How To Set Up A Planner For College

I used to be a terribly disorganized person.

Even as late as high schoolhouse, my backpack was a mess of crumpled papers, broken pens, and cracker crumbs. It didn't hurt my academic functioning, but it certainly injure my sanity.

When I got to college, even so, I had the good fortune of discovering this website. This led me to become more serious about organization, particularly when information technology came to my agenda and digital materials. I'chiliad withal no Marie Kondo, but these days I would consider myself "more organized than average."

In this guide, I'grand going to accept you through the entire process of getting yourself organized in college. Equally you'll see, getting organized is the piece of cake part, so I'll as well address the affair that actually matters: how to stay organized throughout the semester.

Then open up your favorite agenda app, pull out your notebooks, and let's go organized!

Why Yous MUST Stay Organized in College (It'south Not Why Y'all Might Think)

"Your brain is for having ideas, not storing them." — David Allen, Getting Things Done

I knew a lot of really smart people in college who barely got whatsoever sleep, mainlined caffeine, and seemed to exist in a abiding country of depression-grade panic.

Y'all might assume this is because they were taking a heavy class load and were just overcommitted. While that was role of the problem in some cases, by and large the reason for these people's hectic lifestyle was that they were severely disorganized.

They were all the same able to perform well because they were smart, paid attention in class, and could report effectively when they needed to. Just their overall quality of life was less than it could have been.

This is the number one reason to go organized: it volition drastically reduce your stress levels.

And when yous're less stressed, you'll feel better and perform better on assignments. You'll also have more time for the things you enjoy doing, and y'all'll just exist a more than pleasant person to be around.

Annotation that getting organized will not automatically better your GPA. You still have to study the textile, go to form, accept proficient notes, do the homework assignments, and get help from a professor or tutor when necessary.

But if you're organized, you lot'll also have more time to do the above things…instead of operating in panic mode and feeling like you never have the extra time to report difficult concepts.

P.S. – This guide is actually detailed and volition definitely get you up and running. However, if you want to seeexactlyhow to set up each system we're about to cover, you might want to take our founder Thomas' productivity masterclass:

How to Get Organized: 5 Key Areas of Focus

Okay, so now that yous empathise the value of system, let'due south take a wait at the key areas that every student needs to organize. If you can get the following aspects of your life organized, then you'll be off to a potent start for the semester.

And even if you're reading this halfway through the semester, this advice will still employ — it simply may require a bit more piece of work to implement since you're in the midst of your classes.

ane. Your Calendar

If I had to give only one piece of productivity advice for anybody to implement, information technology would be "use a calendar." It's quite shocking to me how disorganized many professionals are, and the issue generally stems from not using (and maintaining) a calendar.

Calendars free up and so much space in your caput. Instead of having to remember appointments, classes, or due dates using mail-it notes or scraps of newspaper in your wallet, y'all can take everything organized in a convenient, visual format. And if you employ a digital calendar, you can automatically get reminders of important events before they sneak up on you.

What you lot use for your calendar doesn't matter. We're big fans of Google Agenda here at College Info Geek, but you can as well use any number of other calendar apps. Y'all tin fifty-fifty go old-school with a newspaper planner, every bit long equally you expect at information technology regularly plenty.

Once you've called a calendar, the next step is to make a big brain dump of every important event for the semester. Here are some key things to include:

Your form times
Of import due dates from your syllabi (exams, term papers, etc.)
Exercise times (you do have a conditioning schedule, right?)
Meetings with professors/tutors
Guild/extracurricular meeting times
Dorm/apartment move-in/movement-out dates
Your piece of work schedule (if you have a part-fourth dimension task)
Payment due dates (credit card, rent, any other of import expenses)

An Example from My Existent College Calendar

Once you lot have a list of all this stuff, information technology'south time to put it on your agenda.

Here's an example of a typical week from my calendar during my senior twelvemonth of college:

Equally you can see, I take all my classes blocked out. Not simply did this make sure that I would never forget a form, merely it also ensured that I would never schedule a coming together or other event during class time.

Note: If you lot're using a digital agenda, I highly recommend y'all set up your classes to repeat. This way, you'll never forget when a class happens. Here's how to create recurring events in Google Calendar.

Y'all'll as well notice I accept meetings, rehearsals, time for freelance piece of work, and enough of blank spots. I didn't schedule my report time, as I was pretty good about getting that work washed, but yous could also include study blocks for detail classes if you lot want.

Of course, your agenda is just function of the equation.

How exercise you keep runway of all the things you demand to exercise on a daily ground?

How exercise you lot keep track of homework, tasks effectually your living space, and other goals you want to achieve?

For this, you demand a to-do listing…

2. Your To-Do Listing/Chore Manager

While having a calendar is the bare minimum for being organized, having a to-exercise list will really take things to the next level.

At first, yous might wonder if a to-do list is even necessary at all. Later on all, tin can't you just put all the things you have to do on your calendar?

While this method can work, information technology tends to fall apart if you have more than than a couple things to practice each day.

