With the new semester coming up, it is important to start the year off on a good foot. Personally, I am huge organizational freak. I need to have a hundred lists, notebooks and calendars out at any given time.
Writing things out make me feel better, it lowers my stress and ensures I don’t forget anything. For me, staying organized is the key to staying on top of everything and holding onto my sanity.
So, here are some products that will ensure you can stay organized this semester.
- Planner
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Planners are a fantastic way to stay organized. You can put everything from your homework, class information, extracurricular schedules, your friends’ birthdays, appointments and plans with your friends.
Planners are easy to carry around. You just have to slip it in your backpack. This allows you to be able to write down your homework in class when it’s being assigned, instead of hours later.
My favorite brand of planner is Clementine Paper Inc. I am super particular with my planners, and I found that this brand contains all the elements I like.
For me, my planners need to have tabs for each of month. The pages with each day needs to directly follow the calendar. And there needs to be extra pages in the front for goals, schedules, notes, etc.
- Weekly schedule
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For classes with homework due weekly, it can be incredibly helpful to have a weekly calendar. With mine, I hang it up on my bulletin board above my desk to remind me of the things I have to do.
It can be therapeutic to neatly write out everything you have to do for the week. On Sunday night, I sit down with Canvas and my syllabi to write all my homework.
Weekly schedules allow you to easily keep track of your readings, assignments and projects all at a quick glance.
- Monthly Calendar
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I know this may seem like overkill, but I find having both weekly and monthly calendars allow me to focus on larger projects and smaller assignments.
While the weekly schedule tackles the smaller and more frequent assignments, you can still keep the big picture in your head with the monthly calendar.
When professors give you that due date, you can easily write it on your calendar. I pin my monthly calendar above my weekly calendar on my bulletin board.
- colored pens
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Amazon Colored pens are a must to studying and organization. I love using colored pens to make study guides, it makes it easier to organize and categorize information.
One of my friends puts her different homework assignments in different colors, while another another writes notes for each of her classes in different colors.
If you are curious on what kind of pen to get, I prefer the Paper Mate ballpoint colored pens over the gel pens. They smear less, have grips and last longer.
- Different Colored paperclips
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I use different colored paper clips to organize my notes and other important papers. While many things in college are primarily online, physical paper handouts still exist, and it’s important to keep track of them.
Different sized or colored paperclips can help separate different units or lessons.
It makes it incredibly easy to flip to specific units. And for classes with open note tests, it makes flipping through different sections of notes easy.
Overall, organization is essential for a successful semester. While not everyone is as Type A as I am, it is important to have some sort of system to keep track of everything.
For example, my sister does not organize her school work like me at all. She instead likes using post-it notes and index cards to write her homework. But she gets good grades and does well in school.
On the other hand, when I was in TJ Maxx the other day with my mom, I was obsessing over which planner to get. As I talked about the different elements of the planner, she laughed and said she was the same way.
There is no “perfect” way to organize. Just do what’s best for you.
Good luck this semester!