The first 12 years of school are nice. They tell you exactly what to bring to stay ahead of the game and work at your highest potential. College is new playing field, a Do-It-Yourself mentality. Here’s a list of things to keep you organized and at your best during the four (five, six, seven…) years of higher education.

1. A planner.

You will get nowhere without a planner, let me start by saying that. Use it. Cherish it. Highlight it. Underline it. Spill coffee on it. Bring it everywhere.

2. A huge calendar.

You’ll want one of these too. At the beginning of the semester, actually go through your syllabi and write test, project and major assignment due dates on the calendar. It’s easy to forget about them when they are assigned weeks ahead of time, but having them stare you in the face will help motivate you. Especially at the beginning of the week, being able to look over the calendar and see what big things are due that week (or how easy your week will fly by) will help you prioritize.

3. Binders.

Instead of buying folders and notebooks, I started buying binders. A binder per class can hold your notes, handouts and your book can slide in it too. It keeps everything together and organized and, what every college student wants to hear, it’s cheaper. Binders are as cheap as $.99 and can be reused. Packs of loose leaf paper run for about the same cost and you’re not left with half empty notebooks. You can reuse the binders next semester and recycle the pointless “dance appreciation” notes that don’t relate to your major in any which way.

4. Post it notes.

I learned this from a high school teacher of mine and though I initially hated it, now I use it all the time. Textbooks are expensive, so most people borrow them or try to sell them after they’re done. Instead of writing notes on the margins of the textbook and decreasing their value, write it on a post it note and stick it in the book. At the end of the semester, all you have to do is rip them out. When you’re reading over your notes, you don’t have to look far for further information; it’s right in front of you.

5. Highlighters or different colored pens.

People weren’t lying about lecture notes. Your hand cramps. Your writing becomes less legible. You're left with 15 pages of monotonous notes. To ease the pain of looking back through them later, use different colored pens, or highlighters, to show the changing of topics. Use pink for vocab words, blue for theories and green for things the professor says “you’ll need to know this for the exam.” It makes reading through those 15 pages later just a little less painful.

6. Notecards.

Notecards are the easiest way to memorize things and prepare yourself for exams. It all goes back to elementary school, memorizing numbers, words and letters. You're reading this; obviously it worked. This carries on 10 years later. Buy a jumbo pack of notecards, you’ll use them.

7. A sturdy backpack.

“The cuter the better” doesn’t apply to backpacks in college. You need something sturdy to withhold the weight of three books, three binders, your lunch, a snack and water bottle to get you through the day. You’re not just walking from the bus to school anymore; there are no lockers. You will carry this backpack the size of an eight-year-old child with you all day. The more comfortable, the better.