“He who does not get fun and enjoyment out of every day… needs to reorganize his life.”
― George M. Adams
Hello World. My name is Megan, and I am a mess. Literally. My day starts with tripping over boxes and clothes on the floor and continues into pushing trash out of my feet’s way in my car. I have a problem. I am behind on homework, studying, and my knitting. Which, speaking of knitting I have lost my expensive set of knitting needles and have accidentally stabbed myself in the toe with a sewing needle that was on the floor. I repeat: I am a MESS. So that is why I am starting this blog. My hope is to use this as an outlet to organize my life and my time to make room for myself, and still get everything done.
This started with a realization in my life that I need to turn things around, and a trip to Barnes & Noble. I went in search of books on organization and time management. Lo and Behold, there were none! Well, there were none that worked for what I needed. Every book I picked up talked about motherly things, like organizing your life around your kids schedule, and how to properly schedule meetings, and required all sorts of fancy things that I needed to buy (hello!! I am a broke, 19 year old college student! I can’t afford a shopping spree at Ikea!). This got me mad. Like, really mad. What I like to call mach ten Megan. And it got me determined. I would figure this out on my own, and hopefully in the end be able to help other broke 19 year old college students.
My decidedly first step in this journey is the necessary materials. The things I will be using are:
- My Planner (The absolute best planner, The Original Student Calendar)
- A journal (I work at Michael’s Arts & Crafts and every year around Christmas time we get super cute ones in for really cheap)
That’s it. You really do not even need these. I also use my Google Calendar, so you don’t need the planner, and I personally don’t care if your journal is twelve napkins stapled together. You just need something you can keep track of your goals and accomplishments in.
My next step was to plug everything into the calendar. I started with my Google calendar because I could easily do repeat events. For instance, I only had to type in Astronomy Fridays 2:30 to 5:15 once. You can also edit those perpetual events for one of the days. So even though I have my work shift on Sundays set for 7am to 11am, my shift is 6am to 2pm this week, and I can edit just this Sunday.
Plug everything into your Google Calendar. Seriously, everything. From work to school to parties to sleep, if it will help you. You don’t have to do it in one sitting. And I always include addresses in there. There is a handy little spot to put it, and because it is linked with my phone it will remind me beforehand and tell me how long it will take to get there with traffic (isn’t technology awesome??). Now I do not personally plug in my sleep schedule because that is not something I can plan, but if it helps, do it! Constantly update this calendar, because changing or adding one little thing a day will help you with staying ahead, not falling behind.
Next, work on your paper planner, if you decided to have one.
This is mine. I bought it at Barnes & Noble at the beginning of the semester (the last time I decided to be organized) and I love it. It has a time table to write out your semester schedule, a place to keep track of professor’s names, phone numbers, office hours, and when your exams will be. Then it has the normal monthly calendars. It has everything for up to three semesters, Fall, Spring, and Summer. The actual planner part is sectioned into three categories for each day: Appointments & Assignments, General Study, The Rest of Your Life.
Typically I use Appointments & Assignments for, well, appointments and assignments. When a paper is due, when a test is, etc.
Then for General study I put upcoming things, like study for Thursday’s Government Test, or Math homework due Wednesday.
In The Rest of Your Life is everything else. Work shifts, parties, craft things to work on, books to read, anything you want to remember to do.
You want to again, fill EVERYTHING in. This doesn’t need to be as detailed as Google. Well, okay. Choose which you will use more; Google vs. Paper. If you choose Google, make that one pristine and only put the bare minimum in the paper. If you choose paper, flip that statement. Or do both perfectly, more power to you! (but ain’t nobody got time for that).
Spend some real time on making your schedule comprehensive to yourself. Nobody else matters. Again, you do not have to do this all at once. Take a week to work on it, a month, I don’t care. You want it to be perfect, not rushed.
Next is the journal. This is not a diary, but a record of everything. I am going to try and write in it once a day, or at least once a week.
This is mine. I spent maybe $4. Its super cute because I love cartoony owls (Though cartoony foxes are better.)
There are only three things I have come up so far to write in it weekly.
- Goals
- What I have accomplished
- Daily schedule
Now, I did say this is not a diary, but you could use it as that too. Just make sure you clearly remember these two topics.
The first one, goals, is a running tally of what you want to accomplish. It does not mean what you want to accomplish that week. You can do one of those two, but this is the important one. That way at the beginning of the week when you write your next one you can look back and see what you accomplished, and what you need to carry to the next week. And it includes long and short term goals. Want to remember to do laundry? Put it on there. Want to catch up on math homework? Put it on there. Want to re-watch all seven season of the new Doctor Who? Put in on there. Try not to leave anything out except for the really quick tasks, like “throw this cup in my hand away.” Throw that cup away and focus on more important things.
At the end of the week, make your list of accomplishments. Write out all the things you got done on your list, and add in the ones you accomplished that weren’t on there. If you found out your grade went from a B to an A, out it there. This is not only a tally, but when you are feeling like you haven’t done anything right, look back on it and remember you have.
A big thing is to date everything. Everything page you write on. It will keep you on track and organized (that’s the whole point, right?).
The final is to make a daily schedule. The reason I do not put this in the planner is because I do a time table for it, which does not fit in well with the format. The reason I don’t do it in my Google Calendar is because it is volatile, and I find Google calendar is better for repeating events and pre-scheduled things.
Basically how I make my daily schedule is I write out what I have already planned that day, i.e classes and work. Then I plan what my time left is for studying, eating, cleaning, and hobbies. One thing to remember is that we as humans only have about 45 minutes of focus, after that we get distracted. I don’t trust myself to even that so I do half-hour intervals.
This is an example of my list for today:
Very simple, it keeps me on track though. It is Saturday, so no school, and I managed to get this day off work, though I don’t usually. So I have all day to work on the three main things I have to work on; studying, making about a hundred hand-sewn fox clips, and finishing this blog post. Then i divvy it up in half hour segments, then give myself an hour for cleaning and eating. If a half hour is too much, do fifteen minutes, or if you can handle more do forty five minutes to an hour.
I don’t always follow this down to the minute, and there are things like going to the bathroom, but this is a basic schedule. make it as simple or complex as you like!
This is my Part 1 to scheduling. I say part 1 because I will probably come back with more information as I get farther along in this journey into organizing my life.
Just remember, this is all about you, and finding your perfect path.
A Lazy Girl's Guide To Organizing Your College Life 