Are you a person that is prone to have a busy schedule? Do you take too many units at school, work and still need to find time to do your homework? Well, if you don't own a planner yet, maybe it is time for you to get one. A planner will help you from accidentally overbooking your schedule or forgetting to do something very important such as studying for your physics midterm or paying the monthly rent.

Planners can be pretty cheap. Colleges sometimes even give them away for free at the beginning of the school year because they understand the importance of staying on top of your game. With that said, once you purchase a planner, you are not going to all of a sudden become an organized person. So here are some tips to make the planner work for you and keep you organized:

1. Make sure that the planner you purchase has enough space so that you can write as much as you need to.

Get a weekly or daily planner. You don't want to get one that barely has enough room to write your daily tasks.

2. Use different colors for the activities you will be doing.

Maybe it is just me, but colored pens adds an incentive to look at what I have wrote again and it encourages me to write things down to begin with.

3. Draw little boxes near your tasks so that you can check them off once you complete them.

It's always nice to feel that sense of accomplishment.

4. If you are planning activities or assignments to get done over the weekend, write dates for each activity specifying when you want to get them done by.

5. If you need to call certain people (job interviews, etc), write down their names and contact information in the planner so that you have it at hand.

6. Consider how long each activity takes.

There is not enough time in each day to finish all the activities you want to accomplish so think wisely when you are planning your schedule.

7. Make sure you have time in your busy schedule to do the things you enjoy.

Whether it is salsa dancing or surfing, have a little bit of fun.

8. Schedule time to sleep.

Sleep is important as it will allow you the alertness to do everything you want to accomplish during the day.

9. Don't overbook your schedule.

10. And don't forget to check your planner.