Plus, mixing your agenda and to-do list ignores the fact that each tool is better for different organizational tasks:

Your calendar is for keeping track of events . That is, things that occur at a specific mean solar day and/or time that generally require you to physically be somewhere.
Your to-exercise list, on the other manus, is for keeping track of tasks . Tasks are things you lot need to achieve (sometimes on a specific mean solar day), just they generally don't require you to be in a specific place or proceed an appointment of some kind.

I realize the departure between events and tasks can sometimes exist murky, then here are a few examples:

Events:
- A meeting with a professor
- A class you take to attend
- A music ensemble rehearsal
Tasks:
- Drafting an essay to bring to a meeting with a professor
- Completing a problem ready for a class
- Learning how to play a piece of music for a rehearsal

How to Set Upwardly a To-Do Listing

Now that you understand the difference, how do you actually prepare a to-do list?

Once more, you accept a multifariousness of options, and what y'all choose volition depend if you want to utilise a digital or physical organisation.

On the digital side, we recommend Todoist. It's complimentary, intuitive, and like shooting fish in a barrel to ready up.

If you desire a concrete method, the bullet journal system is a great option. You can even create a hybrid digital-concrete system, as Thomas discusses in this video:

Only ultimately, it doesn't thing what organisation you use. You could use a whiteboard or a blank notebook if you want. What matters is that you lot go on an updated list of the tasks you need to accomplish, as well as, yous know, really doing said tasks.

To make your to-practise list, you should first create a brain dump of everything that you demand to do on a regular basis. Here are some tasks that virtually college students need to do:

Homework assignments
Cleaning your dorm/flat
Preparing meals
Guild tasks (particularly if you're an officer)
Anything you're learning outside of grade

Next, you'll need to put all of these tasks into your to-exercise list system. If y'all're using a digital system, you tin can set up certain tasks to recur (call up "take out the trash" or "complete calculus issues for the day"). And and so, as you remember of new tasks, yous tin can add them to your organisation.

Here's an case of what my to-exercise list looked like in college:

3. Your Notes

Taking good notes is key for comprehending and retaining any lectures or presentations that your professors give.

But taking notes on its own isn't enough — to get the about value out of your notes, you demand to keep them organized.

For some people, this could be every bit simple as having a different notebook for each grade and referring back to it when you need to study for an exam.

While this can piece of work, it'due south not platonic. This is specially true when y'all're studying for a midterm or final and demand to refer to weeks of notes.

To go on your notes extra organized, we recommend using a digital system such as Evernote. With Evernote, you can create a different digital "Notebook" for each course and blazon your notes there.

If you prefer to take notes by hand (which some studies point can help y'all meliorate process information), and so yous can as well digitize your notes later. To make this simple, just practise it after all your classes are done for the day, before you start your homework.

When you use this system, you'll be able to review cloth much more than easily. Yous can even search for central terms and Evernote will aid you discover them in your notes, saving you the trouble of flipping dorsum through a physical notebook.

4. Your Class Materials and Files (Digital and Physical)

In addition to your notes, each of your classes will probable take a syllabus, handouts, and presentations that you demand to go along track of. You'll likewise likely accept assignments that the professor (or their grader) has returned to yous, which tin can be valuable materials to review when you're studying for an test.

It's cardinal to keep all of these materials organized. Sure, you can probably get the syllabus, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations online. But that'southward one extra footstep you have to go through when it comes fourth dimension to study. Plus, you never know when the internet or schoolhouse website might be down.

To be condom, I recommend you go on all of your grade materials organized either in a physical three-band folder or in some kind of digital organization.

You lot could put all of the textile in Evernote along with your notes, or you could have defended Google Bulldoze folders for each class (other cloud sync apps like Dropbox and OneDrive work here equally well, but Bulldoze offers the best value for students unless you specifically need Microsoft Role).

Here's an example of the Google Drive file organisation I used for my classes during the first semester of my junior year:

For extra redundancy, you could too go along folders on your figurer with these materials in example the internet is downwardly and y'all can't access them.

Want more info on how to go along your files organized? Cheque out this guide Thomas created.

5. Your Backpack

We couldn't talk about arrangement in college without discussing something that almost every educatee has: a haversack.

Even with an increasingly digital world, you still need to carry around your reckoner. And many classes volition still take concrete textbooks that you demand to bring, as well every bit assignments that you take to complete on paper.

Your haversack (or briefcase or purse or whatever yous use) is primal for keeping all of these materials organized and at the prepare.

Organizing your haversack isn't hard — the fundamental step is to remember to make full your backpack with the things you need for the day.

Afterwards all, there's zippo worse than showing up in course, merely to get that sinking feeling in your breadbasket equally yous realize that you don't have the book or paper you demand.

In some cases, not having the right materials could even hurt your participation grade, and so organizing your backpack is something y'all must not overlook.

To make certain you bring everything to class, pack your purse the night before. This was the advice my mom gave me when I was in unproblematic school, and it notwithstanding practical in college.

Packing the night earlier ensures that you don't forget anything due to being in a bustle. And it also allows you a night of slumber to call back something you forgot.

