Trying to balance a full school load, a personal life, extracurricular and possibly jobs or internships can be extremely overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! One major key to being successful in college, and just about anything in life, is organization. People hate the word “organization” because we dread having to make any drastic lifestyle changes or work outside our comfort zone. Becoming more organized doesn’t mean you have to completely change the way you function! It’s all about learning to manage yourself in a way that will be beneficial to your own personal work ethic.
1. Buy a planner that works for you
I personally love to manage every minute of my day if I possibly can (call me psycho, call me Paris Geller, all the same), which is why my “Passion Planner” is my best friend. These planners come in different sizes so depending on how much you have going on, you can break down your day into hours, 15 minute increments or 30 minute increments. These planners also have monthly self-reflections and lots of cute sections on the weekly pages to help you break down the week’s priorities! If you need less structure and more creative freedom, I would suggest trying a bullet journal or build your own planner. These allow you to create whatever sections you need to stay organized on your own terms.
2. Buy a calendar, seriously
You might think having a wall calendar is redundant because we have calendars on our phones, and once you buy that perfect planner you’ll have a calendar there too, but you’ll thank me later. The best way to stay on top of all your assignments and events is to write it down at least three times, hence the need for a wall calendar. If you’re visually seeing everything you have to do and all the events you have coming up, you’re more likely to remember about it and you can plan ahead, too. I promise it isn’t extra to have events and assignments written down on a planner, your phone and a cute wall calendar too, no one here is judging.
3. Set reminders for upcoming events & assignments
This last tip is the easiest and most attainable, in my opinion. There’s an entire app dedicated to sending you reminders so that you never forget about all of your upcoming events and assignments. It literally will be organized for you so you never get behind or forget about your most important dates. Plus, it’ll send you notifications consistently until you actually get on top of yourself and do the thing. This is free organization and can be done in no time, just sit down and set all your weekly reminders during your free time. Do yourself a favor, take this app out of your clutter folder on your phone and utilize it!