem to have. But I also started realizing that my structure like you were saying all our structures have changed so much. So my structure the whole way. I structured my De was totally blown up. And we all have a tendency to do is you know, then I end up wasting a lot of time because I'm not in my regular routine. And the other thing that I found that was very hard for me and I actually, I've never been diagnosed with ADHD or any of us. But I realized when I was stuck at a computer all day, every day and in one room and in my house instead of moving around the world, like I did before, I had a lot of trouble paying attention and attention. My attention was poor. And I started again, how do we get so antsy just sitting I ended up buying a standing desk also and that helps a little but, you know, really had to take breaks to like actually do physical exercise. And I also walk every day at lunch as well because I just like I feel that pent up energy that I never even recognized before. Me too. Yeah, it's, it's amazing how you know, just that change in structure can can just throw you for a loop.
Unknown Speaker 11:16
Go ahead.
Lisa Woodruff 11:16
Yeah, I used to be able to like, I'm one of those weird people because I do not have ADHD. I've been tested ever. It's like yesterday, I'm like, No, I don't I actually, I can literally sit at index from 8am to 8pm. And just get up for bathroom breaks and coffee and, you know, lunch, I can do that. And I can sustain my attention. During that time. I have worked over the last eight years to expand my focus. It used to be only until 11 and then 12, and then one and now I could do a full 12 hours. As soon as the pandemic hit, I was exhausted by 11am I couldn't make it past 11 so I was like, okay, and each week I just tried to get you know, another half hour and now I could do a full day again, but it took me all this time for months to get back to where my energy level was the way it used to be, my focus was the way it used to be. And still, it's not all the way there. I mean, I'm still going to bed at eight or nine o'clock at night. And we used to go to bed at 10 and 11 all the time. So our brains really have been affected. Like, this is such a huge change on so many levels that we just don't have the focus and the energy and the attention that we had before.
Betsy Furler 12:24
Well, and I know now I get by 430 in the afternoon, I'm like done, like I and and I've never stopped working that early before. And you know, today I have a couple of calls. I have a call at five have a call at six I have a call at 730 and it's like, oh,
Unknown Speaker 12:43
my nap
Betsy Furler 12:44
challenge. Yeah. And because I you know, but it's not always a bad thing to because I think getting off the hamster wheel has really made me realize what I really want to be doing with my life and working till six every day in it.
Lisa Woodruff 13:01
Yeah, but have you found what you want to replace it with that that's kind of my thing. It's almost like we all went off coffee simultaneously. So our productivity would like I didn't stop drinking coffee, but you know what I mean, like that extra jolt of productivity or packing more in. And then a lot of things got taken off of our list, like commuting or taking kids places like, but I don't. I'm not doing as much as I used to, but I'm more exhausted than I used to be. Although I haven't found like, Okay, and now I have time to take a college class or read a book or, like I haven't found that I filled in that time with anything that was always on my to do list. I'm just kind of in the messy middle. I think.
Betsy Furler 13:40
I've been walking and that's what that's how I started running. And because I've walked so I mean, I'm walking like nine miles a day. And yeah, it's extreme. This is why so much weight. And I started I actually started running not because I necessarily wanted to run, but I started thinking, you know, I really like getting this much movement in. And when life goes back to whatever normal it is, again, I'm not gonna have enough time, like am I gonna have time to walk nine miles a really long time. So, so I was like, I need to pick up the pace. And so that meant learning to run. And so I started running and the other thing that we've been doing is we so you know, as you know, and I don't know if my listeners know this yet, but I am not a cook either. And one thing we've been doing is we totally aren't we source our food totally differently now. So we buy our meat from restaurants because here in Texas restaurants are allowed to sell uncooked food now. So we make all our meat from restaurants and then we get a farm box every week and produce and then we look at the produce and then I google because I'm really good at like figuring out recipe like what recipes we should make. I just I'm not good at the actual Making of the food but I can coordinate the effort. So I you know, Google, you know, spaghetti squash and chicken or whatever or yesterday it was eggplant and butternut squash what can we make with that? And I come up with recipes print them out for because he wants them printed and he has not paperless and yeah, he makes them but the so that has taken more time but then kind of like in the long run it's like you know, we used to go out to eat all the time. Yeah. And going out actually took so much more time than looking everything from scratch every meal from scratch, but we have like really shifted our time in that way. And then the other thing which is I don't know if it's good, bad or indifferent, but we just watch a movie every night together. Yeah to weave in. We never did that before. My husband does have ADHD and it doesn't really like movies like he really has never been interested in watching movies except for like, maybe once every couple of like, like a couple of times a month, we might do like a family movie night. But now every nights fam every night family dinner every night family movie night.
