How to Stay Organized and Productive During This School Year?

18.03.2022

The new school and academic year have just begun, and that means we’re going back to school. Unfortunately, many students (myself included!) get easily distracted due to being unorganized and messy. Getting organized won’t necessarily improve your academic success, but it will definitely decrease your stress levels! And when you’re less stressed, your school and social life improve. What’s more, you can create more time for the things you enjoy doing.  You don’t have to be Marie Kondo to make a start. Rather than operating in panic mode and feeling like you don’t have the time to finish your tasks, follow our steps below.

You need a calendar

The number 1 thing you need to get more organized is some kind of calendar. Calendars free up so much space in your brain! Instead of memorizing all your appointments, classes and deadlines, you can have everything visually organized in a really convenient format. Since we live in a technological world, digital calendars these days can automatically remind us about everything before it sneaks up on us. But whether digital or paper, here’s what you need to include in your calendar;

Class times, important due dates, consultation times with your teachers or professors, club meetings, payment deadlines, shift times for your part-time job. Don’t forget to add your exercise routine and your social gatherings.

Your class notes

Taking good notes is key to understanding and keeping track of your classes. But to get the most from your notes you need to keep them organized. Some students simply use different notebooks for each class and go back over them when exams are approaching. But some messy students (not you of course) use random scraps of paper for each class and then throw them in their bags. If this is you, sort it out! Put your notes in binders or digitize them. My recommendation is to use a digital system with different digital notebooks for each class to keep yourself extra organized.

Physical and digital class materials

In addition to your notes, each of your classes will probably have a course syllabus, handouts and presentations you need to follow up on. You can probably get these as a digital version. To keep them organized, you could use Google drive, Dropbox or Yandex disk. But remember to also keep copies on a USB or on your computer, because you never know when the internet or school website may be down! If you’re given physical materials, use folders and binders for each class.

Your backpack

I can’t finish this how-to list without discussing something that almost every student uses; your backpack. Maybe you use a satchel or a briefcase, but whatever it is the idea is the same. To make sure you bring right materials for each class, pack your bag the night before. This also gives you more time to have breakfast or coffee in the morning!

The right organizational system will help you do your thing without getting too stressed. But at the end of the day, all of us still have to sit down and put in the study time! I wish you a great semester.