After I get ready for the day, and while I am drinking my morning coffee I check my planner to see what I have due that day and what events I need to attend. My planner keeps me sane, my planner is my best friend.
I know that sounds a bit far fetched and insane, but it is completely true I would not be as organized if I didn't have all my events written down in advance. Before the start of classes each semester I make a color-coded legend to stick in the front of my planner (I also buy a folder and notebook that corresponds with the color coded legend just to make sure I keep myself more organized).
In my freshman year of high school they gave us a planner during orientation and I decided that I should probably make good use of it considering high school being a major phase/change in my life. I would occasionally put the big assignments and projects in it but I never made it a part of my daily routine. I felt like I could remember it all and for the most part I did (plus the teachers would remind us constantly that we need to do our homework). It wasn't until my sophomore year when I got involved in a few more clubs and I realized that I need to keep my schedule balanced and know what I need to do and what is happening each day so I don't freak out or overbooked my time and that is when I discovered planning in advance can be a little fun and will help me in the long run.
I would buy a bunch of post it notes and used them well to my advantage and my honors world history teacher made the comment during class one day that he could never be on my level of organization.
My advice to you, make use of your planner! Yes, it takes some time to write everything out but it is worth it in the end. You need to train yourself to automatically pull your planner out when the professor mentions an assignment or when you are in chapter to pen in the upcoming events. You will really be doing yourself a favor and you will see that your stress level will go down some (the assignments won't go away obviously but you will have a heads up on the important due dates and big events.
Life without my planner would be a disorganized mess, if I can't see what lies for me in the weeks ahead I get more stressed out than I usually already am. It takes some time to train yourself to start and keep up with writing everything out but I promise it will make your life a lot easier.
