This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Lafayette chapter.
It’s that time of year again – the semester has begun to ramp up! Endless reading assignments and problem sets are on the minds of many students. So, how do you stay organized? Below are some of the strategies that I live by:
- A Planner – Planners come in all kinds of sizes, colors, and layouts. I personally love Blue Sky planners. They have a great layout (the one I have is lined, includes a calendar for each month, and a place where I can write down the tasks I need to do that day). If I write something down, I know it will get done.
- Colored Pens – Each class I have has a corresponding color. I write down my assignments (in my planner) in the color for that class, so before I even read what I wrote, I know I have to do something for that class. Any kind of colored pens will do!
- Highlighters – Okay, I know this is similar to the colored pens. But they’re different, and have different purposes. Either way, I would be lost without them. They help me keep track of the important parts in my readings. Any kind of highlighters will suffice.
- Binder Clips – As a Humanities student, I get an endless amount of readings. So, in order to write on them, I print them out. Naturally, I end up with a huge stack of papers on my desk. So to categorize them, I binder-clip all of the readings together by what class they’re for. As a result, I can carry around my readings in an organized way, without them falling out of my folders.
- Post-It Notes – These come in handy when I am reading a book for class and need to mark certain pages. It allows me to note why I marked a page because, well, I can write on post-it notes (instead of the book, especially because I rent mine). I like to use colorful post-its (the color of the post-it I use for each book will be the color I have assigned to the class). Even if you just read textbooks for class, post-its will come in handy.
I hope you find these tips helpful! Good luck this semester, you can do this!