Hi, I'm a teenager and "I've time-mapped well"
The $3.6 billion organization industry, according to the Wall Steet Journal (subscription required), "sees a whole new market of pimply future CEOs out there, and it's churning out products catering to them."
Meet the new buttoned-down, ultra-organized CEO: your teenager. If it looks like kids are growing up even faster than usual lately, one of the reasons is they're getting a big push -- from parents and teachers seemingly intent on raising a new generation of Organization Kids. They're getting help from an industry that's deluging kids with MBA-style strategies for success, from books (a teen-tailored version of the blockbuster "Who Moved My Cheese?" hits stores this fall) and $400 Palm organizers to workshops and tapes that push go-getter mantras like "sharpen the saw." Schools across the country are buying into the idea big-time, shelling out thousands on journals, workbooks and other classroom materials intended to teach organizational skills.
It's all a long way from a traditional American adolescence, in which boredom was practically a teenager's right and the biggest time-management question was how to get that social studies paper done in time to watch "Happy Days." But then came the business world's mania for organization, which sent ambitious grown-ups scrambling to read manifestos like Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." In fact, the new craze for teen efficiency traces its roots back to Mr. Covey -- or more precisely his son Sean, who published "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" in 1998.