You’ve got a full time class schedule, a part time job and you’re involved in three different organizations. It can be difficult to stay organized when you’ve so much on your plate. HC ODU has a few ways to help you keep yourself organized so you don’t go crazy trying to keep up.
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Buy a planner (or make your own).
There are a lot of cheap, cute planners out there. Some of my favorites are Orange Circle’s Secret Garden, Blue Sky’s Analeis, Paradise Punch and Bloom Daily Planners. There’s many more out there too, like at Erin Condren!
If you’re a crafty person, you could also make your own planner! It won’t be as simple as buying one from the store, but you’d be able to customize it however you want. Pinterest has a lot of ideas that you can use as inspiration for your own, unique planner if that’s the route you choose to take!
Use your phone’s calendar app.
We almost always have our phones with us these days. You can use the calendar app on your phone to help keep track of your schedule and use it to give yourself reminders. Since you’ve always got your phone with you, it’ll be hard to forget about things you need to do. If you’re like me and prefer writing things down, you can always use your phone’s calendar app to make note of things to write down later!
Make note of important dates early in the semester.
When you get your class syllabi, write down all of the important dates: tests, quizzes, homework assignments, readings and any other dates you may find important on the syllabi. If you’re involved in organizations, try to get the important dates early in the semester so that you can make note of those too. Even if those dates change later on, you’ll be able to use that time that was already set aside to do something else instead.
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Get ahead on your assignments.
If you’ve finished all of your work for the week and you have some free time on your hands, use it to get ahead on your assignments. This is especially important if you know you’re going to be busy in the next week. You’ll be able to start on that week’s assignments so that you’re not stressed out about assignments when you’re busy with everything else.
Plan your life out by the week.
While you may be making a note of your important dates early in the semester, it’s a lot easier to further organize things by the week. You’ll be able to note what day an event’s happening or what day an assignment’s due within that week, and it’ll be a lot easier. You’ll be able to see what days in a week you’ll be free and what days you should really crack down on assignments. It’s a lot easier to sort out your life when you’re only looking at it one week at a time than a whole month.
Life can be crazy, but we can try to make it a little easier on ourselves by staying as organized as possible. I just started using a planner I made myself this year, and I can say that it’s helped a lot. While it’s not the most beautiful planner (compared to some of the ones I’ve seen online), I feel like I’ve been able to keep up with life a lot better this year than I have in the past when using planners I bought in a store or online. What works for me may not work for you, but it really helps to keep up with everything going on in your life by writing it down.
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