Emma Hartman (ENG’23)<\/p>\n
To many people, Google Calendar is just one of the several apps that sits untouched taking up space on their crowded iPhones. However, to college students across the country, and to me and many of my friends in the Kilachand Honors College, Google Calendar is a revered organizational tool without which life would never be the same.<\/span><\/p>\n When you first get to college, it\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of things you want to do and things you have to do. You\u2019ll have a new class schedule, new friends (and with those new friends, a million plans for lunches, dinners, nights out, nights in, study sessions and everything in between), office hours and tutoring appointments to attend, Kilachand co-curriculars, club meetings, and a million different events happening on campus to choose from at any given moment, from BU hockey games to art nights to musicals.<\/span><\/p>\n With so many responsibilities and so many choices, it\u2019s easy for important deadlines and meetings to slip your mind. You don\u2019t need to schedule your life down to the minute, but it can be helpful to write some of these things down in Google Calendar so you don\u2019t forget! Here are some of the most helpful tips for staying organized with Google Calendar that I\u2019ve gathered in my time at BU:<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Put all of your classes, office hours, KHC co-curriculars, & important academic responsibilities in it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Not everything has to go in your calendar, but there are definitely some things that should. Make sure to write down when you have class and office hours. It sounds like basic common sense advice, but trust me, it\u2019s popular advice for a reason! In your first week of classes, you\u2019ll also receive a syllabus for each class with info about homework assignments, lab reports, essays, discussion board posting, exams, quizzes, and more. No matter how good you think your memory is, once things get busy, these can be really difficult to keep track of. I like to put due dates and exam dates in my Google Calendar to ensure I don\u2019t forget anything. It\u2019s definitely saved me more than a couple of times\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Also, don\u2019t forget to put KHC co-curriculars in your calendar. They\u2019re talks given by guest speakers and you\u2019re required to go to two of them every semester. Oftentimes, some of the co-curriculars conflict with classes, club meetings, studying, or even plans with friends. I use Google Calendar to figure out which of the co-curriculars are most feasible for me to attend at the start of every semester, which saves me from scrambling to fulfill the requirement at inconvenient or stressful times.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Write important details about each event in your calendar.<\/strong><\/p>\n For all of my classes and office hours, I like to write down information like what building and room the class is in. This is especially helpful at the beginning of every semester when you haven\u2019t settled into a routine yet or when you\u2019re new on campus and haven\u2019t really developed a sense of direction. It\u2019s also helpful when you\u2019re running late and can just glance down at your phone to see what floor and classroom you\u2019re speed walking to. Additionally, I like to write down information about who \u201cLunch at 12:30\u201d is with or what class the \u201c2pm Office Hours\u201d are for. It\u2019s just easier when you\u2019re glancing at your phone mid-day not to have to think too much about these things.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Check your Google Calendar daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s helpful to write down your schedule, but none of this will be useful if you don\u2019t actually check your Google Calendar on a regular basis. I check my Google Calendar every night when I write out my next day\u2019s schedule in my planner. I usually wind up finding info like a meeting that I scheduled three weeks ago is happening tomorrow or I\u2019m reminded that I have an exam coming up next week so I should start studying soon.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Don\u2019t always follow the calendar<\/strong><\/p>\n I know firsthand that it\u2019s really easy to overschedule yourself in college. Sometimes, some of the best experiences you\u2019ll have happen when you break out of your daily routine. If your friend wants to hang out and get lunch, but you had planned on getting some non-urgent work done, it\u2019s okay to push the work back to a later time. It\u2019s good to plan, just don\u2019t let the planning get in your way of enjoying college! Your Google Calendar should help you, but it shouldn\u2019t ever control you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emma Hartman (ENG’23) To many people, Google Calendar is just one of the several apps that sits untouched taking up space on their crowded iPhones. However, to college students across the country, and to me and many of my friends in the Kilachand Honors College, Google Calendar is a revered organizational tool without which life … Continue reading College, Google Calendar-ing, and You<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[93],"tags":[7,92,47,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/khcblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}