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That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week Lib/E: Helping Disorganized and Distracted Boys Succeed in School and Life
At last, the solution for getting disorganized boys back on track. Missed assignments. Lack of focus and enthusiasm. Falling grades. For too many boys and their frustrated parents, these are the facts of life. But they don't have to be. Top academic counselor Ana Homayoun has helped turn even the most disorganized, scattered, and unfocused boys into successful young people who consistently meet their personal and academic challenges. She does this by getting back to basics--starting with a simple Most boys needs to be taught how to get organized, how to study, and--most important--how to visualize, embrace, and meet their own goals. With an accessible and no-nonsense approach, Homayoun shows listeners how identify their son's dis-organizational style; help him set academic and personal goals he cares about; design and establish the right tools of the trade; complete assignments without pulling all-nighters; and help him tune out social pressure and fend off anxiety. Much more than a study guide, this insightful, user-friendly book provides a road map for the success too many boys have trouble finding--in school and in life.
Audio CD
First published December 18, 2009
131 people are currently reading
881 people want to read
About the author
Ana Homayoun
5 books28 followersAna Homayoun is an academic advisor and early career development expert working at the intersection of executive functioning skills, technology and personal energy management.
Her newest book, ERASING THE FINISH LINE: The New Blueprint for Student Success Beyond Grades and College Admissions, offers a groundbreaking new way of thinking about education, for parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers deeply invested in our children’s emotional development and well-being.
She is the founder of San Francisco Bay Area based Green Ivy Educational Consulting and the author of three previous books: That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week, The Myth of the Perfect Girl and Social Media Wellness. She is also the founder and executive director of Luminaria Learning Solutions, a non-profit developing the Life Navigator School Advisory Program to provide students the executive functioning and social emotional skills for long-term success and well-being.
To learn more about her work, visit www.anahomayoun.com.
Her newest book, ERASING THE FINISH LINE: The New Blueprint for Student Success Beyond Grades and College Admissions, offers a groundbreaking new way of thinking about education, for parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers deeply invested in our children’s emotional development and well-being.
She is the founder of San Francisco Bay Area based Green Ivy Educational Consulting and the author of three previous books: That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week, The Myth of the Perfect Girl and Social Media Wellness. She is also the founder and executive director of Luminaria Learning Solutions, a non-profit developing the Life Navigator School Advisory Program to provide students the executive functioning and social emotional skills for long-term success and well-being.
To learn more about her work, visit www.anahomayoun.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
June 4, 2014
This book had some excellent ideas for helping organize middle and high school aged boys, and I plan to put some of them to practice. My only complaint is that much of the book focused on her success stories rather than actual organizational strategies or implementation. I found myself skimming much of the book to find information that was relevant to me and my child.
May 11, 2016
apparently this person has an office in the silicon valley where well-to-do helicopter parents bring their boys (only) specifically to get organized. the first session is always 2 hours of organizing the child's binder. then they talk about how the kid feels about himself and what he likes to do in his spare time. then he feels like he's in charge of his life and he lives happily ever after.
miraculously, no struggling students are struggling because they are stupid, they all just lack organization...in their binders and in their lives. by putting tabs in the binder and judiciously applying the 3 hole punch, the author takes unmotivated, asshole kids and turns them into model citizens.
but you think you have to go to her expensive bay area office to get her advice? NO! you can get it here in her book. or, alternatively, i'll distill her step by step program for you right here:
organize your stuff in a binder
plan your time in a planner (there is a whole chapter on who to use the planner but i respect you more than that)
let the boy feel responsible for his own results
make sure his whole life isn't about school and other planned activities
that's it! it doesn't even matter if your child is a moron! these strategies will raise his gpa and make him pleasant to be around.
finally, a solution to the uppity parent's nightmare of having a slight issue with their sons getting their work done! whew.
miraculously, no struggling students are struggling because they are stupid, they all just lack organization...in their binders and in their lives. by putting tabs in the binder and judiciously applying the 3 hole punch, the author takes unmotivated, asshole kids and turns them into model citizens.
but you think you have to go to her expensive bay area office to get her advice? NO! you can get it here in her book. or, alternatively, i'll distill her step by step program for you right here:
organize your stuff in a binder
plan your time in a planner (there is a whole chapter on who to use the planner but i respect you more than that)
let the boy feel responsible for his own results
make sure his whole life isn't about school and other planned activities
that's it! it doesn't even matter if your child is a moron! these strategies will raise his gpa and make him pleasant to be around.
finally, a solution to the uppity parent's nightmare of having a slight issue with their sons getting their work done! whew.
