The time has come (or is coming very shortly) for those of us still in school to return to the hallowed halls of public high school. As unbearable as the transition from lazy summer days to a more rigid schedule can be, there are some ways to make your life at least a little easier.
Staying organized is, in my humble opinion, one of the best things you can do for yourself during and outside of school. You can't always control the amount of homework you get from a class, but by keeping yourself organized, you can (hopefully) spend less hours of the day making what certainly feels like zero progress. Admittedly, organization is one of the things I could do with some work on. So, I write the following tips both as advice to strangers and a reminder to myself.
1. Keep a planner.
Having somewhere to write down daily homework, important due dates, and anything else that you might need to remember helps you to visualize what you need to get done when. Also, there are some pretty cute planners out there, so you can get one that you'll feel good about using, which will help to motivate you to stay organized.
2. Plan a week's worth of outfits on Sunday night.
Most people know that planning an outfit the night before will minimize the time spent frantically throwing around articles of clothing the next morning. But on a late week night when you're just trying to wrap up and get to bed as soon as you can, are you really going to want to take time and pick out an outfit for the next morning? Likely not. So over the weekend, plan an outfit for every day of the week. That way, you can just roll out of bed, put on the clothes, and dash out the door.
3. Highlight your notes in different colors.
This is a handy trick for everyone, but especially for visual learners like myself. When you get home after school, try going back through your notes and making a sort of key for yourself that you can use to organize your notes (ex. pink for important names, blue for important dates, yellow for definitions, etc). Or, if you'd like, feel free to take it one step further and completely rewrite your notes with multicolored pens (this also gives you the option to make your notes neater, as oftentimes in class you're scrambling to write quickly enough).
4. Make a daily checklist.
This tip ties along with the first - you can even make the to-do list in your planner, if you'd like. Again, writing down exactly what needs to be done each day in an organized and concise manner helps to formulate daily goals. And personally, I always feel more motivated to do stuff when I can check it off of a list afterward.
Of course, success in a school setting ultimately depends on a commitment to working hard and doing well. But hopefully, a little bit of organization makes the road to accomplishment easier to travel.
