Every student knows that college is one of the most hectic and busy times of their life, but the question everyone wants the answer to is: How can I manage everything while staying organized?
College Planning Necessities
One of the most crucial parts of staying organized in college is managing your schedule! If you're like me, you have a thousand things going on at once like assignment deadlines, club meetings, work, and fitting in time with friends along with time for ourselves. I tackle managing my busy schedule in a few different ways in order to stay on top of everything I have going on. My top three ways to keep track of everything I need to do are using a weekly/daily planner, Google Calendar, and a daily to-do list. I have heard nothing but amazing things about Erin Condren Planners and The Happy Planners. I have always love the ones I find at Target, too! Google Calendar is pretty simple to use, so I recommend making different calendars for each different category of things you have to do . Lastly, my favorite to do lists are from the brand Knock Knock, and they have so many different options on Amazon. I really like to take time on Sunday, before the next week of school begins, to go through my planner to see what I have due that week. Taking the time to do this allows me to map out each day of my to-do list for the week. Overall, this is my biggest tip to staying organized and keeping a planned-out schedule.
Planning out the Semester
At the beginning of every semester, I always print or save a copy to my iPad of each class syllabus. Then, I dedicate a couple hours to reading over them. I put every single class meeting, assignment deadline, and exam date into my Google Calendar and planner for the whole semester. This helps me stay really on top of deadlines, so I never miss an assignment due date. I also recommend creating your own due dates for assignments, specifically big ones like projects or essays. You can create your own deadline a few days prior to the actual one. You won’t have to worry about procrastinating and waiting until the last minute to finish it (trust me, we’ve all been there before).
The Best Way to Take Notes
My next piece of advice is to take digital notes. An iPad is an absolute essential for me because I can organize all of my notes into folders on the app Notability. It is so easy to search by a keyword and find the exact notes I’m looking for when working on homework or studying for an exam. It’s definitely possible to stay organized with physical notes through color coding and stationary supplies, but I have found digital note taking to be so helpful for me.
Organized Spaces are the Way to Go
In order to have a clean mental space, I need to have a clean physical space. I try to keep my room neat, clean, and organized. A clean desk is especially important for me. I like to take time in the morning to make my bed and be sure that everything is tidied up before I start my classwork for the day.
Staying organized in college is definitely a hard skill to master, but I hope all of these tips were helpful for you!
- Harleigh, University Tees Marketing Affiliate