Get a Planner Start out with a planner. Buy one with sufficient space for attaching mini post-it notes, for readable handwriting, and additions if necessary. Pinterest provides amazing ideas for ways to organize and even create planners! Electronic planners: Google Calendar and Apple’s iCloud Calendar serve as great convenient alternatives, especially with the option of syncing iCloud Calendar to your iPhone or downloading Google Calendar as an app. Getting an idea of regular, daily activities such as eating, exercising, and showering helps tremendously. Pick a time that generally works for each meal/snacks and a time when working out and other daily activities best fit your schedule. If you find 7 PM fits best to eat dinner, go ahead and jot it! Once you are finished recording your everyday activities, write down your academic to-dos. This includes class times, exam/quiz dates, professor office hours, etc. Color-coding helps a ton! I use red ink to write down important exam dates and purple ink for volunteering opportunities. Next, record extracurricular activities and meetings. Free-time slots can be left empty or you can note it just in case you forget! Sometimes I feel I need to be completing a task when I forget that I have free time! Small post-it notes are great for adding last-minute to-do lists or for homework and mini study schedules. Clips/bookmarks are useful for keeping track of pages. Highlighters, designed tape, and stickers can be used too. Have fun with it! Another note: Having a separate notebook for scheduling study times or homework is feasible too. Whatever works for you, go for it! Set Priorities Look at the list of things you have to do or approaching events. Which ones can you put off until the more urgent tasks are completed? Is your sociology class easier than your calculus class? Does it require around one hour to study, contrasted by four hours for calculus? Looks like Calculus wins the priority scale. Complete duties from highest priority to lowest. Space Out Your Schedule Procrastination… Aren’t we all familiar with it? That test you have in 3 weeks? That English essay that’s due in 2? Start breaking up the task in chunks so it is more bearable to conquer. Separate completion as much as you are comfortable with whether you would rather read one chapter per night or divide a chapter per night. If a chapter is 50 pages, read 10 each night and you will finish in less than one week. Spacing out assignments save a ton of stress and fatigue. Cramming for that Biochemistry exam 2 nights before is fun for no one. Put Down Your Phone Technology can be a huge distraction to us and can take up more time than you expect. If needed, set a Do-Not-Disturb mode on your phone or turn it off! Source