If you're actually having problem remembering to bring everything you lot need to class, you lot can add a chore to your to-do list that says something similar "Pack bag for [day of the calendar week] classes." Nether this chore, write a list of the things that you need to bring. This way, you can cheque off the items equally you're packing.

Here'southward an example of what this would wait like in Todoist:

Curious what should be in your backpack for college? Check out this list.

How to Stay Organized with Weekly Productivity Planning and Reviews

If you went through all the steps in the previous section, yous should at present have a system for keeping all aspects of your life organized. Even so, creating the organizational system is actually the easy part.

The challenge comes from keeping things organized. And so in this section, I'll show you lot ii crucial habits that will help you maintain your organizational organization:

Weekly planning
Weekly review

These two habits are complementary, and they accept 30 minutes a week at almost. Notwithstanding they tin accept a massive outcome on whether or not you really stay organized:

1. Review Your Previous Calendar week

So you put your organizational arrangement into place, and yous now experience more motivated than always.

Withal, what you lot'll quickly realize is that real life isn't every bit neat and precise every bit your beautiful to-do list and calendar.

Inevitably, unexpected things will come up that will prevent you lot from completing certain tasks or fifty-fifty attending certain events.

Information technology'southward tempting to go frustrated when things don't go as planned, but it's more than effective to accept that this will happen and correct your arrangement accordingly.

I of the best ways for dealing with unexpected changes or challenges to your organization is to create a weekly productivity review habit.

This iii-stride process only takes a few minutes:

**1. Compare what you planned to accomplish with what you actually accomplished.**

We showtime each week with the best intentions, merely then life happens.

Y'all planned to spend an 60 minutes each mean solar day practicing integral calculus, only you simply did that 3 days out of the calendar week.

You signed up for a Thursday evening yoga form, but then yous ended up having too much homework to nourish.

Y'all get the thought. The point is to look at the gap between what you lot planned and what really happened.

two. Use this information to make changes to your system.

Recognizing the gap between your plans and accomplishments means cipher if you don't apply that information to inform your time to come plans.

Once y'all've identified what you didn't accomplish, y'all need to examine why. Then, you lot can adjust what you plan for the coming week.

For case, if you didn't make it your hour of integral calculus do each day, what prevented you?

Y'all might realize that it was considering y'all were studying in the student centre and kept getting distracted past friends passing by. Recognizing this, you lot could plan to exercise your studying in the library basement, a place with no distractions except some dusty geological survey maps.

As you lot make this process a addiction, you'll get meliorate about planning realistic goals and schedules. Which brings us to the next habit…

two. Plan Your Upcoming Week

In one case you've reviewed the previous week, information technology's time to plan for the week to come.

If you lot're adjusting what yous do based on the previous calendar week, then you're already on the right track. But in improver to reviewing the previous week, I recommend the following weekly planning steps:

1. Clean up your job direction organisation and agenda.

During the course of the week, there will exist tasks on your to-do list that you either forget to check off or only don't do. Your calendar may also end up with stray events that are no longer relevant, or with things that you need to reschedule for the coming calendar week.

When yous're planning the calendar week to come, beginning make sure to clean out all the existing junk in your organizational systems.

Detect new, realistic due dates for tasks you didn't get to final week, and make note of any rescheduled events on your agenda. This could also extend to organizing any binders you lot have for class, securing loose papers, and digitizing any notes you oasis't gotten around to.

2. Program for the calendar week to come.

One time you've cleaned out everything from the previous calendar week, yous tin can turn your attention to the upcoming week.

To start, make a list of whatever upcoming tasks you lot tin can call back of. I recommend looking at the syllabus for each of your classes, also every bit whatsoever online systems that your professors use to post assignments. Then, transfer your tasks into your to-exercise list system.

Adjacent, take a look at your calendar. Run into what events are coming for the week, and add annihilation that isn't currently on your agenda. Bank check your syllabus for impending due dates, and review your piece of work schedule to make sure it's accurate.

Finally, make sure that your haversack is organized and packed for the following twenty-four hours. This volition help y'all avert forgetting an assignment or book y'all demand to bring to class.

This weekly review and planning process may sound fourth dimension-consuming when you read through it, but in reality, it should accept no more than 30 minutes.

And if you do it every week, you'll detect that information technology takes you less and less time as you become more organized. To brand sure that you get through the procedure each week, block off fourth dimension for it on your calendar (man that just got meta).

Staying Organized Sets You Upwards for Success

This concluded up being a massive guide, so here are the key takeaways for easy reference:

Apply Google Agenda (or another agenda app) to continue your events organized.
Organize your task with a to-do list organization such as Todoist.
Digitize your notes for easier review.
Keep your physical and digital grade materials organized using a three-band folder and Google Drive.
Keep your backpack clean and stocked with the materials y'all need to bring to class.
Take 30 minutes each week to review the previous week and plan the week to come.

And to a higher place all, don't let your organizational organization get in the manner of what really matters: accomplishing the things y'all want to do.

The right organizational arrangement will help you do the things you want without getting too stressed. Merely at the finish of the solar day, you still accept to sit and practice the piece of work.

And then go out there this semester and practise something epic!

Demand help staying organized while taking online classes? Cheque out this guide.