Fellow Blue Jay, Organizing Life!
Dear Frazzled Fellow,
You had asked, “How can I best organize my school work, a calendar, agenda, post cards, etc.?”
Great question! Although I am known amongst my friends as a very type A person, I think this level of organization is needed when at an advanced level of anything.
The first step is to understand how you best receive information. This requires you to think about how you view events. Regardless if you play a sport, have a difficult major, or are just easily forgetful (as am I), understanding your starting point will allow you to pick the method that best helps you!
Calendars come in monthly, weekly, and daily format. I used physical calendars all throughout high school, and now use a digital one because it syncs to all of my devices. My physical one has become more of an aesthetic piece that I only use when I’m going deviceless (which is rare, unless I’m physically reading or editing something.). Either one will work if that is how you best need the information. Physically writing the information down will allow it to be remembered easily, however, digital calendars allow for reminders of events to be sent to your phone (which I love). In my opinion, calendars work the best if you work on a weekly/monthly schedule. Being able to see what your week looks like and what is coming up may alleviate some of the stress associated with the tasks at hand.
Agendas are more of a day to day format. Again, whether digital or physical is best suited to how you work mentally. While the calendar is great, I feel like it can be very overwhelming at times when it comes to seeing what needs to be done on a daily basis. Agendas/To-Do lists can help to showcase what needs to be today, which allows for a more focused look on the day.
Truthfully, I use both of these methods, and a secret third method, as in my case, only using one allows for things to fall between the cracks. For those who are very busy or easily forgetful, having an overall assignment/life tracker allows for all the overall assignments to be seen at a glance, while still being able to look at things on a daily or weekly basis.
Just search up a bulk assignment tracker on Tiktok or Pinterest, and pick the one that speaks to you. I use google sheets for its easy syncing ability, so I can see things no matter what device I use.
To be honest, figuring out how to organize your life is just a bunch of trial and error, which is a part of the college experience. In order to account for this, I like to hunker down in the beginning of the semester and get a week or two’s worth of work done in each class if it is possible (This varies on the major, but things like readings, outlines, presentations, and big papers are all things that can be thought of weeks or months in advance). As long as you make sure to sleep, eat, and socialize well, (even if you have to plan for it!) organizing your life just takes time and dedication to seeing through what you have planned.
Good luck, Frazzled Fellow!!
Best,
The Banter Bureau