Organization Tips for Any Student - NMU Blog

As a college student, it can be difficult to find a healthy mix of all the different aspects of your life! Whether you’re studying, working, or participating in a club, finding time to do all these things well, and still have a social life can be difficult. Staying organized is the single best way I have found to keep myself accountable for my responsibilities.

Here are my best tips and platforms for staying organized as a college student:

Make Organization Fun

My first tip is to make organizing fun for you. If you enjoy writing notes on paper, buying fun pens, sticky notes, or a cute planner can help you stay organized. Using supplies that make your notes or calendar look aesthetic to you may help you use them more effectively. If you enjoy electronic organization, this could mean virtually color coating your tasks and calendar. Speaking of virtual organization, that leads me to my next tip.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is one of the tools that has helped me the most. I add my work schedule, class schedules, and appointments to Google Calendar in order to visually see my schedule for the day. I also am able to color code my calendar based on what kind of obligation I have that day. Being able to represent my schedule visually on Google Calendar helps me to not overwhelm or overbook myself. You can also invite others to your calendar so you can see roommates' or friends' schedules.

Notion

Notion is a new tool I have started using in the past month. I found that I was using my computer far more than a paper planner, and needed a new interface to help me stay organized online. I use Notion as a virtual planner. You can even cross off tasks like you would in a planner. Notion allows you to be incredibly creative with how you use it or set up your pages. In addition to having a virtual planner page, I also have budget, travel, and grocery list pages. Notion helps you keep all your to-do lists in one place. The best part is that Notion is free.

Make an Assignment Due Date Document

I have to admit, I have not tried this tip yet, but I plan to do this for the next school year. The idea of making a master assignment list is that you can look at one document, and find all of your assignments for the semester. You can organize them by the date they are due, or the class they are for, and it helps you stay organized with what is due each week. It also can help you plan other commitments based on how busy you are academically each week.

Utilize Sunday Nights

Maybe it’s just me, but I like to go into the week feeling like I know exactly what to expect for the week. Utilizing Sunday nights is something that has really helped me with this. I try to get any homework I have for the weekend done before Sunday evening, and instead, I use it as a night to get organized. I check my calendar for the next week, check my assignment due date list, and then make a to-do list for each day of the coming week. After this, I usually can go to bed and avoid the Sunday scaries!

It is easy to become overwhelmed as a student. Whether you implement just one of these practices, or all of them, hopefully they will help you stay a little more organized!