A big part of our daily lives is managing stress because we have to face many responsibilities. In college, this means learning how to balance classes, involvement, friends, family, and most importantly, mental health. As a busy college student, not only do I have to keep track of my academic coursework, but I also need to make sure I keep up with the expectations of my involvements, such as my sorority and my job.
One day, I decided to purchase a paper planner in hopes that it would help me focus on time management. Little did I know, it was the perfect method to juggle multiple tasks while constantly living in a fast-paced environment. Here are some of the ways I’ve noticed how my planner has significantly altered my life and why you should incorporate a planner into your own if you haven’t already.
Planners help assess priorities
Planners are a personalized space of records to help remind you what needs to get done, whether the task is big or small. In my planner, I make sure any deadline, assignment, exam, or activity I need to complete is logged in as soon as it’s released. Platforms such as Canvas and Google Calendar are great sites I usually source my deadlines from, specifying the day and time I need to complete the task. Writing down these deadlines in full in my planner helps me flag down what I need to get done before I make plans for my leisure.
We come to college to put ourselves as students first after all, right? Most of our professors aren’t generous about late points, so managing our deadlines can make the difference between an A and an F.
Not only does my planner help me become strongly aware of the numerous deadlines and important dates I need to accomplish by the end of the day or week, but it also made me realize that I achieve the best results when I write down my priorities before I begin working on them. My planner is essentially one continuous schedule that holds the demands of school, work, and people. Most people can’t remember everything in their head (I’d be impressed if you did hold this cognitive ability, though). Writing down deadlines, important dates, and even birthdays regularly can break down what seems like a painful week to live through and feel like a to-do list instead.
planners form good habits
As planners help straighten your priorities, they also form good habits in the long run. My planner encourages me to look at it constantly because I want to stay up to date with what’s to be done. At first, I was quite forgetful about to-do items outside my coursework, but writing down the meetings I had to attend for work and my sorority became easy when I forced myself to be productive and plan for the week (or upcoming week!).
Additionally, using my planner for a long period has helped me allot time for my personal life. One of my New Year resolutions this year is to keep my life in balance. Last year, I hated the feeling of being so overwhelmed with assignments that I didn’t have time to prioritize my social life with my friends and family. This year, writing down my assignments in advance allowed me to complete them early and make room for the people that I cared about.
I can’t even begin to explain the relief I felt in finally finding a way to effectively stay on top of both my professional and personal life. I didn’t have to worry about being self-conscious of any of my relationships again.
planners hold everything in one place
Whether you choose to use a paper planner or one online, one benefit is shared by both: everything can be tracked in one location. I used to set reminders on an app on my phone, but I didn’t enjoy how I couldn’t effectively organize my reminders. My reminders were scattered all over the app and I didn’t have my priorities in order. I even treated my reminders as alarms. Sometimes, like morning alarms, I would dismiss the notification and end up “snoozing” on them as I lost track of time.
Rather than worrying about an app tucked away in a phone, a planner is a great way to visualize daily and weekly tasks in an expanded format. I learned that I’m more likely to reinforce myself to stay on top of my tasks with my planner than to rely on reminders that I’ll set, forget, or even dismiss. Especially with multiple tasks to do per day, all the tasks are set up in a way that you will remember because you wrote them down in one place.
planners are rewarding
The best perk about owning a planner is that it feels good! It drastically diminished the anxiety and fear I used to have of failing to meet my obligations. A hectic schedule is like a complicated math equation that needs to be simplified. My planner did just that, preparing me for what was in store by breaking a day’s worth of tasks into parts.
I feel like planning my week also rewards me in the future. For example, if I plan all my assignments for the week and manage to complete all of them before the weekend approaches, then it frees up time for me to have fun on the weekends. This feels so rewarding since I don’t have to worry about procrastinating assignments until Sunday.
My planner has quickly grown to be one of my most beloved possessions. Each day, I wake up excited to grab it and plan for either the day or the week because I know that it will benefit me in multiple ways. My daily routine would simply be incomplete without it.
While the new year is still young, do yourself a favor and start organizing your new semester now with the help of a planner. It might surprise you how much it can impact your lifestyle!
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