Unknown Speaker 16:16
And so that's been fun.
Lisa Woodruff 16:19
Yeah, Greg and I have always called our date night like from eight to 10. Like, we'll watch TV shows or movies or whatever. And that's something we have kept consistent. What I love about what you're sharing is for those of us who still have jobs, our work has not changed. And for those that don't have jobs, I mean, you're in the process of a job search or you're figuring out if you're going to take off some time or whatever. So the work bucket has stayed consistent through all of this the worry about it, the doing of it, the the taking care of the work, but the play in the social buckets got emptied out and aren't necessarily getting filled up. And so that's kind of what I've been talking through with my organize 365 it And since we focus on the home, is that, you know, school school still happened. It just happened at home. And it was messy for sure. for teachers, for parents, for students, for everyone. It was very discombobulated and hard, but school still happened. But kids social got taken away and kids play other than Xbox kind of gotten taken away. And so as we go through this global pandemic, which doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon, and we focus so much on our work, whether that's work or school, or volunteering, or however you spent the majority of your weekday, what you were doing, how do we replace our social and our play at home, in a positive way, and, and, and with that, like I like puzzles, some people like reading, your play, whatever it is you like to do for play. It's not just that I want time to do puzzles. We like novelty in our play. So you don't want to read the same book every single night. You want to have a variety of books, if you like puzzles, you like a variety of puzzles, you don't want to do the same puzzle over and over again. If you like cooking you, great a plant and squash so that's challenging. So I can, you know, have some creative outlet and my cooking and how do we focus on our social and our play while we are safe at home?
Betsy Furler 18:16
Right? Yeah. And I and also our, you know, I was thinking the other day about my kind of my circle of people that I interact with. And my circle was huge before. It's still huge on a on a virtual basis, right. But the people that I saw in person every week was a really big, wide spread, very diverse group of people from different parts of my life and everything. And now my circle of people that I see in person is very, very small. And we have a neighbor, family that's a neighbor who we have quarantine with the whole time. So we have them and they have two little boys and then I have one of my college friends who's quarantined with her husband that I see periodically in person, the six feet apart, but you know, I have been to her in her home and stuff. And then my husband has one friend who I also have seen so I mean, it's like, gone from, you know, hundreds of people to like, I counted it up and I think total even with, you know, when you look at Okay, well, what about the people that they see on a regular basis? It was like 30 people
Lisa Woodruff 19:34
which is good for Coronavirus. Good have You bet. You have a lot of words. You have a lot of words for those poor 12 people.
Betsy Furler 19:45
And they have a lot of words too. And one of the things that I've done is I've started talking on the phone and I say I'm talking on the phone like it's 1985 and yeah, I even called you.
Lisa Woodruff 19:55
Yeah, no, I think I think if you think about the the summers of the 80s or the 50s if you're older, like think about what you used to do in the summer in the 80s or whenever you were a teenager and your parents wouldn't take you anywhere that's that's Coronavirus, summer for you that's Coronavirus living and yet using your phone as a phone not as a computer
Betsy Furler 20:18
that we bought a hammock and a Stan for our backyard. And we live in Houston Texas, so it's super super hot and humid but I'm like I don't care gotta be outside. So I lay out that are laying out this summer for the first time. You know, in the last 30 years layout talk on the phone with my girlfriends. I talked to somebody for two and a half hours on the phone yesterday.