June 2, 2012
This week I finished up That Crumpled Paper was Due Last Week: Helping Disorganized and Distracted Boys Succeed in School and Life by Ana Homayoun.
Once again the title grabbed my attention and I had to read it because I happen to know lots of disorganized and distacted boys, including my son. Nick's backpack is always full of crumpled up pieces of paper no matter how many folders or organization ideas we put into place. Since I am dreading another year of helping him survive school, I was looking for pearls of wisdom.
The book is very organized and looks at multiple aspects of the problem, along with ways to fix them. Nick and I talked about several ideas in the book and are putting them into place for the new year.
The first idea was cleaning his room and getting rid of all of the things he doesn't use or need anymore. We moved his desk to a new part of the house where he will be near everyone, but not in the middle of things to get distracted.
One hard thing to read was parents often sabotage disorganized boys by pushing them to achieve or getting mad at their disorganization. Guilty, as charged. I am going to back away and let Nick do it so it isn't a control issue for him. I let him go to the store and look at the organization systems they had. He picked out the one that he thinks will work best for him. Hoping he's right about that!
The rest of the ideas will go into place next week, starting with the first day of school. I'll have to let you know how it goes. I am hopefully optimistic. If nothing else, at least his room is still clean. :)
Once again the title grabbed my attention and I had to read it because I happen to know lots of disorganized and distacted boys, including my son. Nick's backpack is always full of crumpled up pieces of paper no matter how many folders or organization ideas we put into place. Since I am dreading another year of helping him survive school, I was looking for pearls of wisdom.
The book is very organized and looks at multiple aspects of the problem, along with ways to fix them. Nick and I talked about several ideas in the book and are putting them into place for the new year.
The first idea was cleaning his room and getting rid of all of the things he doesn't use or need anymore. We moved his desk to a new part of the house where he will be near everyone, but not in the middle of things to get distracted.
One hard thing to read was parents often sabotage disorganized boys by pushing them to achieve or getting mad at their disorganization. Guilty, as charged. I am going to back away and let Nick do it so it isn't a control issue for him. I let him go to the store and look at the organization systems they had. He picked out the one that he thinks will work best for him. Hoping he's right about that!
The rest of the ideas will go into place next week, starting with the first day of school. I'll have to let you know how it goes. I am hopefully optimistic. If nothing else, at least his room is still clean. :)
March 29, 2015
I picked up this book to try to understand some of my disorganized, under-achieving students. The book is well-written and has good, easy advice but I cannot say I learned anything earth-shattering upon reading it. I liked the reminder to let students take responsibility for their successes and failures - also to know that progress always seems to be two steps forward and one step back! I also enjoyed reading about the different "types" of students a teacher or parent might encounter! I could certainly identify some of my fifth grade boys on these pages. I have a "sincere slacker" in my classroom this year who is almost word for word as to how the author described this personality. I have tried to work hard with him but progress has been slow and painful this year - especially with lack of parental support. I'll pass this book onto my testing support teacher to see if she can glean a morsel or two out of it like I did but I wish I had checked it out of the library instead of buying it!
January 9, 2018
I’ve read quite a few parenting books and so many leave you feeling either guilty or like the strategies are impossible. This author is someone I saw lecture in person on her expertise and topics of specialty. I found several strategies very common sense, but it’s her style and wording from both lecture and book that I find motivating and helpful. I sat down with my 8th grader in fact and implemented just 2 items using some of her approach... my son is usually oppositional to any suggestions from mom and instead was open to the ideas. I particularly liked the chapters on specific studying strategies for each subject area. Plus the beginning 1/3 shows you as a parent you are not alone - very common struggles and phases of development. As with all parenting books, more information is more ideas.
