Sitting down to write this, and reading the title back to myself I laughed because I realize that this might sound like I understand the mechanics of organization and have indeed successfully “gotten my sh*t together”, however this is not the case. So let it be known that this is not a “how to” kind of article. In fact, I have all of my crap strewn over my desk, scattered around in my brain, and all over the floor. This has been the way I’ve always functioned. Being an abstract thinker (I like to think that means that I can creatively look for solutions to my problems) I don’t necessarily have a “system” for how to organize my life. I’m actually pretty sure I wing everything that I do. It’s a good process, I know.
This was just my way of doing things in high school. But let me tell you folks college is a whole different ball game.
I thought I watched enough college prep YouTube videos before coming to college but let me tell you it did not prepare me for what I encountered when coming to UP. The things I was worried about were what to bring, how to talk to your roommate, and how to avoid the freshmen 15. I honestly thought college was all about image. If your college dorm room wasn’t the same level of stylish as the magazines for Ikea, you were doing it wrong. If you wore the wrong clothes people would look down on you.
First of all can I just say, what college dorm room ever has looked like this? Cause one thing’s for sure my peeps, even if you have the most perfect dorm room ever and it’s stylish and put together and clean…. well actually if you have that, props to you cause I definitely was not met with that when I got to college. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I really just wanted to talk about how during the transition from high school to college I realized that I did not have my life together. But starting college, you have a new schedule, you have a new roommate, and most importantly a communal bathroom. You don’t get to walk around naked whenever you want, go down to the kitchen when you’re hungry, throw your dirty clothes on the ground, or even wake up at the same time everyday. If you’re not prepared for it… college kicks you in the butt.
However there are upsides to being a college kid. For one, no one cares what you look like, or what you wear. No one cares how your room looks, if you’ve got the newest apple products or even where you came from. We’re all just living our lives and experimenting with our new found freedom as we all try to survive on our own as adults.
Now contrary to popular belief, I am not as cool as I think I am and should probably not be giving out advice. BUT I’m gonna put it out there anyway and hope that maybe at least I can start to take my own advice.
So…
First tip: Plan out your homework. And don’t just write it down, but actually set a date and time frame in which you are to do all of your assignments, not just look at them. So this way you can get them done on time and don’t have to cry the night before as you sit there in bed, half way done, at 1 in the morning, knowing its due at 8:00 am that same day.
(This is a pro tip. I get to call it a pro tip because its officially happened to me 5 times within my first month of college. So you could probably call me a pro.) But essentially, just plan out your stuff, so you don’t hate yourself the next morning. BE NICE TO YOUR FUTURE SELF.
Second tip: Get a laundry bag or basket to put yo stinky stuff in, so that it can be out of view of anyone who comes in your room. Your roommate doesn’t want to see your dirty undies either so pick a spot and put them there. Also, DO your laundry. Yes, it’s time consuming and annoying but you gotta do it, so go do it.
Take some homework with you and sit there and get the things that you actually have to do, done. Don’t sit and watch Netflix or Hulu or YouTube and waste even more time. Just remember the hardest thing is finding motivation, and everyone has a hard time finding that so just suck it up and get it done now. Once again your future self will thank you.
And just to finish up this… we’ll call it, motivational speech, the third tip is that after that… you actually have to organize your life. Write down everything in your life that’s important to you on a piece of paper. You don’t have to bullet journal it or map it out in a planner yet, just get it down on paper. Now, let your brain explode. Everything you can think of that in some way affects you that you’re going to need to remember. This can be classes, sports, a job, clubs, family, friends, exercise… anything you can think of. Just write it down. Use a pen, pencil, marker, it doesn’t matter just write down your thought jumble. Then, I want you to walk away. Don’t look at it until at least an hour later. By this time you’ll have remembered anything you’ve forgotten and you won’t be as worried about trying to get your sh*t together ‘cause you already started the process.
When you come back to it, you might be overwhelmed, this is ok, just take a breath. Now you’re gonna start categorizing your thoughts…into BIG categories, like School, Work, Activities, Health… the more broad the better. And this last part will vary depending on who you are and how busy you are but basically just start prioritizing. Make a schedule: I have these classes on MWF and these on Tues and Thurs, and my sports practice is on this night, so I won’t have time to do homework for this class…
It sounds confusing, I know. But my point is you can’t just wing it anymore. It’s not like high school- now you have to deal with your own life. But it’s not just going to happen. You have to take probably an hour or two out of your day to plan and organize your week, month, daily schedule. If you don’t take that time you will likely end up more stressed than you were before, and college will be even harder. But I think the way to be a successful college freshmen is to just start by figuring things out. Figure out where you belong, what activities you’re interested in, what your schedule’s like, when to do homework, how to do homework, how to get yourself motivated, how to keep your limited amount of space clean, how to express yourself, how to deal with homesickness and normal sickness and millions of other things that come with being a new college student and having to deal with them on your own for the first time. Like I said, I am not one to give advice ‘cause all of this is happening to me too. I’m just now starting to figure things out myself. But I think that’s why I’m one of the best qualified people to tell you that you’re not alone, and you CAN do it, so lets do it together!