You’re probably telling yourself it’s too early to already be falling behind. You’re wrong. I’ve basically been running around Boston like a chicken with my head cut off since I stepped foot back in Boston. Yes, believe it or not, I even forgot to write my COM blog until the night before it’s due.
Coming back to school this semester, I seem to have forgotten that school and work and other obligations comes along with moving back to Boston. Now that I’m nearly two weeks in to school, I’m making a mad dash to get organized before it’s too late.
Here’s some options for keeping everything in check:
- Make a planner. There are so many different types of planners that you can really mold it to your own personal preference. It’s just so nice to have everything compiled in one place. Otherwise things get lost or forgotten. If you don’t feel like lugging a planner around to all your classes just bring a little notepad or sheet of paper where you can keep track of all your new obligations for that day then you can transfer them to your planner when you get home. The only flaw with a planner is actually remembering to check it. If you’re like me, I can write everything down and two minutes later I’ll forget what I’ve written. This is where you have to put some emphasis on actually remembering to look at your planner.
- Another thing I’ve found to be helpful is setting reminders on my phone. Sometimes it just helps to have a second reminder even if you have a planner. I set alarms all the time and it makes it so much easier for me to remember tiny details.
- Team up. In the past my roommate and I have taken some of the same classes so we would try to reminder each other if we had an upcoming assignment due or an approaching deadline. Without her, I probably would have missed more than a few nights of homework. Work with your classmates to keep each other on top of everything.
- Finally, learn to say no. I have a tendency to spread myself too thin and I know I’m not the only one. Unfortunately you can’t always do everything. There just aren’t enough hours in a day. Instead of signing up for a million little things that make you crazy trying to remember all of the short meetings that go along with them, commit to a few big organizations. It may seem like a bigger time commitment, but by the time you factor in all the back and forth time you waste on commuting between a hundred different small clubs, it probably evens itself out.
So maybe I haven’t found the perfect organizational system, but I’m working on it and so should you. This is just the beginning of the semester so although you may already feel like you’re falling behind there’s still time to catch back up. Figure out what works for you and take control of this semester.
