Whether you’re a parent or a student, organizing your life and tasks is a must to stay on track and ensure you’re accomplishing everything you need to. As a student, I have found that having a physical agenda is the most effective way to plan! In this post, I’ll share with you my go to tips and tricks when it comes to remaining organized and productive during the most hectic months of the year: the school year.
Tip 1 – Choose a planner with a layout that works for YOU: Everyone is different, but for me, I find importance in choosing planners that have both weekly and monthly spreads. The monthly spread provides me with an overview of all my due dates, events and meetings allowing me to visually see all my big goals for the month. For the weekly spread, I use checklists and to-do lists to plan my day-to-day with the intention of hitting those “bigger picture” monthly goals.
Tip 2 – Colour coordinate: Associating a specific colour to a specific school subject/course on my monthly spread was a game changer for me. It provides a clearer picture of what needs to be done just by a quick glance. If you aren’t in school, you can still do this with other tasks that come up often in your agenda. For instance, you can associate colours to meetings, appointments, activities, children, holidays, etc.
Tip 3 – Use sticky notes: For events that are not set in stone, I write them on a sticky note. Once they are confirmed, I transfer them permanently into my planner. I love this hack because it ensures that I’ll never have to cross things out (nobody likes a messy agenda, right?)
Tip 4 – Make a schedule: Schedule the invariable events in your life. On my schedule, I have all my individual classes, my part-time work hours and my dance classes. I paste this schedule on the front of my agenda, and it helps me plan and fit in any social events or time for schoolwork.
Those are some tips I use daily, especially during the school year, to ensure I don’t miss any deadlines or events!
If you love planning like I do, you may be interested in some of my essentials when it comes to planning! Here they are:
Pens
Black pen: Faber-Castell PITT Black artist pen
Blue pen: BIC Fine tip blue pen
Highlighters
Paper Mate narrow chisel highlighters (pack of 6)
Sticky Notes
“Post-it” sticky notes in an array of colours, shapes and sizes
With all these new tips and tricks, let’s plan for the best season of all: back to school!
– Melissa Migueis