It’s that time of the year again where people are concentrating on a new semester, new resolutions and new academic goals. A major reason why students don’t perform as well as they should in school is because they’re unorganized. This article will focus on five key tips that will help you stay on top of your game and help keep your crazy schedule under wraps.
TIP 1: Invest in a planner. Instead of writing your assignments on a piece of paper, that you’ll eventually just end up losing, and just throwing in your backpack or purse, buy a planner. Not only do planners assist in helping you keep track of when assignments are due, you can also track what events are going on and what needs to be taken care of. This, I would say, can immensely improve organization skills because it trains the mind to write something down right then and there instead of waiting to write it down and eventually have a panic attack looking for it later. It also helps to buy one that is aesthetically pleasing to you so that you will be motivated to use it.
TIP 2: Organize your bookbag at night. This step helps save so much time in the morning and allows you to focus on things like your hair and actually making sure you arrive to class on time. By packing your bags at night, your materials will already be in place and you will not have to worry about if you picked up an extra item in exchange for leaving your homework on your printer or desk.
TIP 3: Try out different notebook organization methods. When it comes to binders and notebooks, it is imperative that those be organized well so that you will not have the issue of mixing up your notes and work for different classes. One method is to buy a big binder and place the classes you have for specific days in that binder. For example, if you have Math, English and Science on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s, place these classes in order from the first to last class in the binder. It would also help to buy dividers so you will not get confused on which paper goes where.
TIP 4: Spice up your notes and/or learning materials. Personally, if I receive a document or have notes that are strictly black and white, I’m not going to want to read it. Sometimes using items such as highlighters and colored pens will help spice up your notes and actually motivate students to take notes and look at them at a later date. Looking at boring papers all the time does not motivate students, but a pop of color will catch their eye and encourage them to want to see more. You can even go as far as putting stickers on your work, making specific designs on papers just to make it more pleasing and fun to look at.
TIP 5: Work towards ending procrastination habits. Being in college is a different type of feeling. You don’t have your parents nagging you to do your homework every 5 seconds, which is beneficial and sometimes detrimental to students. Since they no longer have someone always telling them to do work, a lot of time students won’t do it, ultimately leading to a bad habit of procrastination. Some ways to begin killing that bad habit is to start on an assignment as soon as you are able to, whether that be as soon as you get to your room or as soon as you get out of the cafeteria and have the ability to go to the library. Another tip to end procrastination habits is to turn your phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ or even put it on airplane mode and set it down next to you. The challenge is to not look at it while doing your work so that you will not be tempted or distracted and eventually get sucked into social media. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.
Applying these tips to your everyday college life can help you in achieving your academic goals while also creating positive habits that can be used in life after college. Being organized makes tasks 10 times easier and less stressful because we know the last thing we need in college is to be stressed.