March 5, 2017
I admit that I skimmed this book because it's not focused on elementary and middle school-aged boys but high school boys and their development once the ownness can be put a little bit more on them. It's a way to remind parents and especially parents of boys about allowing our kids to do more for themselves which a specific example that resonated with me when she had a boy in her office and wanted to schedule another appointment but he had to have his mom email him because he wasn't in control of his own schedule (for any number of reasons including the helicopter parent, the parent that thinks her kid would 'do it wrong', who was overscheduled and needed help, would make the wrong decision, etc.). Hmmm, baby brother...
Anyway, there's a lot more examples from her work with actual boys than science so you take what you can get from it without it being overly helpful, though she does make a pointed effort to help even when there are issues including development, familial, and health.
It's just not relevant quite yet for me, so I skimmed rather than invested more time.
Anyway, there's a lot more examples from her work with actual boys than science so you take what you can get from it without it being overly helpful, though she does make a pointed effort to help even when there are issues including development, familial, and health.
It's just not relevant quite yet for me, so I skimmed rather than invested more time.
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January 25, 2018I can’t decide on the stars but wanted to share my thoughts. She does stress the importance of continuing to support students as they enter middle and high school and offers good suggestions for doing that. Anyone with a child in AVID will recognize her organization strategy because it is almost exactly what AVID does. As an educator and parent I know helping your student set up and maintain an organization system is often neglected but so important. It gets harder with no Wednesday folder to check and the kids having access to more information than the parent.
What I did not care for is her opinion that there is one way for a student to maintain an organization system. A large binder for high school is not practical for many kids. I work with several students to create and maintain a system for school stuff and each one is different depending on the individual.
What I did not care for is her opinion that there is one way for a student to maintain an organization system. A large binder for high school is not practical for many kids. I work with several students to create and maintain a system for school stuff and each one is different depending on the individual.
February 23, 2010
Never to early to start thinking boy thoughts, seeing as I have three of them. And this book is really fantastic. Though Homayoun doesn't use the word 'respect' in the book, quite a few of her points and strategies are based on the idea of respecting your sons. This book is FULL of good advice, principles, and pointers, all of which are the fruit of many years of working with boys and their parents. While this must be an invaluable tool for getting you and your son out of trouble you've created together, I also think it's going to be a great help in avoiding problems down the road by being aware of how parents can set their sons up for forming bad habits and also what particular temptations to be aware of. I loved it and I want to own a copy -- if you have sons read this book!
August 27, 2014
I got a lot of really great organizing ideas from this book. Both of my children are in middle school and I am tired of their backpacks being stuffed with papers and everything a big mixed up mess. Trying to set up good habits before High school next year. The first day of school teachers told one of my sons he could not use his own planner. They must use school planner. Day two teacher told my son he may not have separate binders for each subject. She wants ONE 3 inch binder for ALL subjects in this binder divided by the 5 subject tabs. Before you buy all new school supplies check with your school to see if they approve. I am very unhappy that the school will not allow us to at least organize the subject binders the way we would like.
September 29, 2016
I found this book to be very useful, once you distill out the "real-life" examples. My 14-yr old son was having trouble getting the hang of high school so we turned to this book. We found both her organizational method and her suggestions for removing distractions very helpful. More importantly, the book helped me look at the situation through his eyes (i.e., high school can be very overwhelming), rather than my own jaded, well-this-stuff-should-be-obvious perspective.
July 22, 2015
Excellent system for getting boys (middle school and up) organized for school. Some of the steps won't apply to my son for grade 4, but I will get him started on this system so that, hopefully, it becomes second nature by the time he's older.
June 15, 2012
Gave helpful tips to parents for getting their kid organized.
Good for going back to reference often.
Good for going back to reference often.
March 6, 2015
Excellent! Great and easy to follow tips. Already implemented a few.
December 31, 2022
Such a helpful book with lots of practical tips. I would recommend even if you have academically successful boys to aid in developing executive function and overall time management skills needed for college. There is a lot in here about goal setting as well. If you have serious problems, this book will help with tips on those and root causes.
I appreciated all of the special considerations in the back- I did not think any would apply to our family but then I found some tips that did (dealing with illness). Great advice in this book and great conversation starters for parents with teens who need to be more disciplined and motivated toward academic success.
I appreciated all of the special considerations in the back- I did not think any would apply to our family but then I found some tips that did (dealing with illness). Great advice in this book and great conversation starters for parents with teens who need to be more disciplined and motivated toward academic success.
April 9, 2024
I am a believer in letting kids develop at their own pace. That being said, I wish I had this book when my child was in the second grade. I think all parents of boys will find something of value in the pages of this book.
December 10, 2018
I've heard some of these tips before AND my kids aren't quite to the point where I need this book urgently. But, in addition to the tips for unorganized boys, it is a sold reminder of kids' need for downtime and what parenting strategies can help them to succeed.
January 25, 2022
Well organized and presents good strategies, without being condescending. Will be trying out some of these things with my kiddo.
Written a few years ago, but still addresses internet distractions, phones, video games - still relevant, and I didn’t find it dated except when it mentioned PDAs (although it did mention iPhones as a type of PDA).
Written a few years ago, but still addresses internet distractions, phones, video games - still relevant, and I didn’t find it dated except when it mentioned PDAs (although it did mention iPhones as a type of PDA).
November 5, 2017
I've taught 7th-12th grade boys for nearly 15 years and my colleagues and I use many of the approaches and strategies Homayoun outlines. This is a valuable resource for parents, and while I don't find it as helpful to lump boys into "stereotypes" as thinkers, I have found that allaying a parent's concern or anxiety surrounding their son by reassuring them this in not unique behavior is a good thing. Homayoun does not set out in this book to examine the very different way in which boys learn, but really on how they can survive in a rigorous system that may not always play to their strengths. In my professional opinion, it is VERY typical behavior for a pre-adolescent/adolescent boy to struggle with organization. In my class, I do have my students work with learning how to organize using binders, assignment notebooks, active learning and exploring various approaches to learning the subject. My hope is that it will help give them the resources they will need to succeed in traditional education forums. I appreciated Homayoun's inclusion of strategies for students suffering from health issues, coping with the loss of a loved one and challenged by the separation of parents. Most of all, I think the most valuable take away explored in other books I have under this "bookshelf" is that parents are doing a disservice to their son if they micromanage the young man or swoop in to fix the problems/symptoms (late hw, procrastination, missing materials) instead of addressing the root and source. The goal is to teach the young man path ways to succeed, let him try and fail and with time and patience, support and positivity, he will succeed!
September 3, 2014
Even though I am incredibly organized, I often think I can be much more organized and wonder how other people stay organized, so when I first heard about this book from Ann on
Books on the Nightstand
I knew I had to get a copy. I loved the title and wanted to read more about it the organizational suggestions. I grabbed a copy from my local library and here I am.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and it’s set up like many other self-help books: suggestion, how-to, summary and any worksheets or tools you might need. :, does a great job of offering many suggestions for every hurdle, which is great. There weren’t too many new tips or tricks that I felt I could use, but what I found great (and could see where it would help out a teen or pre-teen) is that she explains WHY you should do some of the organizational things you are told to do and doesn’t just tell you to do them. I also really enjoyed Homayoun holistic approach to organizational management for teenagers, from health and fitness to school and extra curricular activities she really pushed for the young men to take control of their own lives and schedules.
Click here to continue reading on my blog The Oddness of Moving Things.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and it’s set up like many other self-help books: suggestion, how-to, summary and any worksheets or tools you might need. :, does a great job of offering many suggestions for every hurdle, which is great. There weren’t too many new tips or tricks that I felt I could use, but what I found great (and could see where it would help out a teen or pre-teen) is that she explains WHY you should do some of the organizational things you are told to do and doesn’t just tell you to do them. I also really enjoyed Homayoun holistic approach to organizational management for teenagers, from health and fitness to school and extra curricular activities she really pushed for the young men to take control of their own lives and schedules.
Click here to continue reading on my blog The Oddness of Moving Things.
October 27, 2015
The first thing this book did was to allay my fears that something was terribly wrong with my gifted but underperforming son. It's right there in the introduction: boys just typically lack the brain development (aka executive functioning) that allow them to organize and multitask in the way that school requires them to.
