One of the biggest lessons you learn when living the dorm life, making decisions for yourself and working out your own schedule is the importance of being organized. The struggles of staying organized are amplified in college, when your schedule is full and there are never enough hours in the day. Giving priority to organization will only improve your day, as well as your stress level. It can sometimes be difficult to know what to do in order to improve your organizational and management skills. Disorganization often leads to stress and other negativity. It’s easy to avoid the stress when you have the right mindset and tools in order to solve your problems. Here are some tips and tricks to help you stay organized, avoid the stress and have a wonderful, productive year!
1. Buy a planner and use it.
Using a planner to manage my life at college has been my #1 tool for staying organized and on top of things. Writing down due dates, reading assignments and other events is essential for remember all the important things to do.
2. It’s helpful to 3-hole punch all your handouts from class and keep them in a binder.
The start of a new semester brings an array of important papers, ranging from syllabi to handouts and more. It’s important to keep these papers together and available, so it’s a good idea to keep them all in one place. If not, they end up wrinkled and buried in your backpack, or lost.
3. Keep your desk clean and organized.
Often times, the state of your desk is representative of your mental state. By keeping your desk in order, mentally, it can help you feel like you have control over your life, and that you have a clean and organized space to do homework and be productive.
4. Sort through and clean out your backpack once a week.
This is a simple yet effective and satisfying tool for keeping organized. Your backpack will be the main place where you keep important binders, folders, and papers, so it’s a good idea to take a little time each week to clean out the garbage and ensure that everything is in order.
5. Use the Outlook Calendar to manage your schedule.
Grove City College uses Outlook as its school email provider, which comes with a variety of features. One of these features, Outlook, is a great way to manage your schedule in an efficient way. Outlook can be synced to your phone calendar, and vice versa, and will alert you via phone notification when something on your schedule is coming up. Keeping up to date with your schedule, and knowing what’s coming up next is one of the best ways to stay organized.