Lisa Woodruff 20:41
When am I good? Isn't it great though, isn't it just fun to connect with people again?
Betsy Furler 20:46
It's been so much fun and I you know I've done a lot of zoom meetings but I'm pretty zoom fatigued where I really just am happier talking to people on the phone and just, you know, I miss my long cord whereas dragging her all over the house. And, but you know, it's it otherwise that's been that's been really great for me. And I would say that is I my two things are walking and talking on the phone.
Unknown Speaker 21:14
That's my outlet.
Unknown Speaker 21:16
Yeah. Do you think you'll keep those things going forward?
Betsy Furler 21:19
I think that, um, because I've kind of combined the walking with the phone talking. So one of my friends and she frequently virtually walks with me in the morning. And I talked to her on the phone as I'm walking. And then another friend virtually walks with me in the evening. And so I think I hopefully, hopefully we will keep that I definitely have connected us to do this.
Lisa Woodruff 21:44
Now I'm remembering this is like four years ago when I had a treadmill and tried to use it once you remember that. And so we would voxer back and forth and we would walk on our treadmills and I didn't do it for very many days. I wasn't a good partner.
Betsy Furler 21:57
You warned me ahead of time that you're a terrible account. Ability size. So
Lisa Woodruff 22:02
I Yeah, actually cooking exercise. I'm not your expert, that's for sure.
Betsy Furler 22:07
Yeah. So but yeah, that's, I mean, that's been it's been wonderful and I really do I you know, also, I set up calls with my pledge sisters from my sorority. And then also a multigenerational call for my sorority and my sorority is only local and are very small college. And those that has been great I have made, I'll have to say even though my physical sphere of people is so small now, I have made a lot of friends virtually, or and in and deepened friendships, virtually, with people that I've known forever. And I've also networked a lot. And I've discovered that from a business standpoint, networking has in some ways been a lot easier, because you can actually get people on the phone that you never get on the phone before. But you know what I miss is being in hotels and traveling
Lisa Woodruff 23:04
yeah I miss the traveling as well kept the book tour got cancelled?
Unknown Speaker 23:10
No
Lisa Woodruff 23:13
I threw myself a three hour pity party and then I moved on.
Unknown Speaker 23:16
Yes, yes.
Lisa Woodruff 23:18
But yeah I do love travel I you know, I've spent my whole life being a stay at home mom working from home mom and creating this business to to the point where I'm able to travel and meet people and do conferences and then the world closed. So that's a bummer.
Betsy Furler 23:33
And I do believe that conferences on zoom are nowhere near the same as conferences in person. Because I go to conferences to meet people and talk to them. I don't go to conference to listen.
Lisa Woodruff 23:48
Totally, but I just did mine this weekend. And we were gonna have like 80 people come to our conference in the summer. And when we moved it to virtual I think we had like five people cancel and then we have We maxed out at 150. We sold out before our sellout date. But how I did it was I did it on zoom, of course, because like, what else are you going to do? But I did my talks, but then we broke people out into groups of 10 in zoom rooms by where they live. And then we had a certified organizer in every single group, at least one certified organizer, and every single group. So you literally sat at a table, you're in a breakout room with people from your city or within, you know, 100 miles of where you live. So I did the talks, and then you went to your table and people loved it. And then I sent a whole box of surprises. So you know, every hour or so you were opening up something that went along with a touch that also reached a love language and it was a really, really fun experience. So I would have rather have had it in person. But there were a lot of people who said they wouldn't have never been able to come in person because they're a full time caretaker for their parents or for their child to a special needs are this one. their child just started having seizures the week before the conference and none of them would have been able to come if I had had it in person.
