Organizing Your Way to Success

Today, I had the idea to talk about yet another topic that is so pertinent to the life of every college student: organization. However, before I begin I just wanted to mention that I am going to attempt to avoid a pedantic tone throughout this post, but if at any time I start to sound that way, just know that even though I say all of things, I certainly do not always follow through with them. After all, we’re all college students and this is the time that we are to be making mistakes, right? Well, I hope so.

Anyway, I wanted to talk a little bit about this subject not just because it pertains so well to the average college student, but also because they are general life skills that are definitely worth mastering when we have a much greater leeway to try new things and make mistakes. That being said, I’m going to give you all some tips and tricks that I try to use in order to “organize” my way to success.

Agenda. Agenda. Agenda. Agenda. I honestly cannot say it enough! If you don’t have an agenda I don’t know how you can survive in this crazy world. I am a self-diagnosed type A person, which lends itself nicely to my agenda addiction. I love having an agenda for so many reasons. I could go on for hours talking about it (talk about geeky right?). First of all, writing down all of my assignments, tests, project due dates, and meetings is the only way that I can remember them. In high school, the workload was a lot lighter and therefore it was a great deal easier to remember what was due when. However, college is a completely different ball game. Professors don’t remind you when things are due and sometimes don’t even mention that you have assignments due. So the only sure fire way to make sure you turn your assignments in on time is to write down due dates of assignments from the syllabus or as soon as you are aware of them. With this method I can assure you that you will never miss an assignment again. Another way in which the agenda works its magic is for those of us (basically all of us) who have time-management issues. Every college student has to fall victim to this problem at least once during their college career. For those of you that have perfect, unwavering motivation and drive, I commend you for this amazing talent. However, for most of us this is almost impossible. But there is still hope for us because having an agenda to plan out when you would like to work on each assignment and for how much time may keep you from partaking in these very unfavorable behaviors such as procrastination. Trust me, keeping an updated agenda that includes all of the due dates, test dates, and meeting dates in one place, will save you time, help you to keep your grades up, and manage your time more efficiently so that you have extra time to partake in activities that you would much rather be doing.

Yet another way to organize your way to success is to find a clean and quiet place to work. This seems so simple and it really is, but I always abide by this suggestion. When you have a billion things cluttering your desk, it is almost impossible to work on it obviously, but it also discourages you from actually accomplishing anything. This doesn’t mean that you need to be anal about keeping your room in order, but it’s not a bad ideal be a little anal about keeping a clean space to do your school work. Just give it a try, and I can assure you that your grades will be thanking you.

The third and last tip that I would like to share with you revolves around time management as I briefly mentioned before. However, this is a slightly different way to consider time management. Since I was little, the first thing that I did when I got home was finish all of my assignments for the night. I can assure you all that this was not a habit that I came up with on my own. I am completely certain that this was my parents’ doing, but nonetheless, it was a habit that I had until I reached the end of high school. Then as I reached college, I learned that the way that I was used to completing my assignments was not really the most affective way to do so. Why you may ask? Well, before I was trying to get as much done in as little time as I possibly could. I would sit at my kitchen table for two hours a night, rushing to get all of my work done with no breaks in between assignments. Doing my assignments in this manner I was not truly paying attention to what I was doing. And I also gave my brain very little time to recover in between assignments. I have learned since then that taking my time and taking small breaks in between is the most affective way to complete my homework. The truth is, the brain can only maintain focus for about 45 minutes before its power begins to wane and becomes distracted more easily. So in powering through some of my assignments without giving my mind a couple minutes to refocus itself, I was actually working much less effectively. So take this into account the next time you sit down for a long study session. It’s important to get up and give yourself a break every now and then! You will end up working much more effectively if you follow this tip!

Well, I hope that some of these tips can help you all to survive the brutal college workload! Keep organizing your way to success!