Hi everyone! My name is Emma, and I am so excited to be one of the new COM Ambassadors. The whole process of becoming a CA has helped me fall even more in love with COM, but today I want to give a shout-out to my other true love: my planner.
Before, you scroll down or look up a video of goats in pajamas (the Internet is a wonderful thing), just hear me out. With the first two weeks of class under your belt, the spring semester is officially in full swing, and if you’re anything like me, it’s going to be a busy one. But in no way does busy have to mean bad! And one of the best ways to ensure that, is by getting organized.
This is where your planner comes in! Before you contemplate destroying your syllabi and taking a series of denial naps, grab a pen and try to map out your schedule.
With your planner, you can keep track of class times, assignment due dates, club meetings, professors’ office hours, and cool COM events in one, accessible place. Sure, a ten-page paper may seem overwhelming at first, but when you have all of the components of your schedule written down, it’s easy to see where you have time to work on it, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day. Then, you can space out the workload and see when you can drop in and ask the professor for help, if need be.
Also, writing things down really holds you accountable. Assignments and obligations are always there as soon as you open your planner, and only you can make them go away by finishing/acing them. It is so satisfying to finally get to cross off a major final project or presentation from your planner. More importantly, when you look back in your planner on a nearly impossible week, it just acts as another reminder that you are a rock star and can do anything.
And, sure, if you are more tech savvy than I am, you can do all of this on your phone and/or laptop. But then if you do that, you don’t get to pick out a planner with a super awesome cover design, which, I argue, is possibly the best part. Frankly, you will be missing out.
It is a brand new semester full of opportunity and great achievements to be made. Just don’t forget to try to stay organized, break down assignments little by little, and seriously make time for that video of the goats in pajamas. That one is a no-brainer.
All I can hope is, that by the end of the semester, you and your planner will have started a love affair of your own.
