College is a beast that you have to experience to understand. You could have been acing every AP, IB, Honors, whatchamacallit class in high school. But in college? All the rules all are off. This is why you have to be offensive when organizing your life. Obviously, this is a system I have found works for me. Feel free to take bits and pieces, or maybe nothing at all. As long as you aren’t the one who realized you went to the wrong campus after it was too late, you’ll be just fine.
Communal Areas:
Let’s be honest. Chicago property values are much too high to have those huge suburban sized rooms we grew up with. Part of staying organized, for me, includes keeping track of my bestie/roomie combo. We’re both really busy as student workers, honors students, and leaders of our own different organizations on campus. We bought this magnetic dry erase board from the sale section of Target for $3. We each picked a Blue Demon color to put in our work schedules, night classes, group meetings, etc. Basically any information your roommate might want to know before she starts calling Public Safety on you at night! If you want to do this too, this board is pretty similar!
To free up some of the space on our shared book shelf, I bought this collapsible box to showcase my South Side Irish pride and to free up my shelf from our shared unit. Placing all of my binders in a separate place does a few things. It opens up my book shelf for the other 16 books I have this quarter and streamlines my packing in the morning.
Personal Space/Desk
First rule: you have to like where you’re working. If you need to spend $15 on pictures from Walgreens, do it! I honestly believe that it’s a solid investment to make your space more cohesive to your own success. I chose a few pictures of friends in frames, Mardi Gras beads, my ticket from the Tulum ruins I saw this summer, and a canvas with Audrey Hepburn.
I have all the basics: an alarm clock, book marks, a three hole punch, stapler, tape, and a coaster. Honestly, you can keep as much or as little as you want on your desk (the library has most of this stuff for you anyway). Some people prefer to work in an organized mess, but that’s simply not me. I need all my ducks in a row and I need all my ducks to be put away. I can’t deal with clutter. However, cleaning my side of the room has sort of classically conditioned my body into knowing it’s study time.
This is the keyboard drawer for my desk. I have a laptop, so I’m able to store some essentials here. I keep my gas and electricity bill here when they come during the week, so I don’t misplace them and can split them with my roommate. I have extra staples and tape for my desk. I have everything I could need for some quick fixes: washi tape if something rips and bobby pins in case of a snag. This is also where I keep my thank you notes, in case I get any care packages. Also, I like to have book rings. I think they’re nice for keeping index cards together if you just punch out one of the corners.
I also like a keep a small dish (with a heart where Chicago is) so that I can take off my jewelry before I get down to business. I can’t stand the sound of my Fitbit’s connector or my Alex and Ani charms hitting the metal of my MacBook every four seconds.
Planner
Let us begin by allowing me to confess something. My name is Michelle Ivancic, I am 19 years old. And I know I have a problem. I’m obsessed with my planner. I absolutely am. I would put out an Amber Alert for my planner; lock down this Bed, Bath & Beyond because my child is missing.
This year for my birthday I asked for an Academic Passion Planner. It has changed my life for the better and I don’t understand how I survived before.
The planner begins by having you set goals for yourself, set out the steps to achieving these goals, and then helps you meet them. I like this planner because it blocks out my day from 6am-11pm (which, realistically, is sometimes my day) and breaks it down by half hour. This way, I’m able to visibly see, “When am I available on Thursday?” It’s also super helpful because instead of knowing you have three pieces of homework to get done you can block out two hours for Philosophy, a break, 3 and a half hours for Shakespeare, etc.
There are several ways I use my Passion Planner besides just appointment and class times.
- I use the grid paper in the back to keep track of my friend’s apartment addresses.
- I use the pocket in the back for my grocery receipts so I know where my money is going.
- I use the focus boxes at the top of the page to remind me about important things like tests, papers, and, like on Saturday, calling my local Ulta to see if they got the latest Urban Decay palette.
- I write shows I missed in the To-Do personal section as a reminder I wanted to see them.
- I write good things down in the top corner, to remind help myself get through my long weeks. (like a fun dinner date with my sorority sisters or a long phone call-pep talk combo from my best friend)
The importance of: color coding is mostly by severity. If you look back, you’ll see that there is a decent amount of pink on the page. Pink is used for my sorority, my Her Campus meetings, basically anything fun. This way, I know what I could miss if I needed to. Need to make an emergency doctor’s apt.? Let’s not make it during History, that’s purple and I can’t miss that. But, I have some free time that runs into pink–sounds great doc.
The importance of: writing down every single thing. Every. Single. Thing. I promise you, you won’t remember. You’ll go…wow. October 3rd sounds like an important date….Nah. I’m just psyching myself out. It’s the date in Mean Girls. Just kidding, it was your midterm. The class was moved up an hour and the room changed. Good luck getting sympathy from your prof for that.
Bed
I know what you’re thinking–my mom has been bugging me since I was four to make my bed and I’ve never done it before. I strongly believe that making your bed before you leave each morning is extremely important. For example, if you come home after class to an unmade bed, that’s perfect for a nap that ran two hours too long! If you come home to a made bed, you’re more apt for a shorter nap or just an activity to help you unwind a bit, like Netflix or a Skype call with a friend from home. Also, I just like coming home to a made bed.
Look, I know you’ve got what it takes to kick some butt and take names here at uni. It’s so hard, but so worth it. There’s a reason your mom won’t shut up about the friends she made there and the times she won’t tell you about until you’re older. So work your butt off! But don’t work more than you have to. As long as you stay organized and keep your head up, you will be just fine.