Organization

With finals coming up in a couple of weeks, I thought I would write a post about organization. This is one of the best skills that a college student can master as an undergraduate. With academics, work, athletics, school involvement and a social life there just is not time to lose track of what you are doing. With this, I am going to suggest some helpful organizational tips along with a few websites that I find useful.

1. Write EVERYTHING down
If your professor or boss assigns you something, then you better have a pencil ready to jot it down. These are the people who will be writing recommendation for you in the future and you want to make sure you are doing everything to earn their respect. Not to mention, forgetting about an assignment is the easiest way to drop down your grade by a whole letter.

2. Schedule your day
Does this mean having a planner always in your bag and ready to go? No. This means having an idea of when you have class, work, practice, etc. The easiest way for me to do this is in my email calendar. This allows me to schedule class time, work, practice and socializing with friends. Without this tool, I would be constantly double booking my time as well as overbooking inconvenient times such as the day before a test. This also allows you to figure out which times should be dedicated to studying, cooking dinner, and cleaning.

3. Have a task list
This is actually one of those mundane things that would make my life a whole lot easier, but I just don't utilize enough. A task list allows you to check off things that have been completed as well as reprioritize during a time crunch. Also, it is so much more fulfilling to cross off a daunting task then just moving on to the next thing.

4. Fashion
How can you be fashionably organized? Well, the closet is a great place to start. People don't realize how much time they waste each day just by getting dressed. If your closet is organized enough to be able to pick out which outfit to wear in under five minutes then you could probably teach me a few things! However, most closets that I have seen are a complete mess. If you organize your clothing into sections based on the style that you would wear them then that will save you some time, such as by career, party, and casual. This will save you time from shifting through all of the stuff that is definitely not appropriate for class.

Websites to keep you organized:
Soshiku
Soshiku  is a must have for any stressed out college student. I just came across it this past week and it has been a life saver in one of my busiest weeks this term. A free sign up allows you to load five courses at a time and manage assignments and break them down by task. It will send email and/or text message reminders for assignments so you will never forget about one again! This will be an amazing tool for next year when I am working on my senior research project and have too many tasks to keep straight in my head.

FellowUp
Fellow Up is a website that allows you to manage your linkedin, facebook, and email all in the same place. It will give you reminders about people's birthdays and special events so it will be easier to maintain network connections as well as reduce the number of websites you need to check at a time.

RefWorks
Ref Works is great if you are doing a term paper or something that has a lot of references. It will save each reference with the information that you ask it to and can format it to fit the requirements for your format. The only downside is that there is not a free signup. However, contact your school librarian and he or she may be able to help you set one up.

Are there any methods or websites that you use to stay organized?