The author does lay out a very prescriptive vision of The Right Way To Do Things. We chose not to follow her ideas slavishly, but I will give the author much credit for inspiring me and my son to come up with a similar system that works for us. I help him every night with organizing and processing what he did that day and setting up a checklist of what he needs to do to be prepared for tomorrow. Just last week we got the progress report that we had been waiting for for the last two years: the one with the great grades.
Well written with a compassionate understanding of the hopelessly lost and disorganized boys she works with, I found the book to be an invaluable resource in helping my son overcome the depression and disinterest that comes from chronically being behind and chronically overloaded.
The author does lay out a very prescriptive vision of The Right Way To Do Things. We chose not to follow her ideas slavishly, but I will give the author much credit for inspiring me and my son to come up with a similar system that works for us. I help him every night with organizing and processing what he did that day and setting up a checklist of what he needs to do to be prepared for tomorrow. Just last week we got the progress report that we had been waiting for for the last two years: the one with the great grades.
Well written with a compassionate understanding of the hopelessly lost and disorganized boys she works with, I found the book to be an invaluable resource in helping my son overcome the depression and disinterest that comes from chronically being behind and chronically overloaded.
September 26, 2016
Well I didn't actually "finish" this book. But I'm not sure I ever will so I'm just going to call it done. I enjoyed it. Some parts I REALLY learned a lot. Valuable things for me as a teacher and parent. I definitely have one of these disorganized and distracted boys (and I have a girl like this too.) And I found some useful things in this book.
However, I am finding more and more that I just don't like reading "Self-Help Books." I love reading articles about ways and things I can do to improve, but a book is too much. Authors usually have to really stretch it, be repetitive, and fill it with a million stories just to make it an appropriate book length. I just want to read a summary. Glean the best of your ideas, not waste my precious reading time (my ME time) on your lengthy book that should have taken 20 pages not 200. Maybe someday when I have more free time I'll feel differently, but that is how I feel in my overly scheduled life right now. I am an escapist reader. It's what I do to wind down at the end of the day. I don't want to re-examine my life at that time, I want to run away :) Am I crazy? Probably, but that's how I feel.
However, I am finding more and more that I just don't like reading "Self-Help Books." I love reading articles about ways and things I can do to improve, but a book is too much. Authors usually have to really stretch it, be repetitive, and fill it with a million stories just to make it an appropriate book length. I just want to read a summary. Glean the best of your ideas, not waste my precious reading time (my ME time) on your lengthy book that should have taken 20 pages not 200. Maybe someday when I have more free time I'll feel differently, but that is how I feel in my overly scheduled life right now. I am an escapist reader. It's what I do to wind down at the end of the day. I don't want to re-examine my life at that time, I want to run away :) Am I crazy? Probably, but that's how I feel.
October 6, 2015
Ana Homayoun really knows teens and parents. Her writing shows profound understanding of the various stressors going on that lead to missed assignments and poor grades. She leads you gently to many simple and do-able things that you can implement in your household to help your teen get on track.
The best thing about this book is that it makes you feel like you're not alone and you probably are already doing many good things. She just gently suggests a few tweaks that can help. She preaches patience and a positive attitude.
I appreciated the effort she took to address "special circumstances" like living in two houses or dealing with serious illnesses.
I'd recommend this to pretty much any parent of any teen that seems to have trouble with getting all his school work (and housework and sports and family obligations) taken care of appropriately. It's written with boys in mind, but I'm sure it'd work just fine with any gender. Boys tend to have this problem more often but they don't have a monopoly on it. Great book.
The best thing about this book is that it makes you feel like you're not alone and you probably are already doing many good things. She just gently suggests a few tweaks that can help. She preaches patience and a positive attitude.
I appreciated the effort she took to address "special circumstances" like living in two houses or dealing with serious illnesses.
I'd recommend this to pretty much any parent of any teen that seems to have trouble with getting all his school work (and housework and sports and family obligations) taken care of appropriately. It's written with boys in mind, but I'm sure it'd work just fine with any gender. Boys tend to have this problem more often but they don't have a monopoly on it. Great book.
