“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
It can be daunting to enter college and have a flurry of paperwork and assignments stacking on your desk and floating around in your head. Once you reach college, you’ll be expected to be responsible for planning out your education, registering for classes, keeping track of financial aid, applying for internships and programs … in a nutshell, it can get overwhelming. Every college student needs a system.
Over the years, I’ve refined a few techniques that work really well to keep organized during this hectic time of life. This week, I jotted down the techniques that I use to keep organized. But keep in mind … everyone is different, and this is simply what works best for me. Feel free to tweak, ignore, or alter any of the following.
Now grab your cup of coffee and let’s get organized …
Create an Academic Master Plan
The first step is to compile your big-picture plan for graduating college. I like to use a slim binder with five tabs to keep everything in one place.
- Degree Plan: In the first tab, I keep my overall college degree plan (sometimes referred to as a student education plan), which is a list of requirements for my degree, including both general education and major-specific courses. Every college has a specific list of requirements for their major (this is often available online in the college catalog), and it’s helpful to print this out too. Tucked away in this folder, I keep a handy semester-by-semester plan of attack so I know exactly which courses to sign up for when registration swings around.
- Transcript: In this section, I have printed copies of my latest up-to-date transcripts from high school and college. Keeping these on hand for reference has been helpful on multiple occasions during academic counseling or planning out registration.
- Financial Aid: Remember that financial aid package that your college sent you? Yeah, you definitely don’t want to lose track of that. Keep the relevant pieces tucked away in here for the future. It’s helpful to have them all in one place in case you need them.
- Study Abroad: For years now, I’ve been working towards a study abroad semester program in England. This tab is where I keep all the information about travel, program brochures, classes that are being offered, etc. If studying abroad isn’t your cup of tea, you could detail this section with information about an internship or other programs.
- Handouts: During your college orientation, you’ll receive a packet of handouts. This is where I keep all of the information about campus resources, local churches, ways to get involved in clubs, upcoming student events, and other such academic falderal.
Map out Your Semester Plan of Action
While the first binder is dedicated to your academic plan of action, I like to have a separate binder for the current semester. This is where all the specific course papers go — syllabi, notes, assignments, etc.
- Front Folder: This is the catchall for assignment handouts and graded papers and everything. At the end of each day, I hole punch and distribute all those papers into their various places.
- Term Page: This is one of the best-kept secrets of any organized college student. Instead of looking at multiple different syllabi to see deadlines, readings, and due dates each week, take some time in the first week of the semester to type them all up into one page. Sort them by week. You can also tuck a copy of your college’s academic calendar here.
- Class Sections: I like to keep one tab for each class of the semester. At the front of the section, I keep a class summary sheet with the class information, course description, and grading percentages. Right behind that, I keep the actual course syllabus, followed by college ruled paper for taking notes.
Studying Tactics
I remember when I first started college classes at my local community college, I was really frustrated by the term “studying.” I know I’m not the only one who felt this way. It’s really daunting to be told, time and time again, to “keep studying” and “study hard” when you don’t even know how. After much ado, this is what that elusive term breaks down to for me.
- Keep Notes: During each lecture, write down anything and everything that the professor emphasizes, repeats, or writes on the whiteboard. Try to pay attention to the big picture – the conclusion – that they’re working towards. Why does this matter? Always write down any examples that the professor provides (whether it’s a step-by-step math equation or a historical example). Now, these notes will inevitably end up messy, so I like to sketch out an hour or two every day for revising them until they’re all neat and “studyblr-worthy.”
- Break Down Tasks: This is where your planner comes in. Every week, plan the next two week’s worth of homework. Look for exams, midterms, portfolios, projects, research papers, etc. During this time, separate tasks into manageable pieces that take no longer than one hour to complete.
- Do the Work: Set “office hours” for yourself in the library and study in forty-five minute segments. And I mean put your phone on airplane mode, set your timer, and get to work without distractions until that time is up. For every forty-five minute session, pick a single task to focus on. You can put on some background music to help you concentrate. There are studying playlists like “Deep Focus” on Spotify and on YouTube there are ambient playlists so you can feel like you’re working in a medieval tavern or the Gryffindor common room. Without any distractions, you will be efficient and get much more done. The key to all homework is to just start. Action gets you results.
And one more thing — make sure you have things to look forward to! Get a coffee during your Tuesday note revision session, read a chapter of a fun book out on the lawn during lunch, use colorful highlighters to keep things visual, light faux candles in your room while you do your reading, and add drawings in your notes.
And remember, even though it’s awesome to get top grades written, what really matters in the end is that you love to learn. Keep balanced: do your best in school, but don’t forget to enjoy life while you’re at it.
Just do your best. No one can ask any more of you than that.
Make yourself proud this week!
<3 Olivia Grace
