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As a person who thrives on her organizational system, I seriously recommend some kind of organization in your academic life. It has helped me tremendously with organizing all of my school work and schedules, and I believe that it will help you too. And it doesn’t have to be color-coded and perfect. It can be as simple as cleaning your school bag every Friday and writing in a planner to keep track of assignments. Especially in high school, you will find that homework piles up, and especially long term projects, where you need to set goals every day instead of saving it all towards the last day. Organization can also motivate you to do things because it gives you an environment you are comfortable with and you are able to keep track of all your busy lives. If you are the type of person who does not mind a more cluttered lifestyle, it’s okay to not be organized, and that just means you learn differently. However, a messy backpack can prevent you from finding the motivation to do your assignments, and this won’t be good for when your grades really start counting! Developing habits that are right for you is all based and what you like your environment to be, and this is different for everyone. Even if you grab 1 folder and put it all in instead of crumbling the paper up after class, this will help! I seriously recommend keeping your other supplies cleanly too, such as your locker! Lockers can get so messy, and I understand this completely. It is not a good environment or anybody when they have paper and food containers falling out of locker every morning. No fun.
Here are some tips and tricks to get started on your habits of organization:
Create the environment that’s right for you: If you like a messy desk and fluorescent lights to study, do it. If you like clean and some tea, be my guest. Creating an environment that’s write for you is so motivated. However, messy can lead to forgetfulness and distractions, so try to keep a space where you feel safe and you are motivated to study.
Use a planner! Even if it’s just a piece of paper that you use to write your assignments down, this will help with keeping tracking of long term assignments and homework!
Set goals for yourself. For people who tend to let distractions let us forget about our responsibilities, even setting small goals for yourself during the day can help. Maybe try to do one more paragraph of that essay tonight. Having the motivation to get up and start something productive can be so incredibly hard, but being organized can help you with this!
Prioritize: sometimes you have so many tasks to do that it’s hard to figure out which is the most important. And sometimes it all just gets too much and you need to take a break. That’s okay too. But seriously, physically writing down your tasks and numbering them, 1 being the biggest priority. If you are a fan of color coding, I also recommend using the green, yellow, and orange highlighters to indicate which are high priorities and which are low, and of course using green for high, yellow for medium, and orange for low priorities.
Break it down! Somethings large tasks can be very daunting. Breaking these larger tasks into smaller ones can make it seem less scary, and this will motivate you to finish that assignment!
Use a calendar: Even if it’s just the provided calendar on your phone, it will help with events that are happened around you. Have a shift at work next Saturday? Write it down! This can help you with planning also and knowing when you can go out for coffee with an old friend or go see that movie.
Questions:
What are the benefits of leisure time and how do you balance this free time and when you have a lot of work? Now I don’t get much free time, but when I do, it’s spent working on my other responsibilities. I cannot stress enough the importance of taking breaks from that essay or that assignment and breathe. With all the stresses in life, you need a break for you, and this might mean a 20 minute episode of Netflix, or breath of fresh air. The important thing is to know when to stop this break and being again on your work, and what works best for me is timers. Set a 20 minute timer for work time and then a 5 minute timer for a break, or however you need these proportions to be as long as you get the work done! After finishing an assignment, reward yourself with a little longer break to do something that you want to do but it will not stray you from your tasks (The “NEXT EPISODE” button on Netflix is the literal DEVIL).
How do I keep my papers organized? I start lots of different systems to stay organized but give up by the end of the day. To be honest with you, me too! I have changed my organization system so many times for myself, but the one I have stuck with for a while is a homework binder and an accordion expanding folder. I’ve been doing this for 2 years, and it works really well. Having all the stress of school and schedules can be hard, and then when you have a binder for each class weighing on your back, that does not help whatsoever. Having even one folder for your homework assignments that night and grabbing whatever extra notes and worksheets you need before you go. But quite obviously, you don't have to have a specific set system. It can change every day and as long as you are okay with this, than work with it. In the end of the day, if you get your work done, than whatever you did, continue this.
Any ideas for other ways to organize assignments I have to do? Planners don’t work for me and I constantly forget the work I need to do. This is super tough! But it’s okay to have a different organizational system than more planned folks. Planners can be overwhelming sometimes because it can remind you how much you have to do when you don’t have the motivation to do. I get this sometimes and I love my planners. However, there are so many alternatives to paper planners. I personally use Google Tasks, because it’s not set up in a planner form and you can organize with different sections, like school, home, finances, etc. When I use this, I write down all my homework tasks, and then there is sub tasks for smaller tasks that you break down the assignment into, which is super helpful. And it’s not a planner, it’s just a regular old to-do list. Whatever your system is, use it.
What’s the importance of school organization? Especially in high school, you have about 2-4 hours of homework a night, and this can be so stressful for people. Personally, I turn to organization as my habit to minimize my stress in high school, and I think it’s super important, because when your life gets messy, your school life can get messy too, and this is not good for times where grades matter.
What’s the starting point to organize? There is no specific point where you should start organizing. Truly, you can do it whenever you want. But when you are feeling overwhelmed, you can’t find a packet work in a pile of crumpled paper at the bottom of your school bag, or you have things piling up, this is a good place to start. And you don't have to be military-perfection about your habits. It could truly start with a pencil case to put all your supplies in. This is all dependent of who you are
What are some unique and creative ideas for organization?
Sticky Notes!! These are so fun to use, and you can get them in so many different colors and designs. These are fun because they are removable and you can use them for everything. Here’s some affordable sticky notes:
Keeping a consistent color coding system: I use a specific color for each of my class, and I think this is helpful and fun because you get to use the same color and it looks organized! One tip is to keep it simple, because if you have 3 completely separate color coding systems using some of the same color it can be confusing. But for now, you can have the same color notebook you use for World History as the highlighter you use for your planner!
Have a calendar handy! You can either use a print out calendar or a digital one, but this is fun because you can see your events and see a daily, weekly, or monthly view!
App Recommendations:
Google Tasks: ToDo List
Google Keep: Notes and Lists
Google Calendar: Planning
The Homework App: Online planner and class schedule
Evernote: Planner & Organizer
Forest ($1.99): Focus and Motivation
Resources:
Tips for Procrastinators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr9NbNify00
Time Management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouh49_uK768
Productivity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYlnBegxXdc