This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at GWU chapter.
Everyone starts to realize three or four weeks into the semester their freshman year that college is nothing like high school! With unreasonable professors, heavy workloads, and difficult exams, college is no walk in the park. As a freshman, I’ve been adjusting the past couple of months to college life. I had to completely change my study habits and time management skills! Although I am by no means an expert on balancing school and extracurricular activities, I have garnered advice to give out to other freshman struggling to stay organized. Here are my 6 best tips for organization in college:
- Write everything down- no matter how you do it, writing every. single. thing down will help you immensely. That might even mean pencilling in time to eat and shower if you have a really busy day! I personally cannot live without my planner! During syllabus week, I went through each class and wrote down important due dates and exam dates into my monthly calendars to ensure that I would never forget an assignment! So far, I haven’t. As well, I keep running to-do lists every day in a separate notebook or on a pad of paper. I love the feeling of crossing things off throughout the day as I complete them. Any time I’m out and about and remember something I need to do, I type myself a note into my phone. At the end of the day, I look back through the little bits and pieces I typed throughout the day and add those to the to-do list as well.
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- Stay organized digitally, too- whether this means keeping all of your documents on Google Drive, or saving each file in its own folder on your laptop , keep track of what you are submitting/currently working on. I back up all of my important files to Dropbox. This way, I can access them on-the-go from my phone (documents like your resume would be a good thing to have on hand 24/7). Once a week or so, I’ll go through my camera roll and delete unnecessary pictures: screenshots, photos of power point slides, 77 copies of the same picture, e.t.c. This task may seem simple but it helps me keep track of all my pictures better!
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- Post-it notes help- on the left side of my desk, I have five post-it notes categorized by the five classes that I’m taking. I write down the homework I have to do for each class on the corresponding post-it. I also star assignments that are due first, so that I know which tasks to prioritize first.
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- Take advantage of your free time- this was the hardest for me. It’s really easy to have one or two classes and want to sleep or watch Netflix all day. However, you’re only hurting yourself (and I still learn this the hard way!). College classes require you to put in hours of studying, not just looking over notes the night before the test. If you spread out your studying, it won’t seem so bad!
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- Keep on top of your emails and categorize them- you get so many emails in college! As soon as an email comes in, read it over and decide whether it needs to be replied to or not. If it requires a response, either respond right then (if it’s a quick confirmation or yes/no) or star the message to respond to later in the day (maybe you have a certain time to sit down and respond to longer emails like I do.) Also, automatically label everything as it comes in. It’s really easy to sift through a particular category like “school” or “housing” when searching for a specific email.
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- Go over your notes right after class- for one of my lectures, we don’t have any homework or practice problems… only two exams! The first half of the semester I didn’t do much because I thought I had plenty of time to study. I was so wrong! My first midterm snuck up on me so quickly, and I was really stressed out trying to prepare for the exam in time. Now, I like reading over and re-writing my notes after each lecture I attend, as well as make flashcards for the subjects that require it. If you memorize the units as you go along, studying for midterms and finals is so much easier! You simply review the material you’ve been studying all along.
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And now, here are some pictures of beautiful notes to get you inspired!
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Now go get organized!