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An agenda is one of the best ways to keep organized whether school is in session or not. As a collegiate, most of us juggle school work (even in the summer) a job and extracurricular activities. Overall, I’m a huge fan of writing everything down in one central space, from meetings and events to papers and exams. This helps keep everything on track and this way, you’ll almost never forget something.
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Step 1: Choose an Agenda
Agendas now come in a wide array of colors and are available for customization. Take the Erin Condren Life Planner for example- you can choose the colors for many of the designs and they even integrate your name on the cover. It all depends what you’ll be using your agenda for mostly. There are agendas geared toward students or toward working moms. I prefer agendas loaded with pockets, tabs and even stickers to keep your schedule colorful.
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Step 2: Color Code
While it’s ok to just write things as they go along, I promise you will be rewarded if you go the extra mile and color code. This is awesome especially if you find yourself mixing up activities and class schedules. Just create a key that will work for you (and all areas of your semester) and place it on the back cover where it is easily seen. Try limiting yourself to four or five sections so it doesn’t get too confusing. Choose the utencil that works best for you, be it colored pencils, highlighters or markers. But remember the correction tape for that awful rescheduling!
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Step 3: Go Forth!
A planner is what you make of it, so use it wisely! Look up the academic calendar and write down the dates: add/drop periods, first day of class, ect. It might seem a long time in the future, but these days creep on you fast. Keep a habit of writing down dates as soon as you’re told, if you’re agenda isn’t on you at the moment- make a note on you’re phone! As soon as you get your syllabi for class, write down all the dates too. It might be boring, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.Â