Betsy Furler 25:02
True. And of course, she figured out a super creative way to make it. Make it. So there was that networking piece? Yes, I don't write them all off.
Lisa Woodruff 25:10
But I think conference. No, I mean, we are going to have to be creative about delivering the experience in a different way during this pandemic season however long it is. I wanted to have my conference in person because I feel there's so much value in meeting in person and I want to physically give you a hug, and that's what and get a picture and that's what everybody wanted. But once I realized that that was not allowed, then I allowed my brain to think okay, well, if it's not allowed, do we still need an embrace conference? Is there still reason for women who are trying to make their house a home to come together? Yeah, that's still true. Okay. Well, if that's still true, then then how can we deliver that experience? Just like, okay, I cannot travel the United States and do my book tour. Am I still releasing my book on August 4? Yes, do I still have have parties? Yes. Do people still want to get assigned bookplate and be able to celebrate with me from wherever they are? Yes. Okay, well, then how am I going to do that? And so now it's about how do i do we still want to have the experience? Yes. Are we allowed to do it the way we want it to? No. Okay, then how are we going to do it? And I'll come up with a way.
Betsy Furler 26:18
Right, right. And one of the fun things that Eric and I did during the stay at home time is he ordered he has a year ago he went to France with two of his best friends and they on an oyster tour, and so they're all really into oysters, and we all eat oysters a lot. And what he did was he had oysters delivered to them. And so each other couple and then us, they he, you know, had ordered these oysters and had them delivered. And then one of the other guys came up with a wine list and we all had the wine we all had the same wine. And then we got on zoom and we had an oyster happy hour. Have fun with all three couples. So two of us are here in Houston. But we were at our own homes, of course. And then the other couple was in New York City. And so it was, but it was like super, it wasn't like a regular zoom call, which it did give me hope for zoom calls, because it was very conversational. I mean, it was just like, we were all sitting around the table together. So if we interrupted each other when that big of a deal and our kids were walking in and out, and animals walking in and out, just like it would have been if we were in person. Yeah. So I think there is, we have so much technology now that I think there is a way to do this. It's just we all have to think creatively. And sometimes, I'm like, you know, occasionally, not very often because I am like, the biggest optimist on the face of the earth. But occasionally, I'm just like, I don't want to do it that way. I want to hug somebody.
Lisa Woodruff 27:53
Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to constantly you know, you and I are both both very big outside of the box. thinkers. So for people who are not that way, like they are just like, Are you kidding me? Like, why does everything have to be thought through? So for those of us that love to think this way, we're even tired. Like, it's just hard to think about how to. And as I was thinking about this summer I remember in April, I counseled the people in the 100 day program as a book. You're gonna want to pool get a pool. I know, I know your spouse doesn't want you to kill the grass within aboveground pool, tell them they can grow back next year, get one. And within a week, they did sell out on Amazon and everywhere people like thank you for telling us before they sold out because I was thinking ahead to the summer and you know, having kids at home and how are you going to entertain kids at home and try to work and all that. And just recently, I started thinking about the fall and the holidays and in Ohio, it's going to be snowing and you can't be outside and this is going to get a little harder and I was like oh boy. If you like to think outside of the box and creatively, you're going to get a workout this year as we continue to go through the seasons and get more frustrated at the fact that we don't have as much choice as we thought we did.
Betsy Furler 29:03
Right? And, you know, that's a good point as as the seasons change, especially for you people who have seasons that's going to be a big problem here. Yes.
Lisa Woodruff 29:12
You have variations of hot,
Unknown Speaker 29:14
right? Yeah, it's just hot and then it gets a little Yeah, then it's just warm in the in the fall and winter. Autumn.
Betsy Furler 29:24
But for you were there, you know, it may be snow and you may not be able to play outside all day every day.
Lisa Woodruff 29:31
Yeah, unending snow days are really not as fun as they sound.
