Are there goals you鈥檇 like to achieve this year 鈥 perhaps in your studies, extracurriculars, or social life? Lucky for you, our resident GIE blogger Bella has some seriously useful organisational tools to help you keep your eye on the prize (whatever that may be!) whilst keeping some balance in your life.
鈥淥rganising isn鈥檛 about being 鈥榯idy鈥 or throwing stuff away. It鈥檚 about creating systems that provide access to the things we need to achieve our goals鈥.
- Julie Morgenstern
This quote resonates with me because whilst I鈥檇 count myself as relatively organised, I am definitely NOT tidy (you don鈥檛 even want to聽imagine聽my room!). Being organised is really about allowing yourself sufficient time to do the things you聽need聽to do (e.g.: homework, work, music practise) so that you can do all the things you聽want聽to do (e.g.: build a robot, sports training, learning additional subject content). Here are some of my favourite tools to keep you on track!
1. Calendar
Calendars are a great 鈥榖ird鈥檚 eye view鈥 of the big and important events in your life like birthdays, exams or sports finals. I love paper calendars, mainly for the aesthetic and because I鈥檓 a stationary fiend. BUT...if you prefer online resources, then Google calendar is a great website which links in with other apps and devices. Your laptop and phone probably also have an app which you can use. The benefit of an online calendar is that it has a lot of space so you can also use it as a daily diary. Plus, there are some great sharing features so you can link in with your family.
2. Diary
Your school probably gives you a diary and, if you鈥檙e anything like me, you would have chucked it out promptly after receiving it. Well...this year I challenge you actually use your school diary (or get a pretty one from a stationary shop). Unlike a calendar, a diary has enough room for you to write down every event, due date or social plan you have. Whether it鈥檚 a GIE coding workshop or a weekend soccer skills program, keeping your diary up to date is super important and will be a habit which serves you for life. Online calendars can also work as a diary as you can add as many events as you want! Your school might have an online software like Google classroom which has an inbuilt calendar/diary function.
Here is what a week in my diary would look like:
3. Weekly planner
Unlike a diary, my weekly planner includes the things I do weekly like lecture times, group meetings and exercise. It鈥檚 good to have an easily accessible visual which you can check each day to make sure you remember to pack your trumpet聽and聽soccer boots for school the next day. In high school, I made one at the start of each term and pinned it up in my room and kitchen to make sure I remembered everything (and that my parents didn鈥檛 forget to pick me up!)
I also like to include my designated study times in my weekly planner. Before each week, I think of all the textbook questions, pre-labs and tutorial preparation I have to do and schedule time to do all of them. I find this helpful as it can be overwhelming when you sit down and have a seemingly endless mountain of study to do.
There are lots of cute stationary versions available from most stores or you can easily make an online template in Word or Excel and print it out. If you prefer online resources and are happy to update it each week, then I鈥檇 recommend聽My Study Life.
4. To-Do list
If you use only one thing on this list, make it a to-do list! To-do lists are the easiest way to keep track of urgent tasks. I write a to-do list every week and divide it into sections: 鈥淯ni鈥 (where I note the assignments and tutorial questions I have to do), 鈥淟ife鈥 (for things like booking a dentist鈥檚 appointment) and 鈥淐o-Curricular鈥 ( weekly tasks for the clubs, societies and work I am involved in). Design your list in whatever format works best for you. There are lots of online websites or apps, or you can use a humble notebook. The benefit of online services, such as聽罢辞诲辞颈蝉迟,听isthat you can colour code and prioritise tasks according to dates.
5. Document for future ideas
This is more of a long-term strategy to ensure you do things which are important to you but might not have time for at the moment. Rather than clogging up your actual to-do list, I鈥檇 advise having a separate notebook or word document where you write down things you want to do in the future. For example, mine looks a bit like this at the moment:
- Do a pottery class
- Cull uni photos
- Grow moss on a wall? (= green wall!)
- Make a plan for studying abroad
You'll notice it鈥檚 a mix of practical things which I want to do when I have time, and weird ideas. I think it鈥檚 very important to have a list like this so that you don鈥檛 forget your quirky ideas or future goals, whatever they may be!
Combining the tools
As you can probably see, most of these organisational methods don鈥檛 work in isolation, and how you combine them is entirely up to you. You might despise keeping a weekly planner and prefer to keep everything on one to-do list. I would suggest starting with 1-2 organisational techniques and figure out what works for you. Before you know it, you鈥檒l be ticking off those goals you made at the start of the year!