This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UNH chapter.
1. Plan, plan, and plan some more!
- Find a high-quality planner that checks all your organization boxes. Whether you’re looking for a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily planner, find one you love and you’ll be more likely to use it. My favorite is by the brand Ban.do, it gives fun activity ideas every week like “drive to the closest national park” or “start a hot tub club”
2. Possibly Also Get a Second Daily/Hourly Planner.
- If you struggle with wanting to go to the gym but can’t make up your mind at the last minute or keep procrastinating homework until 11:00 pm the night before it’s due, try using an hourly planner. Every night write all your classes for the following day and look at it and see where you can block off time to head to the library and get a little work done between classes. If you plan how you want to use your time in advance and write it down, chances are you’ll have a better chance of doing it.
3. Color-coding
- Planners can easily get jumbled with frantic scribbles and cause even more stress when you look back it and can’t distinguish what assignments are for which class. Get a colorful pack of pens and at the beginning of the semester, designate a color to each class and write that class assignment in that color. This way you won’t have to spend time sorting through everything because it’s clearly separated and color coded.
4. Write Down Big Assignments Early
- And by early, I mean on the first day of class when you’re handed the syllabus. This includes the monthly overview (if you’re planner has one) as well as the due date itself. I recommend writing all major assignments in red to designate it as important. On another note, don’t limit your planners solely to assignments and academics, write in the times of club meetings or school events that you want to attend as well.
5. Take Some You Time
Every night before climbing into bed, prep everything for the next day. Clear off your desk if it got cluttered throughout the day and pick up extra stuff off your floor. Put all your books for your classes in your bag so you don’t have to frantically pack in the morning while also trying not to wake up your roommate. You can then sit and plan out your day in your planners, like when you want to do homework or go to the gym. Overall, time management is key and planners help with that immensely especially when you get into the habit of using them daily!