On August 17, 2022, I moved into Penn State University for my freshman year of college. I was mostly concerned with going to all of my orientation events and getting settled, but as soon as classes started, the real chaos ensued.
Time management and organization have always been strong suits of mine, but the habits I developed in high school were not cutting it for the way college classes are formatted. In high school, you have to keep track of assignments and various due dates for each class, and college is the same way, just to a much higher degree, especially if you have club meetings or extracurriculars that are at different times. I thought I would talk about some tips that may help you stay afloat throughout college–though these tips could be applicable in whatever situation you want them to.
1. Use a calendar.
A screenshot from my own Apple Calendar.
Using a digital calendar has been the most helpful organizational change for me. You can certainly use a paper calendar as well, but I find that a virtual calendar makes it very easy and quick to input the time, location, and names of events while color coding them for clarity. For example, blue blocks are my classes, green blocks are for my extracurriculars+meetings, and purple blocks are for personal tasks. Beyond high school, it is truly your responsibility to keep track of where you need to be, and on hectic weeks (such as the the one in the photo I included) there is no way I can remember where I need to be and what time I need to be there. I personally use Apple Calendar because it is free, intuitive, and auto-syncs on all of my devices, but there are several other free digital calendar websites that are accessible.
2. Set daily goals
Screenshot from my agenda on Notability.
Since I primarily use my calendar for classes, meetings, and events, I use a separate agenda for my assignments and deadlines. I admit, my agenda is probably not the most efficient, but it works for me. I have different sections for each class, and I write down the assignments due in the near future. Then, every day, I highlight the tasks on my agenda that I want to complete. On this particular day (in the image I inserted), I wanted to complete everything I highlighted in orange. Creating goals establishes a baseline and helps ensure that you achieve some level of productivity each day.
3. Create folders
A screenshot of my Quizlet Folders.
A screenshot of my subjects and dividers on Notability.
A screenshot of my Google Drive folders.
Whether you prefer to store notes and assignments digitally or physically, having different compartments or folders for different classes and subtopics are vital. This makes things way easier to locate, and there will be a much lower chance of things getting lost. Applying this tip could mean inserting dividers into a binder, creating folders for each class on Google Drive, utilizing subjects+dividers on Notability, organizing your Quizlet, etc.
I haven’t even been at college for a month, but these are some of the habits that have helped me a lot so far. I hope they help you all too!
I think it is a really creative idea to write a blog not just about one specific subject but in fact a variety of new college-related experiences which all us first-years relate to. Your post is also functional as you go into detail about the different tools you use. I think this definitely holds the spirit of a blog as I think you can continue to make the topic relatable and topical to all us readers — unlike, admittedly, my passion blog. I look forward to seeing the progression of your blog and seeing what other hardships or challenges you will unearth over this semester.
Being a freshman myself, I can definitely say that staying organized has not been the easiest task to conquer. Your tips on staying organized are really appealing for me to try. The advice given, and your admitted struggle with staying organized now that you entered college has been very comforting to me, as I admittedly was very organized in high school but that has been slowly deteriorating now that so much has changed. I am very excited to try out your tips!
I utilize very similar organizational tools as you do, such as calendaring and using folders for different classes. I have always considered myself to be an organized person and I used some of these tools in high school. However, the way you evolved your organization methods appear very useful and I plan to use some of them personally. The daily reminder tool can be helpful for prioritizing, but to expand on that there could be a due date calendar in addition to just an event calendar. This can get confusing if mixed with the event calendar so maybe a second calendar could be useful. I never thought about this before so thank you for getting me to think about my own organization.