Think about the amount of information your brain takes in and manages on any given day. As college students, our class notes, deadlines, and daily responsibilities are already enough to drown us in information and things that we have to do. After plenty of trial and errors (missing deadlines, forgetting about hangouts I scheduled with friends, feeling overwhelmed by the many things I have to do that I ended up procrastinating for an entire day…), I have found a few organization tips that work well for me. Many of you might already know some or all of these, and not everything will work for everyone, but I hope that it will at least spark some ideas on how you might want to approach your organization.
Google calendar (or other kinds of calendar/scheduling tools), use them whenever you can - My recommendation is to take the time to explore the features that your calendar provides and think about how you can make the best use of them. With Google Calendar, for instance, I really make use of its notification reminder setting. For large projects or exams that require preparation, I will have notifications going back 7 or 10 days before the event. For an event like hanging out with friends that requires no real preparation, I will just put a notification for 2 hours before the event. Since I can download and link my Google Calendar to my phone, my notifications will also appear on my phone which can be very helpful if I am not around my computer.
Example of how I use the notification feature
Phone alarms, use them as a final reminder for events - I find this particularly helpful for really important events or for little things I often forget (eg. bringing along bags to reuse when I go grocery shopping, bringing along my watch and stethoscope on certain days of nursing class…). It’s a great final safety net to remind me of something, since the likelihood of me missing it is much lower than with calendar reminders (especially when the alarm ringtone is extra loud and annoying).
Some of my alarms
Sticky notes (virtual or physical), use them for general time management - I use 5 virtual sticky notes on my laptop:
“HW” is a summary of all the homework (HW) I have to do for my classes
“Things to Do” is a list of some important things I should do in the near future
“Daily to Do’s” give me an outline of my to-do activities each day
Breaking down your day into tasks can make it less intimidating for you to start a task, especially if you’re like me and often feel overwhelmed by the number of things you need to do that you don’t know where to start
“Questions” is to remind me of questions I want to ask the next time I’m in class
“Exam/Projects” is an outline of all important assignments I have for the semester
I refer to these notes throughout the day, the week, and the semester to make sure I’m staying on track with my main tasks and responsibilities.
Typical setup of the 5 virtual sticky notes that I use
Google Drive (or other cloud/folder system): use to organize notes and files - I use Google Drive religiously to organize notes and files for school, extracurriculars, and work. Google Drive and Google Docs are commonly used at U of M, so I do see an advantage in using them since if a peer or professor sends me handouts/documents, I can easily add them to my personal folders. Having this centralized system of file management makes it much easier for me to locate things when I need them.
Example of my Google Drive folder for the Winter 2022 semester
Written by Phat Nguyen
Summer Orientation Peer Advisor
Undergraduate Student
Vietnam
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