Organisation Tips for Dyslexic Learner Support Staff in H.E
June 17, 2009 4 Comments
The real problems for dyslexics working in H.E learner support aren’t to do with spelling, or reading text, or producing documentation. Most of us learned to deal with those issues long ago, or we wouldn’t be working in an office. The problems that remain are issues of timeliness, organisation and multi-tasking, because we’re in an environment where everything runs against a big, fixed, annual, cyclic timeline. Climate change is confusing the outdoors but we can still reliably tell the season by looking at what’s in the in-tray: first assignment issues, DSA assessments, student withdrawals, exam arrangements, course results… and back around again. The workload in your role may differ, but the point is that unlike some creative or technical response jobs there’s always a big clock ticking away in the background. Other people, especially students, rely on that annual clockwork for some pretty momentous achievements and occasions and that creates pressure for any support staff with a SLD.
When I arrived in H.E this floored me. I came from a job that was all about people and where literally everything was negotiable by those people, including the systems and deadlines (I was a mediator). Though I knew that organisation could theoretically pose me a problem due to my dyslexia, I’d never actually experienced it. But in H.E I just couldn’t juggle all the ongoing workloads against that big, ticking annual clock.
After a couple of years I’m more organised than not, though I still find it damned hard. So this post is to try and help anyone in the same situation with some of the tips I’ve picked up so far. I hope you might add others. If you read this and think this is all just standard organisational instruction, then you’re probably not the intended audience. :0)
1. Understand Why Your Line Manager Doesn’t Understand
Your Team Leader is the head of a Higher Ed LS team precisely because she* has a natural talent for staying organised. She may be messy-desk organised or tidy-desk organised, but the fact is she almost certainly finds foresight and timeliness are as normal to her as they are tricky for you. She may not easily understand that anyone can be naturally organisation-deficient. And very few people, if asked, would list cognitive or organisational issues as being a symptom of dyslexia.
Two approaches are possible. Either bear in mind your LM’s frustrations when they cause you your own, but get your head down and work for organisational mastery, else communicate that your problems are related to your dyslexia, perhaps providing some reading, and explain what you intend to do about it. The latter seems best to me, but the choice is going to depend on your relationship with your LM.
2. Study Time Management Seriously But Not Slavishly
I had a big breakthrough when my department manager said to me that it could be difficult to understand how anyone so obviously academically bright** could have so much difficulty learning to get organised. This taught me in an instant to learn organisational skills as you would any other subject. Once you have a look there are a host of blogs and books to choose from.
http://organisingtips.blogspot.com
A caution I’d give is to beware anyone selling a complete organisational system, no matter how well reviewed. One of the first things we learn as dyslexics trying to get through education is that one size fits very few. Read for aims as much as for methods; cherry pick good ideas. You’ll soon notice that certain themes recur in these manuals – they’re what a lot of the rest of this post is based on. It’s all about getting things done rather than Getting Things Done.
3. Capture Everything. Everything!
I learned to relax and admit it: I will forget something during the day, no matter how important, unless I move it beyond memory. I’ve settled on a mixed system of Microsoft Outlook Tasks, yellow legal pad, hPDA and a moleskine notebook. It’s too personalised to be of any use explaining it here, but the point is that my system attempts to capture every meeting-action and every ‘would you please just…’ that floats over my desk. Yes, sometimes I still lose one, but without this system I wouldn’t manage any.
A recurring temptation is to just think, ‘I’ll finish what I’m doing and add this incoming task to my capture system next.’ This just turns the capture system into another hurdle that the new task must jump. Capture everything, capture it now.
4. Software Is My Friend
Software is great, and it doesn’t have to be time management software. At work, where I have a Windows pc, I use Outlook to track tasks and give me reminders, but I also use txt files as searchable lists and spreadsheets as simple databases. The best use of software has to be automated reminders, though. Reminders keep the system on track, because procedures and to-do lists are useless if I don’t look at them.
5. Procedures Mean Learning Something Once (or Twice)
I found it frustrating having so many complex tasks that came around infrequently –just weekly or even quarterly– because I had to keep re-learning them. In the end I’ve found I save time in the long run by writing myself fairly detailed, timeline-and-checklist style procedures. Colleagues rarely need them, but they’re useful to new staff.
My procedures range from the meta (my daily checklist of places to check my various workloads) to the micro (my checklist of what to do in the week that’s sixteen weeks before exams for prison students). It takes time and a few runs through a task to document it.
My most important tip here is to create procedures with a time element. Carrying out LS tasks isn’t hard for dyslexics, locating them in time and space is. So the ideal cycle goes something like:
reminder causes me to look at procedure > procedure tells me what to do at this time, when the work is due, and to set a reminder for the next element > reminder causes me to look at procedure
Ad infinitum, to retirement. :0)
6. When Swamped, Ask for Help Before Panicking
This is something I still find difficult even though I understand the reasons. The trouble is half-buried fear of seeming weak, or stupid, or… disorganised.
I’ve found it helps to remember that no, my colleagues aren’t running to my Line Manager because they’re mired in organisational mess like I sometimes am. That’s true. But on the other hand I can do all sorts of things only I can do, and can often help the team when nobody else can. We’ve all got our strengths weaknesses, my weakness just happens to be organisational skill. Even that thought process doesn’t allay the fear entirely, but it’s usually enough to allow me to go to my manager and explain any organisational problems.
7. Socialise, Tweet
Being able to stay in touch with colleagues in similar jobs at other institutions has been a godsend. Discussing the role and the workloads in an echo chamber gets a feedback loop going. I begin to wonder if other offices have the big clock ticking away, the same cyclical workloads and quiet summers. The nature of LS teams is that few people in the same office share all the same tasks, so your colleagues can’t always understand what’s going on for you just now. It’s worth seeking out and joining social networks and mailing lists relating to your areas of work, like those run by jisc:
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* Not a nod to gender balance, nor sexist assumption. Experience and straw polling tell me your team leader in H.E LS is most likely a woman.
** I’m not, but I’m flattered somebody said it, so I’m quoting it immodestly.
