Have A Plan While In College ... A Daily Plan, That Is

You don’t need to be super smart to realize that you’ll be busy throughout college life. Hopefully you’ll get involved with some groups and student organizations. On top of classes, it can lead to one rather full schedule! Even if you don’t join any clubs and don’t get involved—which isn’t recommended—you’ll still be pretty busy. If you don’t get involved and don’t study for your classes, well, then you won’t be busy, but that’s really not recommended.

So to keep your daily schedule straight, give yourself a hand. Amid studying, club responsibilities, and remembering to hangout with friends, you’ll need something to keep your mind in order. We don’t care how organized you think you are, you’ll need some help. How you choose to stay organized, though, is up to you. But just do something!

In high school, you probably had a school-provided agenda. Did you actually use it? If you did, don’t neglect one while in college. Although your school won’t give you one for free, most likely, pick up a cheap agenda book from your school’s bookstore. Those little books are perfect if you still find that writing things down is the easiest way to keep track. Some students will try to write down their homework plans and other activities in a regular old lined notebook. This never ends well. Make sure you get an actual agenda, the type with calendar days on the pages, otherwise your attempt to stay organized will be just that … a nice attempt.

Or, perhaps you’re all about the tech. No problem. Your cellphone probably has more calendars and organizational apps than you even know about. We know you know how a cellphone works, and how all those beeps and auto-reminders can really come in handy. If that’s what you prefer, then by all means. Electronic means of organization do have a tendency to be neater in general since they won’t have scribbled text and random cross-outs that tend to frequently appear in agenda books. Plus, using a calendar in your cellphone or on your computer will provide way more features than can be done with a pen and paper, such as automatic weekly reminders and more. We don’t have to list all the features for you, lest we start sounding like some sort of cellphone commercial!

The biggest combatant to not staying organized is being inconsistent. If you like using an agenda, use it. If you prefer to use your laptop reminders, do that. It’s the students who attempt some of each and then scribble some reminders in the margins of their books who end up utterly disorganized and confused. Find the method that works for you, and stick with it. It’s a bit funny to think about, but you’ll need to organized how you stay organized. As long as you’re consistent, you shouldn’t have a problem, as there’s little worse than forgetting entirely about a test or a project due date. Staying organized will make college life only easier, so take some time to figure out what works best for you and stick to it.