A friend of mine asked me how I survived college with a full load of courses and three jobs, while still managing to attend some campus clubs and volunteer. Not all of my methods will work for everyone, because I am a mildly-insane organization freak.
But in the hope that maybe a few of the tips in these entries can help another floundering undergraduate, I thought I’d share!
My first tip: Get a calendar and use it.
Some people like hardbound calendars. Some like dry erase boards. Some like combinations thereof.
I like Outlook’s calendar.
I always used to set aside an hour or two in the beginning of the semester to upload all my class days and hours and all the homework information from my syllabi. I color coded my classes so it was easy to see at a glance what was going on where. I set the calendar to remind me a day in advance for quizzes. Whenever I had a test or an essay, I put daily reminders a week in advance so nothing could take me by surprise. For really big projects, I’d go back two or three weeks and make a note to “start project,” be “midway through project,” or “finish project.”
This also allowed me to see my cray-cray weeks way in advance. If I saw that I had two tests and an essay due on the same week, I’d put it on my calendar to finish the essay on the less-crazy week beforehand.
Once my classes were in, I put in my work schedule. Because my hours were split a million ways, I also had each job color-coded. I made sure to note any big work projects, interviews, or work-related anything that would be happening on my own time. If I had any deadlines (get a draft to my supervisor, get the proofs to the printer) I also made sure I had reminders in place so I wouldn’t forget.
THEN I put in social time. Bible studies, club meetings, coffee with a friend–as soon as I knew when it was happening, I put it in. Normally I had this all a generic color. I knew that when push came to shove, these were the things I could cut first. See a screencap of a typical week here.
It sounds a bit overwhelming, but it taught me to value my time and value others. It is incredibly frustrating when students run late or (heaven forbid) forget a meeting. Having been stood-up on several occasions when I did not have time to spare, I learned how important it is to be responsible. This really helped me make sure nothing got through the cracks on my part.
Every Sunday, I would look ahead at my week. Then every day I looked at my calendar at LEAST once to double check I knew what needed to happen in the next 48 hours.
You can have Outlook forward to a gmail account, so that your calendar appears on your phone and you get little reminders throughout the day.
Do you have some crazy calendar methods? Share ‘em!
Other tips: Keep a ListRest Intentionally/Work in Bursts and Do the Occasional Crazy Thing.
