There are only five weeks of classes left. Five! During the beginning of the semester, your notebooks might have been bursting with papers, your planner might have been filled with nothing more than glorified coloring, and you may have spent a few (or more than a few) all-nighters finishing papers. Well that was the first half of the semester—now is the time to start anew and vow to keep your act together in preparation for finals and the end of the year! After all, Ivies will be here before we know it. Getting by for a week without being swamped with work takes planning, so start now. I have put together a few tips to get and stay organized for the rest of the semester in preparation for finals.
1. If you don’t have a planner, get one. I happen to get pure joy from filling in my planner, but I realize that this sentiment is not shared by everyone. Even if you swear by checking your syllabi or iCal, I think having everything written (physically written) in one place is very helpful. It forces you to look over your week as a whole every time you add something in and is especially helpful for long term planning. It’s easy to ignore the paper due Friday if you just click on Monday’s calendar. Having it all laid out is invaluable to time management. Alternately, the Center for Learning and Teaching has month calendars on which you can do the same and keep at hand.
2. Go to office hours. Your paper might be a few weeks away, but if you swing by your prof’s office hours, you will be forced to think and talk about ideas. Even if you can’t sit down and write until a few nights before, at least you have talked through your ideas and showed initiative to your professor. I’m always surprised how much I get out of just talking through random ideas that don’t seem to add up to anything. You might be inspired, but at the very least, you’ll have gotten the brainstorming process started.
3. Put your papers away. I readily admit that I shove all of my papers into the pocket of my binder while packing up from class. When we’re in a rush, there isn’t time to deal with a slew of papers. Once a week, though, sit down with a hole puncher (if you use a binder) or just with all your folders out and sort! It will be much easier to get the assignment done if you can actually locate the prompt without having to look it up on Blackboard, trek to the printer and deal with no paper or whatever other problem the printer inevitably presents in your hour of need.
4. Color code. If it works for you, it can be really helpful. I’m personally attached to my array of colored pens, but you could also utilize color-coding through matching your notebooks and folders, post-it notes—depending on how into it you are, there are many ways to make it work for you.
5. Make separate exam/final paper folders. If you have old papers floating around in your backpack that you are done with for now, but will need for the final assignment, pull them out. Doing a little preparation as you go along will lessen the panic over locating a semester’s worth of readings. Also, if you have papers that you are done with for good, you could recycle them or make a separate pile so they aren’t cluttering your books.
Keeping your books and assignments organized will be useful in numerous ways, in addition to helping you find what you need (which is also important). The ability to readily access syllabi and due dates helps you stay on top of work which in turn gives more free time and decreases the stress of procrastination. Talking to your professors now about ideas or topics you’re struggling with also frees up time later on, and cuts down on desperate emails which are fun niether to write nor recieve. Dr. Joseph Ferarri, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, gives the astounding statistic that 20% of men and women in the U.S. are chronic procrastinators. Chronic procrastination can lead to problems such as OCD and passive-aggressive tendencies—more severe than just trouble with time management (Ferarri). Yes, these seem a bit extreme, so all the more reason to sit down and face the planning stages of the final paper now, not tomorrow, next week, next month… No one likes staying up until all hours of the night doing work, and doing some organization now can make the writing and studying processes earlier and quicker. Most importantly, it will give you more time to enjoy the warm weather!
Photo credit:
- http://www.staples.com/Staples-Heavyweight-Manila-File-Folders-Letter-3-…
- http://www.pasasparis.com/tag/moleskine-notebook/
- http://www.jetpens.com/images/signo_dx_set.jpg
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