The semester is winding to a close, but before we can take a deep breathe, relax and celebrate the end of classes we have to, you know...finish our classes. Tests and quizzes and projects and papers and presentations have to be studied for, taken, written, practiced and turned in. I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm drowning under a pile of syllabuses, study guides and group members that won't text me back, when all I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch Christmas movies.

These last three weeks of the semester are suffocating. In order to make it out alive, sane and at least somewhat satisfied with your grades, you need to organize, now. There's no time to lose.

I consider myself a fairly organized person, and after sitting down and organizing my life for the next three weeks, I feel significantly better about finishing off this semester. I know so many people are stressed out and don't know where to start, so I thought I'd share my organization process. Here are my tips about how to stay organized, productive and sane for the final three weeks of the semester.

This is so important, both for your own peace of mind and to make sure that you don't forget anything. Here's what I did, and what you can do!

1. Take a look at your planner.

(If you don't have a planner, my god, get a planner.) Make sure you have every class, meeting and obligation written down. You want to have a very good idea of how much time you have each day to work on schoolwork.

2. Collect your syllabuses, and make a list of everything you have left to do for the rest of the semester.

Include every test, project, paper, presentation and homework assignment that you know about. Make sure you write the due date next to each item on your list.

3. Get out some sticky notes (the smaller, the better).

Take a look at the first item on your list, and think about each step you need to take to complete that assignment. Write each step on a separate sticky note.

For example, for a research paper, I may put each of the following on a separate sticky note: find sources, write an outline, write the introduction, write two paragraphs, write two more paragraphs, write conclusion, edit draft, finalize draft, format paper.

I may split a final exam up like this: create study guide for first three chapters, create study guide for next three chapters, complete study guide, make flashcards, read/study study guide, practice flashcards. (That's my process for studying; use your own.)

Make sure that each sticky note contains one step of the assignment that is manageable and not too overwhelming on its own. Do this for every item on your list. You'll have a lot of sticky notes.

**Pro-tip: I used a different color pen for each class when writing the list and the sticky notes. It helps me better visualize my workload.

4. Make a large three-week calendar.

Or use your planner, if it's big enough. Basically, you want to have a designated space for each day left of the semester that can fit multiple sticky notes. I used three pieces of computer paper, split each into seven equal-sized columns, and labeled each column with the remaining days of the semester.

5. Start assigning your sticky note tasks to different days of the remaining three weeks.

Start with your assignments that are due soonest. Try to put only one task for each assignment on a single day. A good way to do this may be to collect all the sticky notes for a single project, put the last step (final sticky note) on the day before the assignment is due, and then put one sticky note on each day counting backwards from there.

(If that's the way you work best. If you prefer to focus on a single project in one day, organize your schedule that way. For me, doing small tasks and then moving on to another topic keeps me the most productive.)

Do this for all of the sticky notes that you made.

6. After all your sticky notes are on your calendar, compare this to you planner and the time that you have each day.

Rearrange the sticky notes as needed based on the time you have available. For example, if you have a very busy day with five sticky notes on it, you may want to move some of those to a different day in which you have more time.

Play around with this, until you feel comfortable with your workload for each day. If you find that you have more things to do than you have time for, this may be a sign that you should cancel social plans, request a day off of work or in some other way make more time in your schedule, if at all possible. It's better to know this ahead of time so that you can prepare, than find out in the middle of hell week that you truly can't get everything done.

7. When you think you have it all worked out, finalize it.

If the papers covered in sticky notes is overwhelming for you (it is for me), write directly on the paper what your tasks are for each day and throw out the sticky notes. When it's all finalized and easy to read, you have your schedule.

8. Stick to your schedule!

You planned this perfectly, so if you push something off to the next day, you're screwing yourself over.

9. During these final few weeks, take care of yourself.

When you finish what you assigned yourself for the day, go to bed. Get your sleep. Make sure you're eating regularly, and eating healthy, energizing foods. Take short breaks in-between tasks to recharge. Remember that when it comes down to it, your health is more important than your grades.