Betsy Furler 29:36
I can't even imagine. Yeah, exactly. So being able to get outside is my sanity. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I do think it takes people like us who do think outside the box to really be willing to share what we're thinking about with other people. They may not listen but you know, some some of them will And the ideas are how to go forward without losing your mind.
Lisa Woodruff 30:03
Yeah, I can only I remember when the pandemic first started, I was only able to think one week out, I could not even think about what the summer would be like. And then as it got closer, I was able to see towards the end of summer. You know, I noticed when kids were sent home that the hardest thing about schooling from home was that parents didn't have the time, or the desire to be doing the schooling and they were stressed as well. Teachers had a hard time communicating with students and teachers and they were actually working till midnight, just answering parents emails, students that had multiple teachers, there's just so much miscommunication. And it wasn't until the middle of June that I was talking to organized 365 team because we didn't know what was going to happen in the fall. At the time of this recording. We're just at the last days in June here and it just has come down that you're going to probably have a choice. probably have a choice if you send your kids to school or if you keep them at home and then if it gets bad they'll all end up going home and what I said to the organizers, 365 team was like, Look, there needs to be some organization around school. It doesn't matter if they're homeschooled their schooling from home, they're at school wherever they are. Kids need to take ownership of their assignments and their long range and short term assignments, and they need to put them in a planner that they understand. So we scrambled and we have created a planner, we have a planner for elementary middle schoolers and a different planner for high school and college age kids. And then I'm going to create videos that go with these planners that specifically tell kids how to organize and how schools usually do it is every year your teacher imposes the organization of their specific class on you if you're switching classes or the teacher you know if you're in grade school, young grade school because they start switching classes pretty young. And so every year a student has to learn the organizational traits of the teacher. Our planner is different. Once you learn this planner and how to record your long term and short term assignments. You buy the same planner year after After a year, and then we show you how to set up one two inch binder with five slash pockets in it to organize all your classes in one binder. And this is how I taught my kids. When they went back into public and Catholic schools after being in the learning disability school, they could not keep up with all of the organizational management systems that each individual teacher had. They had one binder, and their teachers assignments went in that book. And there's always one teacher that wants you to have the journal that gets turned in or whatever. But then that's just a one off from a system that you can use year after year after year. And if you have ADHD, if you have learning disabilities, like learning other people's organizational systems year after year, like no joke, it would take Joey eight weeks to figure out the organizational structure that all of his different teachers wanted and to go from class to class and this is in ninth grade. By then he was so far behind in the education part of learning that he never caught up that year.
Betsy Furler 32:55
Hmm. Well, winner it's so when is that coming out? I'm super excited about that. Yeah,
Lisa Woodruff 33:00
so those planners we're going to start selling in the week of July 13. You need to be in our kids program first. So our kids program is $297. If you are not in the 100 day program, if you are in the 100 day program, the kids program is $99. And the kids program is for kids. Well, it's really birth through 25. So it's divided into modules. If you have kids that are under the age of five, I teach you how to organize the nursery, the playroom, the the preschool area, kids start into the program around the age of seven. It's called learn and all kids learn how to organize their bedroom which I call your mini apartment. And then as they hit 16 they go into launch and launch teaches you about how to organize food and money and to move into your own space after your bedroom whether that's an apartment or dorm room or condo, and you could stay in the kids program until you have buy a house or have children so if you never buy a house or have children like you don't even need the 100 day program is everything you need will be inside of the kids program.
Betsy Furler 34:00
That's awesome. Yeah, that is I think going forward I know Sam school so Sam is going into 11th grade Can you believe it? Yeah. So private Catholic high school boys school and they're looking at three options one would be everybody on campus full time. Option two would be they would go to campus two days a week you know they would have kids we go two days and a half would go the other two and then or all online and and online was super rough for him. And he actually really organized kid and it doesn't have learning disabilities as a little bit of a vision issue. But it was so hard for him to get Montt wrap his mind around those assignments, and write in full You know, when you're, when you're when you have the structure. I think it goes back to what you were talking about earlier is we've lost all the structure we had before and the kids are the same way, it's like, they're when they have the structure of, I get up I you know, eat breakfast, I drive to school, I get a class, you know, ABCD eat lunch, do this, I see the teacher face to face that reminds me that I have to do something. When we lose all our structure, we lose all of our external cues as well.