December 2, 2016
I saw a few other reviews complaining about the real world life examples in this book, but that was the part I genuinely loved the most. It kept it from being too textbook and inspired you to believe that there is not just one way to get through to kids these days. As a mom of elementary school age boys I am so happy to have learned the information in this book BEFORE they get to middle and high school level. I took lots of notes that I know I will refer back to when I start to see symptoms of school issues in the near future. In fact, after learning all of the many homework systems, I will be able to implement them when my boys are young and stop the frustrations before they ever happen. I highly recommend this book to all struggling parents who don't know where to look for help.
July 10, 2010
I wish I could mark this as read and as to-read because I am going to be browsing it over and over as I homeschool my four boys. The author reiterates the studies that show boys dropping out of academia at faster rates than girls. She then posits that boys have this issue because they are not wired to multitask, especially in areas that require maintaining communication with multiple people. I'm not sure that's true. Seems to me that girls are wordier and boys like to hammer things. But as a female person who is not wired to multitask, especially if that means I have to check in with folks regularly, I can tell you the system she proposes to resolve this issue is pretty exciting.
June 16, 2010
This book is was written for parents with disorganized and distracted boys. I would've also liked strategies for how teachers can manage them as well. But this will definitely be a book I recommend for any parents I meet with who have boys who have trouble succeeding in school due to organization.
I really like the goal setting worksheet she gives in the book. That is one thing I can utilize as a teacher and will be using that with all my students next year - not just the disorganized boys. I also like that she says to make the goals oriented to habits and skills rather than grades since, if you work on those things, the grades will follow.
I really like the goal setting worksheet she gives in the book. That is one thing I can utilize as a teacher and will be using that with all my students next year - not just the disorganized boys. I also like that she says to make the goals oriented to habits and skills rather than grades since, if you work on those things, the grades will follow.
April 8, 2011
This was an easy read. Although it's targeted more towards boys in middle and high school, it gives some good ideas on studying/succeeding in school that are applicable to girls too and that could apply to various ages. It didn't need to be as long as it was; I thought many sections just repeated itself.
A point it made that I hadn't really thought of (yet) is the affect of technology (texting, IM, facebook) on our kids while they are trying to study - a lot of distractions we didn't have. Gave me some things to think about in helping my children work around all the distractions (which may be yet even different by the time my kids are in high school).
A point it made that I hadn't really thought of (yet) is the affect of technology (texting, IM, facebook) on our kids while they are trying to study - a lot of distractions we didn't have. Gave me some things to think about in helping my children work around all the distractions (which may be yet even different by the time my kids are in high school).
May 4, 2010
The target audience for this book is parents of boys who need some help multi-tasking and organizing the vast amount of homework, papers, practices, reports, project and more that occupy today's students. Although the author is targeting this for boys, I think this book is useful for parents of boys and girls - I even picked up some useful tips on juggling my own scattered 'to do' list. If you are looking for a book with lots of academic theory, this is not it. But, if you are searching for a handful of practical tips that can immediately help your child's life (and yours), it's great.
June 15, 2015
Very helpful advice on organization and study habits. Perfect sense to me now let's see how it works with my 14 and13 year old boys. Plan to implement in steps as suggested. The problem is they think they know it all at this age. The messy desk and binder is soon true. Drives me cazy. Like the idea of homework at the dining room table and all non-computer homework first. Love flash cards. 2 hour blocks sounds reasonable to me but they are going to have a hard time with that one! Luckily, my husband also read the book and is on board with the plan.
June 8, 2016
For me, this book was a little disappointing. While for some just starting down the missing assignment road, this book might have some viable options; but for someone who has been navigating that road for a few years, there wasn't much I haven't tried. Most of the ideas here are common sense and things you've probably already been over with your kiddo.
If your son is just showing this kind of behavior, it might be a good place to start. But if you're at the end of your rope and looking for ideas you haven't already thought of, skip this one.
If your son is just showing this kind of behavior, it might be a good place to start. But if you're at the end of your rope and looking for ideas you haven't already thought of, skip this one.
March 21, 2018
I picked up this book at the library because the title grabbed my attention. She has some good tips for getting kids organized for school. It's hard to implement all of her recommendations. Many school assignments are electronic and that negates some of her organizational strategies she presents. I would love an additional chapter on apps that could be useful for organizing school notes and assignments. Most kids have a phone by high school and that could be used as a planner and calendar. Overall it is a good read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews