Being a college student, we tend to get overwhelmed with school, friends and the clubs we are a part of. There gets to a point where sticky notes or phone reminders just don’t cut it. Getting an agenda book and keeping track of all of my assignments has boosted grades, kept me sane during exam weeks and has even helped me be more involved with my sorority. You don’t have to be a Type A person to have an agenda book, yes it does take organization skills, but a major part is creative with how you want to plan out your week. Having a Lilly Pulitzer agenda book has been my to-go for me as it gives me enough space to write down all my assignments and give me some cute prints to look at along the way.
1. Plan before writing anything down!
Grab all of the syllabi you got at the beginning of the semester and some sticky notes and take an hour to yourself. I write down every assignment down on a sticky note and place it on the day that the assignment will be due. Some projects are subject to change, so planning two months in advance for an assignment is a little silly to me. At the start of each month I will write down absolutely everything I need to get accomplished this semester and put it on a sticky notes in my weekly pages to see how busy I will be each day.
2. Embrace the prints that the planner has
Okay, so I might be a little extra when it comes to color coding, but the prints in the agenda book are just too cute to ignore. At the start of each month, I find three colors that stand out to me in each print and then those will be my main colors of the month. This keeps my agenda book colorful and creative.
3. Utilize the monthly calendar:
One of my favorite parts of my agenda book is my monthly calendar. I start from taking the three colors I loved from the print of the month and categorizing them into three sections:
- School assignments
- Social events or meetings
- Sorority events
When writing down my tasks in their designated colors, I will only take school events that are very important such as exams, quizzes or papers that are due, because if we are being honest those are the ones that really matter. For example, in the picture the print had a light blue, navy and green, so those became my color code for that month. Also, use the stickers that the agenda book gives you will make your agenda so much easier to look at and not get you completely stressed out!
4. Color Coding Your Weekly Layout
The weekly layout is where you get to the nitty gritty of your life. This is where I put absolutely everything that is going on that week from readings to small little reminders. When I write down my weekly tasks, I will use the same colors that I liked from the print of the month and categorize them into smaller details such as:
- Exams/Quizzes
- Readings
- Homeworks
- Social/sorority events
It might be a little confusing at first when using the same colors for different labels in your weekly calendar, but the best way I found works is using the same color you used for your social events in your monthly layout to use for your weekly calendar. You might think it’s easier to designate a color for every class, but I found when I look at the week in a glance if I see the color that is designated for an exam, I know that I have more work to do than having to read through each day for the assignment.
5. Keep your to-do list separate
Since I do write a lot of information in my weekly layout, I tend to not have as much space to write down my to-do list for the day or what I plan to accomplish at the library. What I found works best for me is to use the note section of my agenda book and make a to-do list from the assignments I’ve written down in my agenda book. This way, I can break my assignment ups into smaller task and accomplish work efficiently!
6.Whatever your plan my be: stick to it
You may not want to color code everything or write every little assignment down, but whatever makes you comfortable and organized, do it! By finding what works for you, it will help you remember things easier and seem like your life is more organized.
Cover photo by Lauren Emery