College students are continuously busy with their different tasks, responsibilities, and roles that they need to fulfill. They are students who are involved with campus life. They may have a job or an internship on top of their studies. They could be doing any number of things at a given time.
These days I find myself bouncing from one place to the other and it can be so hard to make sure I have everything I need for the place I am at. I switch things out so often that sometimes I forget something. These are 5 things that have helped me stay as organized as I possibly can be during my time at college.
1. Bags. Bags For EverythingÂ
I keep everything in smaller bags. I have a bag for my chargers and my headphones, a bag for all of my pencils, pens, highlighters, and my mini stapler, and then a bag for more personal items that I might need throughout the day.
I am constantly moving stuff from my backpack to my purse or vice versa. I have been in way too many situations where there was something I needed, but I was off campus and had completely forgotten it somewhere in my room.
Once I started putting the things I want to always have with me in smaller bags, I stopped forgetting them. Going along with this I have a spare phone charger that just stays in my little bag, that way I know I will always have it if I need it.
2. Google Calendar/Tasks
Google Calendar & Google Tasks have been an absolute lifesaver this year. It's not that I didn't know that these things existed, because I did; I had just never utilized them until closer to the end of 2018. I always carried around my handy dandy planner, which worked great for most of my time at college.
The older you get in school, the fuller schedules become, and as a girl who has very large handwriting, a planner was no longer cutting it for me. I began to switch over to Google Calendar and I was putting homework assignments on due dates and I absolutely hated it.
I hated that half of my stuff was on the calendar and I was still handwriting my to-do lists. I then switched over to Google Tasks and boy oh boy did that make things so much easier. I was able to write out my to-do list, assign a date in it, and it would then automatically import into my Google Calendar and once I would cross it off my to-do list, it was crossed off on my calendar as well; and that was a visual that I very much appreciated.
3. Picking Out An Outfit Out The Night Before
Okay, I admit, I'm not the best at this one. Very rarely do I actually set an outfit out the night before, but I do go over to my closet and look through my outfits and try to decide on one. It definitely makes things easier on me in the mornings. Let's be honest, I don't always wake up on time; snooze might just be my favorite button to hit in the mornings. So, it really helps me to have an idea of what I want to wear the next day. At least this way if I wake up late, I don't have to worry about what I am going to wear.
4. Packing My Bag The Night BeforeÂ
Same thing as setting an outfit out the night before, when I run late it makes it 100% easier for me if my bag is mostly packed. I am able to get out the door faster than I would if I had to go and pack it in the morning. Obviously I can't pack everything the night before, but doing this tends to work out well. If I don't pack my bag the night before, I am almost guaranteed to forget something that I am going to need for the next day, especially if I woke up late. Being scatterbrained is no joke, people!
5. Tidying Up The Night Before
Tidying up the night before is relaxing for me. It just puts me in an overall better mood when I go to bed. If I go to bed in a good mood, there is a better chance that I am going to wake up in a good mood. Tidying up also clears my mind by clearing my space. A clear mind is a more focused and productive mind. I can't even focus on homework in my room without it being somewhat clean and organized. If it isn't, my mind roams until I get up and decide to clean. I also like being able to wake up and my room be clean. When my things are tidied up, I am just simply at peace with my environment.
Most of these things are things that I almost never did while I was in high school, but while I have been in college they have been some of the most helpful things that I have done.