Staying organized is absolutely essential in order to survive college, but it’s not an easy task. With a virtually endless amount of classes, assignments, tests, projects, parties, games, and more to keep track of, many students quickly fall behind and get overwhelmed. Sometimes, it seems like it’s impossible to remember  and make time for everything you have to do in a day, much less in a week or a semester. However, my experience has shown me that it is possible to train yourself to become organized, even if you don’t have the stereotypical “Type A” personality. I’m not naturally the most organized person in the world, but over the past four years, I have learned a few tricks to make getting organized easier—organization hacks, if you will. They include:
Wake up at the same time every morning​.
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It seems like such a simple thing, but getting up at the same time each morning can help you make the most out of your day. It helps settle you into a rhythm, and you’ll feel like you waste less time.
Invest in a planner.
It doesn’t have to be fancy. As long as you have something with both a calendar and a little room to write down assignments, appointments, and events, you’ll be fine.
Write assignments down as soon as you get them.
However, the above hack is totally and completely invalid unless you actually use the planner you bought. The easiest thing to do is just write assignments or appointments down as soon as you find out about them.
Wash your dishes and put away your clothes immediately.
That includes you, Stitch. Cleaning up or putting something away as soon as you’re finished with it will help to keep your room looking tidy and prevent you from having to clean up one huge mess later on.
Keep a to-do list.
In addition to writing your assignments down in a planner, it’s also helpful to keep daily or weekly to-do lists to make sure you stay on task. Plus, it’s really satisfying to cross those things off at the end of the day.
Keep notes and handouts for each of your classes in separate folders.
Instead of putting your work for all of your classes in one place, try making a separate folder for each class. I have a five-subject notebook and use one of the little folders for each of my classes, which is especially helpful because I can also take notes in the same notebook.
Set reminders on your phone.
It’s not enough to just write things down—you have to actually remember them, too. It can be really helpful to set an alarm on your phone to remind you about a meeting that morning or that paper that’s due next Wednesday, just in case you forget about them.
Obviously, following these tips will not guarantee instant organization. Nobody’s perfect, after all, and even the best of us slip up from time to time. Instead of beating yourself up every time you forget about that test until the last minute or leave your room looking as though it’s been hit by a tornado, I’ve found that it’s better to just be patient with yourself and resolve to do better next time. As long as you make a concious effort to keep practicing organized habits, everything else will eventually fall into place.