Lisa Woodruff 35:20
It's like, throwing papers at kids versus giving them in files in a filing cabinet. It's like you just keep throwing papers at them. It's just, I mean, I'm supporting if people want to do school, but if it was me and my kids aren't this age anymore, if it was me, I'd be taking a homeschooling year. It's very easy to homeschool every state has their own homeschool rules. Ohio is very liberal in the homeschool rules. There's not a lot of requirements. And I would just be like, Hey, we are living through times that they will be talking about centuries from now. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a journal and I want you to research the difference between state and federal law and for those of you in Texas, it's the 49 states, Texas law and federal law says you got to have your own thing. You're the only state that is legally allowed to secede from the union. And why is that? And how did that happen? And where did that come from? And what is the history of racism in America? And how how can the Supreme Court say these things? I mean, we are living through history in so many ways. Like if you want to do math, study the stock market, how in the world can the stock market continue to go up when unemployment is like astronomic levels? Like why does the stock market not match? Kind of there's so many questions to be genuinely explored and learned about that. You could rabbit trail and research for ever and your kids would be so interested in what they're learning like, Look around you. What do you what do you want to learn about viruses? Do you want to learn about growing gardens? What do you want to learn about and just do it home school for you
Betsy Furler 36:54
forget the whole thing. I can't wait to see the statistics of what happens because I think I think exactly the same thing. It's like, if we're going to homeschool, then do it. Right away. We want it homeschooled and organize it in the way we wanted done and have one teacher instead of eight teachers who happens to live in your house with you so you can actually communicate with them on a, you know,
Lisa Woodruff 37:18
hourly pay the worst that can happen. I mean, seriously, what is the worst that can happen? Any college here is going to take your child because they're dying for college students. Like how could taking a gap year be negative at this time? Like I just don't even see how it could possibly be a negative?
Betsy Furler 37:36
It's true. I mean, I think Sam Yeah, he's a he's in a prime spot to get into college and a couple of years, right because of all of that. Well, I we probably should go because now we're going over time with two episodes. So Lisa, tell, please tell my audience how they can get in touch with you again. After So, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
Lisa Woodruff 38:00
I have a podcast organized 365 so if you like these kinds of conversations, I just talked to myself over there often but I also interview people over there. So that's organized 365 I unpack big ideas and then I try to give you step by step ways of then implementing those in your house or just taking the next step. And then the book the paper solution will be out everywhere that you buy books, audiobooks, ebooks, it'll be available on August 4.
Betsy Furler 38:26
Awesome, well thank you again for being on for two episodes and and audience please follow Lisa and listen to her podcasts, you've really got to give it a chance because it is really entertaining as well as informative. And also please follow my podcast subscribe rate, review all of those things on whether they're pot whatever podcast platform you listen to for all abilities, the podcast on and if you want to find out more about what I do professionally with consulting and providing workplaces Accommodations through my software, please go to www dot for all abilities calm. Have a great day and I'll talk to you all soon. Thanks, Betsy. Thank you, Lisa. Thanks so much for listening to the for all abilities podcast. This is Betsy Furler, your host and I really appreciate your time listening to the podcast. And please subscribe on any podcast app that you're listening to us on. If you'd like to know more about what we do in our software that helps employer support their employees with ADHD dyslexia, learning differences in autism, please go to www dot for all abilities.com You can also follow us on Instagram. And you can follow me on LinkedIn at Betsy Furler episode Frank, you are le or have a great day and we will see you soon.