I know college has been in session for a few months, and I know for a fact that you've let at least one thing slip through the cracks, whether it be homework, a paper, a project, a test, or chapter. Between class, homework, extra curricular clubs, daily cry sessions, remembering to eat, and trying to get enough sleep to do it all again the next day, it's difficult to ensure everything gets done. We all can't be Supermen and Wonder Women. If you ask any person successfully in any regard, 99.9% of the time they'll say that staying organized is one of the most important keys to success. "I'm too forgetful/lazy/busy/scatter brained to stay organized" is something you might tell yourself as an excuse, but let me tell you that for those of us that are only human, there is hope to stay organized.

The classic answer for staying organized would be to invest in a planner. Planners are cheap, effective ways keeping up with all the due dates, meeting times, and social events you'll have in your life. In addition to being practical, you also have the option of adding flair to your planner by means of stickers. There are hundreds if not thousands of stickers geared specifically to planner flair on etsy, and Youtube channels dedicated solely to pimping out planners. But planners have some major drawbacks. Manually entering every piece of information means that you can spend literally hours just preparing your planner to stay organized, and if you need a planner to keep track of everything, you're probably too busy to spend a couple hours preparing it.

In addition to the time it takes to set up, the main fault of having a planner is you're storing your entire schedule in one central location. Planners can get lost, stolen, thrown off of buildings, burned, dropped in a vat of hydrochloric acid, and pretty much any other scenario you can imagine resulting in not having a planner anymore. For those reasons, Google Calendar was invented.

I don't actually know if Google Calendar was created because of the shortcomings of the traditional planner, but I do know that it's the single greatest tool at the busy college student's disposal. Google Calendar syncs the schedule you create to all your devices through a gmail account or through most universities' email. In addition to being able to view your schedule on your phone, laptop, or literally anything with an internet connection and the ability to turn on, it also sends you alarms and reminders of when you're supposed to be doing something. Imagine the relief of getting a reminder on your phone to turn in the lab report your forgot to submit (feels good right?) Because the entire program is hosted by our Google overlords, you know it's a high quality and simple to use amenity. To add a new event, all you have to do is click on the time you want to add it, name it, and give it a length of time. That's it. Plus, you can duplicate it so you can set up an entire semester of your college career in a matter of minutes. There you have it; you now have no excuse to ever miss a due date or meeting time ever again. You're welcome.

This is a personal schedule I had from last August. It took about 5 minutes to make and set out my entire week for class, studying, and due dates.

You may be asking yourself "How much does this cost?" That's the best part: It's absolutely free! 100% free! Save that mini fortune you would spend on planner stickers and treat yourself to a 4-foot-tall pyramid of Jimmy John sandwiches because you're a responsible adult now.