Stay Organized Using a Planner
photo credit

As this semester comes to a close, the importance of staying organized becomes all-too apparent. It also becomes much more difficult, thanks to the never-ending mountain of assignments, finals, and due dates. If you’re looking to finish the academic year strong, getting organized is an excellent start. For this project, you will need:

  • A planner or notebook
  • Several different colored pens

First, get out your class syllabi.

Even if you think you’ve got a good grasp of what you have left to do before the end of the year, it’s a good idea to double-check. You’d be surprised how many times assignments pop up unannounced. Open your planner or notebook and write each assignment down on the date it’s due as well as a week before it’s due. This method will save you from unpleasant surprises. Remember which color pen you use for this part because you don’t want to use the same color later. All of your school assignments and evaluations should now be in one color.

Next, take a different colored pen and record all of your appointments.

This refers to doctor’s appointments, club meetings, and anything else of that nature. You could also include advising appointments and tutoring sessions as well, but I prefer to write those in the same color as my school assignments. Then again, it’s up to you.

Finally, use the third color for your personal engagements.

These include dinners with friends, movie nights, hobbies, birthdays, etcetera. Now, you have your entire schedule at a glance, and you shouldn’t experience any startling deadlines.

What do you think of this method?

Do you have any tips for staying organized? Let us know in the comments section below!

School Success

5 Comments

  1. avatar Meagan says:

    If you have an ipad, Ipod, iphone, Mac, etc there is an app that plans not only school but uses your actual calender on your device to keep you on track. it’s called istudiez Pro it will give you updates on when you have class and depending on your settings when you have assignments due. The best part is that you can also record your grades through it once you get them back so there aren’t any nasty surprises. Definitely comes in handy but before that I used a hard planner, Walmart has them cheap and sometimes really cute, which I colour coded by class. :-) Enjoy Finals

  2. avatar Briana says:

    Sydney, I got my planner at Amazon–they have some really nice ones there!

  3. avatar sydney says:

    Great ideas! Where did you get your planner? I need to purchase a new one!

  4. avatar Robyn says:

    I color-code like a champion, so I am a huge supporter of this plan! I actually have a different colored pen for every class, so that at a glance I can tell which classes I have homework in each day.

  5. avatar Matt says:

    Great Post! I have done a variation of this every semester. There always seems to be SO MANY assignments to keep track of during the first couple of days as each professor hands out a syllabus. Using a planner to keep track of all of them from the very beginning is a great way to keep from getting behind.

x

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *