College is overwhelming. Most students are taking between 12-18 credit hours per semester, occupying most of their time throughout the week. Aside from the hours you spend in class, so much time is dedicated to studying, doing homework, preparing for class, etc. Now add on your life on top of that. Clubs, friends, dating, mental health care and many other things that are essential to our lives must be fit in somewhere in our hectic schedules. The key to maintaining all of your responsibilities and moving through college in a (somewhat) organized fashion is to keep yourself coordinated and aware of your time. Organization is so important in college, so I am going to share my top three tips for staying organized so that you can live your best life.
#1). Use a Planner
I know, I know. Everyone and their dog has a planner. We all rush to Target a few days before school starts and pick out the cutest planner we can find. We spend a little bit too much on the cute stickers and bright highlighters that we are determined to use in our new planner. We make a Pinterest board dedicated to all of the adorable design ideas that we can sketch each week to keep ourselves “organized”. This is all fun and exciting of course, but here is my question, how many of us actually use our planner after the first couple of weeks of the semester? Once you have been doing five hours of homework a day and no longer have the time to doodle in your planner for an hour, most of us just stop using it all together. However, your planner in college is quite literally your life line. I jokingly call my planner my “brain” and before I make any plans I always consult it. I write down everything in it, from my homework assignments to my coffee dates. I can’t even begin to tell you how much keeping an organized planner has helped me in college. Its so easy to miss an assignment or accidentally double-book yourself if you aren’t writing everything down. You can still make your planner fun, for instance I color code mine by class/activity, but make sure you are actually putting in the little bit of extra effort to keep up with it for real. It will truly save you during the hurricane that is being a student.
#2). Keep a Binder for Each Class
I used to hate binders. I always wanted a glittery notebook for each of my classes, not a clunky binder. But listen closely when I tell you, having a binder for each of your classes is SO helpful. You will be doing assignments and given so many random papers, and having one single place to put it all is the best way to stay organized. For each of my binders, the first pages are my printed syllabi. I consult this constantly (as I mentioned in my time management article) and it helps me to know exactly what I am doing in each class. With a binder, I can include any notes, handouts, loose leaf textbooks pages, rubrics, etc. all in one location. You never know when you might need to look back at that one assignment that you did or reference some obscure handout from the first week of class. Save yourself time and grief by putting everything in one spot, it will be your saving grace.
#3). Do a Little Bit Each Day
I have kinda touched on this point throughout the article, but the big secret to staying organized is being consistent in little ways. Organized people are not chaotic every day except for the one day you happen to be talking to them. Organization is a lot of “behind the scenes” work. Sometimes the thought of having to take fifteen minutes and place all of my notes and papers in their designated spots seems like the hardest thing in the world. However, I do it anyways because I know the payout is monumental. There is almost nothing I hate more than feeling overwhelmed and unprepared. I hate scrambling to find one single paper that I just know I saw the other day. Even though it may seem pointless and tedious to me sometimes, I organize every single day. I don’t throw all of my resources into my bag and just pull everything out a week later and hope for the best. I remain consistent and determined with my organization, because that is truly the only way it works. I may not be the smartest in the room sometimes, but one thing I know I am is organized and well-prepared. Having that backing is what I need to be able to feel confident and at ease in all of my classes, because I know at the end of the day I have done my best to be the best student I can be.
I will leave you with this- organization can be a pain. It seems dumb sometimes even to me when I put pressure on myself to make sure I write everything down in my planner and sort things into their homes. But I can truly and honestly tell you, I do not think I would even be half as good of a student as I currently am without being organized. Life is hard. Make it easier on yourself and set yourself up for success by just doing the little things. In my opinion, being organized is almost like a form of self-care. Though it may not be as relaxing as a face mask or Netflix binge, I am treating myself with respect by doing simple tasks that will benefit me in the future.