Everyone can agree that staying organized is key to success in college. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but I promise it makes a world of a difference in helping you stay on track as you navigate the hectic lifestyle of college. As a chronic planner (and possibly over-planner at times), I’m here to outline some tips when it comes to getting your mind and responsibilities clear and at the ready for the school year. Before we get started, it’s important to preface that everyone obviously has different preferences and this is based off of my personal experiences as a freshman in college, so take what you can and hopefully you’ll find something helpful.
Long-term vs short-term planning
First recognize that there are two approaches towards planning. Yes, planning is all about thinking ahead and being on top of responsibilities, but the time period on which you focus on can widely vary.
A popular method that I personally use that is commonly recommended by other college students is to keep a planner for the academic semester or quarter. This will serve as your long-term planner. As soon as the syllabi are released, go through each class and jot down the important deadlines—midterms, finals, quizzes, projects, events, etc. Find a way to list these down in chronological order so that you’ll be able to gauge how much time you have in between such deadlines and cross them out as you accomplish each one. This helps with managing critical due dates as well giving you a rewarding sensation with every strikethrough. Feel free to add in anything necessary during the semester or quarter, but the key with a long-term planner is to keep it as simple as possible and only focus on the most important items.
Next, we’ll move onto a short-term plan; I personally prefer a weekly schedule broken down into days, but you can change the level of specificity to your preferences. In contrast to a long-term planner, we want to emphasize the details here while maintaining clarity. Every weekend, I take some time to write out the schedule for my upcoming week and clear out what’s been checked off from the past week. Under each day, I’ll include the specific time stamps for my classes and meetings and simply list the specific assignments and studying for every day. As you can see, this short-term planner is much more in-depth, allowing me to see exactly what I need to get done on which day.
Be realistic (plus trial and error)
One of the easiest “traps” of planning ahead or attempting to stay organized is over-planning. This could be in the form of setting too rigorous time frames and not allocating sufficient time per task, or looking too far ahead. Remember, we’re using this strategy as a guideline to assist us in keeping track of our responsibilities, not relying on it as a lifeline or rulebook.
Especially when you first start, it can be a little tricky recognizing your habits such as becoming distracted by your phone or procrastinating when you lose track of time. In order to have an effective schedule on your planner, you must account for these little things. There’s nothing wrong with taking breaks or falling off the plan every now and then. Be open to the idea that it will take some adjusting and patience, and always keep in mind that this is just a record to ensure that there is adequate time for you to hit those deadlines. Make whatever changes you need to make and move on with your day.
Consistency is key (to avoid defeating the purpose)
It’s pretty obvious that it takes time and continuous effort to actually implement a new habit. Organization might sound simple, but it really is a skill that requires consistency to build. That’s why it’s incredibly important to try your best when it comes to curating weekly schedules and checking off those to-do boxes on the daily. After all, if you revisit your planner once every few days or once a month, it basically serves no purpose other than giving you a refresher of upcoming deadlines. And while that may sound decent, it’ll likely bring you an overwhelming amount of stress to be reminded of what you need to do without following through on a solid plan.
After all, one of the reasons why I so strongly advocate for planning is that it brings me reassurance knowing that I will be able to reach my goals. I may not have to follow the schedule exactly as written, but at least I’ll know that I do have time to get everything done, and if needed, I still have time to push it back and move a few other things around. Ultimately, it’s just a record for me to visualize the jumble of responsibilities in the form of a timeline.
I cannot emphasize enough the benefits of being organized, especially as a freshman thrown into the college expectations and workload. Keeping a planner (both short and long-term) has made such a difference for me, so give it a shot and maybe it’ll help you too.
We hope you enjoyed this article. For more content on how to find your academic success, check out some of our articles here on Starry Scholar. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to leave them in our “Community Discussion” tab, or email us at @[email protected]! Remember, you got this ☆
First recognize that there are two approaches towards planning. Yes, planning is all about thinking ahead and being on top of responsibilities, but the time period on which you focus on can widely vary.
A popular method that I personally use that is commonly recommended by other college students is to keep a planner for the academic semester or quarter. This will serve as your long-term planner. As soon as the syllabi are released, go through each class and jot down the important deadlines—midterms, finals, quizzes, projects, events, etc. Find a way to list these down in chronological order so that you’ll be able to gauge how much time you have in between such deadlines and cross them out as you accomplish each one. This helps with managing critical due dates as well giving you a rewarding sensation with every strikethrough. Feel free to add in anything necessary during the semester or quarter, but the key with a long-term planner is to keep it as simple as possible and only focus on the most important items.
Next, we’ll move onto a short-term plan; I personally prefer a weekly schedule broken down into days, but you can change the level of specificity to your preferences. In contrast to a long-term planner, we want to emphasize the details here while maintaining clarity. Every weekend, I take some time to write out the schedule for my upcoming week and clear out what’s been checked off from the past week. Under each day, I’ll include the specific time stamps for my classes and meetings and simply list the specific assignments and studying for every day. As you can see, this short-term planner is much more in-depth, allowing me to see exactly what I need to get done on which day.
Be realistic (plus trial and error)
One of the easiest “traps” of planning ahead or attempting to stay organized is over-planning. This could be in the form of setting too rigorous time frames and not allocating sufficient time per task, or looking too far ahead. Remember, we’re using this strategy as a guideline to assist us in keeping track of our responsibilities, not relying on it as a lifeline or rulebook.
Especially when you first start, it can be a little tricky recognizing your habits such as becoming distracted by your phone or procrastinating when you lose track of time. In order to have an effective schedule on your planner, you must account for these little things. There’s nothing wrong with taking breaks or falling off the plan every now and then. Be open to the idea that it will take some adjusting and patience, and always keep in mind that this is just a record to ensure that there is adequate time for you to hit those deadlines. Make whatever changes you need to make and move on with your day.
Consistency is key (to avoid defeating the purpose)
It’s pretty obvious that it takes time and continuous effort to actually implement a new habit. Organization might sound simple, but it really is a skill that requires consistency to build. That’s why it’s incredibly important to try your best when it comes to curating weekly schedules and checking off those to-do boxes on the daily. After all, if you revisit your planner once every few days or once a month, it basically serves no purpose other than giving you a refresher of upcoming deadlines. And while that may sound decent, it’ll likely bring you an overwhelming amount of stress to be reminded of what you need to do without following through on a solid plan.
After all, one of the reasons why I so strongly advocate for planning is that it brings me reassurance knowing that I will be able to reach my goals. I may not have to follow the schedule exactly as written, but at least I’ll know that I do have time to get everything done, and if needed, I still have time to push it back and move a few other things around. Ultimately, it’s just a record for me to visualize the jumble of responsibilities in the form of a timeline.
I cannot emphasize enough the benefits of being organized, especially as a freshman thrown into the college expectations and workload. Keeping a planner (both short and long-term) has made such a difference for me, so give it a shot and maybe it’ll help you too.
We hope you enjoyed this article. For more content on how to find your academic success, check out some of our articles here on Starry Scholar. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to leave them in our “Community Discussion” tab, or email us at @[email protected]! Remember, you got this ☆