3 Tips To Stay Organized In College from a College Junior

Being a college student can feel overwhelming, especially starting out as a freshman in a new environment. You want to be able to meet your peers and have fun but sometimes the importance of school can make it more difficult. Managing your time and staying organized is a necessity to keep up with assignments, but doing so without feeling depleted is often more complex. As a Junior in college, I’ve had a few years now to figure out a way to organize myself and create more balance as a student. Here are the 3 ways that have allowed me to keep the daunting college atmosphere at bay and provide me with more structure. Using these tools, I’ve been able to keep up with schoolwork and have the college experience I’ve wanted to!

Plan Ahead

When you get your syllabus at the start of classes, it can be tempting to just shove it in your desk drawer and forget about it. These assignments are SO far away, I don’t need to think about them right now. You will be thankful when you do the opposite and plan ahead for the semester. Being aware when big projects and tests are coming up can help reduce stress and make it more likely that you will do well on those upcoming assignments. A great way to organize assignments for multiple classes is creating a Google Calendar. Here you can color code each class, or have a different symbol for tests, quizzes, and assignments. Having an accessible and organizational app right on your phone makes it easier to remember these tasks. At the end of this month I have a lot of quizzes and assignments due all at once and I know that having them organized in one place will help me to manage my time to complete them.

Daily Planner

Between classes, assignments, and appointments, it is hard to keep track of everything you need to do in a day and having a daily planner can be a big help. This Undated Daily Planner by PAPIER is one of my favorites. They have a great variety of colors and designs, overall making organization more fun. Within this planner there is a weekly overview  where I normally put specific meetings or classes that I need to attend for the week. There are also pages where you can track your priorities, to-dos, habits, grocery lists, and more, overall keeping your goals within reach. 

Create a Routine

Creating the best routine for you can be a difficult task. Having your class schedule already as a constant in your weekly schedule is a helpful starting point to creating your personal routine. Examples of this could be going to the gym before pre-calculus everyday, or grabbing your groceries for the week after your last Monday class. Whatever the task may be, having a set time for things you need to get done can be very helpful in prioritizing your time. Something I make sure I stick to is doing my deep clean and laundry on Monday mornings because I know that I have the most free time then.

These are some of my favorite tools and there are a lot of other methods out there. Let us know what you use and do to stay organized!