A new semester means new classes and new goals. I often hear from my peers that the one thing they always want to do in the new semester is to be more organized. It is important to keep yourself organized, because having some kind of organizational method in place can help make our hectic lives just a little bit easier. However, with limited space and the endless responsibilities that seem to constantly pile up, staying organized can be a big challenge. The type of organizational system you have in place, or lack thereof, can mean the difference between a successful and a not-so successful semester. By putting these organizational tips into practice, you can be on your way to making spring 2016 your best semester yet!
Write EVERYTHING down.
This is especially applicable if you are like me: If I don’t write something down, I WILL forget to do it. Buy a planner and write all of your assignments in it. Even if it’s a test or paper that is two months away, write it down anyway. If you have a meeting Friday afternoon or there is a party you want to go to this weekend, write that down too. By having all of your assignments, events, and responsibilities written down right in front of you, it makes it much easier to do my next tip…
Make a schedule, master list style.
Have a calendar on your wall in front of your desk or where it is easy to see. On this calendar, mark on each day what times you have class, when you have meetings, and everything else you have to do on a daily basis. Also mark when your professors’ office hours are. This way, in case something comes up, like you need to make a doctor’s appointment last minute or schedule a meeting for a group project, you have all of your responsibilities in one place for telling people with ease when you are available.
Rank your priorities.
This is something that I started doing last semester that I found to be very helpful. When you have multiple assignments to do in one day, take the time to determine which things are the most important. In your planner, mark each of your tasks with a number, indicating whether you should do it first, second, third, etc. Don’t spend too much time working on something due next week when you still have to finish something that’s due tomorrow.
Look over your syllabi every week(end).
This is another helpful habit I started last semester. Every weekend, I would take out all of my syllabi and write in my planner all of the assignments I would have to complete that week for each class. This way, there are no surprises. Going into that next week, you will already know most of what to expect.
Have a designated place for everything.
It has happened quite often where I will waste way too much time looking for something that should be easy to find. Nobody wants to waste time doing something avoidable, especially in college where time is everything. Create a designated space for your textbooks, laptop, phone, extra office supplies, clothes, and everything else in your room. Once you do this, when you are ready to grab whatever it is you need, you will know exactly where it is.
Have one notebook/binder for each class.
It was a common practice for some people in high school to use a five subject notebook to hold notes for more than one class, or use a large binder or file folder to store notes from multiple classes in. While these methods may be useful in saving space, they are not the best methods for staying organized. Have a different binder/folder/notebook for each one of your classes. This goes back to having a designated space for everything. To make this even more useful, try to get them in different colors, so you know that your notes for history class are in the green binder, whereas the blue binder contains your chemistry notes. This will be especially helpful when it is study time. While studying for tests is always stressful, having your notes for different classes in different binders can help minimize stress, as well as confusion. During the midterm/final exam crunch time, one of the worst things that could happen is confusing yourself by studying for a history exam and then running into some calculus notes.
Label all of your notes with a heading.
Have you ever been studying for an exam and, when looking over your notes, you think to yourself, “I have no idea what I’m looking at”? When taking notes, whether it is during lecture or textbook reading in the library, make sure to label what it is you are writing down with some sort of heading. By labeling all of your notes, it will be much more clear what you are studying specifically within each class.
While you will hopefully find any number of these tips helpful, the most important organizational tip is to find whatever works best for you. Once you find what helps you the most, you will be one step closer to making spring 2016 your most successful semester yet. Good luck everyone!