Feeling Disorganized?
We have all been there at some point in our lives. You just finish your Calculus assignment and you want to get some rest but you have a quiz (that is worth 15% of your overall grade) that you need to study for. You also completely forgot that you have a script you need to write for your club's stage performance but you also need to get that essay done before midnight! Whether it be work, school, or the combination of both, we have been stressed out about the deadlines and commitments we have to fulfill. This is why staying organized is the key to success, especially in college. Here are a few things you can do to make sure you stay on top of your busy schedule so you have time to have fun and also get plenty of rest.
The first thing that you should look at doing is re-organizing your To-Do list. Now, if you do not follow a to-do list, this can still apply because you can reset your task management system or any kind of organizational tool you use. The premise behind doing this is to ensure you have a clear path of where you can start organizing tasks. A useful way to put tasks in order is by the level of importance i.e, how long will it take you to complete a task or is the task mission-critical. Another way you can start is by putting the earliest due date first. This helps you get your tasks done in order or to help you plan for deadlines that may be a little further down the road. Starting by laying down a fundamental path is always going to set you up for success. Additionally, you may even want to look at having your daily routine reorganized. This will allow you to set a schedule for each goal you want to meet and help solve the problem of not knowing what to do in an allocated amount of time. Some resources I use are Todoist and Notion, both of them have different use cases but you can look into them in more detail to find out if they best fit your need!
The second thing I would recommend is to have a calendar to help plan your day-to-day activities. You will obviously want to have your work and class schedules on there, as they are going to be more or less consistent. Once you have that sorted out, you can start to pick the most optimal time for your tasks from your task management system. Now the most important thing for this is to have a set day where you plan out your calendar, whether it is for the week or even the entire month. This will allow you to not only see what you will be doing in the upcoming days but also allow you to update your calendar or if you need to make more time for a particular task. I would recommend doing this at the start of your week. It will help you plan for that test better while also making sure you can make time to go bowling with your friends later.
The last piece of advice I will leave you with is having specific tasks allocated within a time slot. As I mentioned briefly above, we need to have time set aside for tasks but we need to go into more detail about what we want to achieve during that time. The number one mistake we make is having a “study” time allocated but we have no clue what we want to do to study. Often times, students find themselves making the mistake of not even knowing what class they want to study for. So when you are planning your week, make a detailed plan of what you want to get done in that time period. For example, rather than writing down “study for exam,” you can go into more detail about the things you need to know in order to succeed in your exam. It is just like having a gym routine or practicing an instrument, you need to focus on specific elements rather than trying to get everything done. Remember to always take a step back when you feel disorganized and try to plan accordingly so that you do not feel overwhelmed.
Simon Lamsal
Orientation Leader
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