Written by Leigh Buchholz. Media by Kelsey Neier.
There are several areas that you can organize in your life. You can organize your school assignments, room, thoughts, activities, and anything else you might be able to think up. Some do not know how to effectively organize different areas, and while I am not a world class expert, or a professional closet organizer, I do know how to organize on a basic scale.
Your Schoolwork
So your schoolwork might need some organizing now that we are this far into the semester. An easy way of organizing is to just split everything into your different classes. The most common way to store everything is to have a separate notebook and folder for each of your classes, and make sure to label them. It might also prove helpful to have either a planner or a homework app to help you keep track of what is due and for what class. If this still does not help, Greenville College provides all students with free academic coaches. You meet with your academic coach once or twice a week for a half an hour to talk about classes and organization. If that takes up too much time, you can always contact the Student Success Center to talk to someone there about your organizational needs.
Your Room
An easy way to not lose anything, is to have a special place for it where you can always find it. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what goes where, so it might help to write down what you have in each area on a post it note and stick it to whatever is holding those items. Just until you know exactly where everything is. Keep things together that go together. So keep the dishes by the food, and keep the dish soap and sponge next to the dishes. Keep the laundry basket by the clothes and keep your notebooks and homework near or in your desk. That makes things just a tiny bit easier. It might be a good idea to get a couple storage units so that things are not piled on top of each other.
Your Thoughts
Normally, thoughts are not recognized as needing to be organized, but they do need the organization. Especially when you start freaking out about all the stuff you have to do or worry about things going on in other aspects of your life. It’s good to put these thoughts down on paper and organize them. If you are worrying about everything you have to do within the next few days, or even the next 24 hours, write it down and mark what needs the highest priority and what can live with the lowest priority. Then write out your schedule and fit everything into your day according to priority and time. Again, academic coaches and Student Success can help with this, or you can ask a friend to help. Make sure to leave a little bit of room in case something takes longer than planned. You can also make a To-Do list if that is easier for you. Just make sure you have enough time to complete them. If there are things that are worrying you in other aspects of your life, you can keep a journal for it. Write down your thoughts on everyday things or things that might be worrying you where you cannot be at the moment. If it is something that can be addressed to someone, you now have a firm idea of what your worry is. This can also help relieve you of your worry by simply taking the thought out of your head and writing it down. All of your thoughts are no longer cluttering your mind.
Your Activities
Your activities or events that happen from day to day need to be written down, especially so that you do not forget. Appointments, concerts, meetings, hanging out with friends, and work are just a couple of examples of this. Some students write down these events in their planner along with all their school work, which is perfectly fine if you can keep everything straight, but others need a separate planner or calendar to keep track of times and days for certain events or things in your life. Whenever anything is mentioned that fits into this category, write it down. It’s easier to keep track of things this way, and do not forget to check it every day as well.
