Organization Log #4: BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

It's my favorite time of year! Back-to-school shopping is my favorite shopping. You get to see all these pretty things, and you don't even have to try them on before you buy them! It's just the best. And I only get to do this for two more years, so I have to make it count! 

I've always been really good at organizing myself for school, and at keeping up with it throughout the school year. So these are probably going to be my best organization tips out of any that I've done so far. I'm a pro at this, guys! Let's start with some supplies.

My go-to's are colorful pens and highlighters, a good planner, and sturdy notebooks. And really, I like all of these things to be colorful.

TIP #1: USE COLORFUL WRITING UTENSILS. This makes note taking so much fun, and you can separate your colored notes by subject or day and find them so easily. Check it out.

I change pen color every time we start a new chapter or subject in each class. I get so weirdly excited about looking at my beautiful notes. Now, when I'm taking notes in class I only use a yellow highlighter, because it shows up well on all of my colored pens. I highlight what seems important.

When I'm studying for an exam, I then look over my notes and rewrite the things I need to remember in black pen, then highlight things in different colors for different categories.

For example, in this class I used three different colors to denote which sections were from the professor's study guide, and which were from my notes or from the textbook. That way I could easily cross reference, and it also helped me rank which sections were most important (obviously the stuff from the study guide, as the professor gave it to us herself).

TIP #2: A GOOD PLANNER IS A MUST. I know a lot of people use their phones or email or whatever, but for me, I've always been about dat agenda. Physically writing a task down is associated with better recall of that task later (this goes for note taking too, for all you laptop note takers out there—you remember the info better if you write it down!).

I love the Lilly Pulitzer planner, which is very, ironically, sorority girl of me. But I have used every agenda out there ever. Seriously. Day runner, day planner, everything, and this is the only one I will be repurchasing. 

A good planner has several qualities. First of all, it needs pockets in the front in case you have something you need to stick in there quickly. Second, it needs both a monthly and a daily planner section. Third, it needs a notes section. This planner has all of those, with plenty of room for writing. 

I use paper clips to mark where I am in my notes, in my monthly planner, and in my daily planner (so three total). I also color code my events based on whether they are for class, for extra curriculars, for appointments, or social. August is looking pretty spare right now. Until we get to orientation week.

I used the multicolor highlighter trick here as well, to denote which orientation events are required vs. the events that were optional that I registered for. And it's so neat and easy to read! As for the notes section, I use that mostly for grocery lists, or any kind of list really. This year I've used it to make a packing list to move and to make a grad school application to-do list. I love having everything in one place!

On to notebooks. Are you a notebook or a binder user? I used binders throughout high school, but switched to notebooks in undergrad because I didn't want all the extra weight if I were going to be walking farther. 

TIP #3: USE REFILLABLE NOTEBOOKS. But notebooks are not reusable, right?

WRONG! Enter these beauties, which are by Five Star, and which I purchased THREE YEARS AGO, and they are still in perfect condition. They are sort of like a binder-notebook hybrid, and come in all sorts of fun colors (or black for you lame-oes out there). They are refillable, but much lighter than a binder. The downside is that they have no pockets, but you can buy insertable pockets for them! 

Weirdly enough, this is the best investment I have made, as my binders usually got so beat up in high school that I had to replace them every year anyway like I would have with a notebook. And the three-ring closures on these are rubber, so no more worrying about pinching your finger in those nasty metal ones. 

TIP #4: HAVE FUN WITH LABELING. With a binder, there was always the option to slide decorative paper in the front with cute hand lettering on there, but no such luck with notebooks. To label mine, I write the subject on printer paper in a metallic sharpie, then tape all four sides down. If I had easy access to cuter paper, I would totally make this more adorable. But it's still sorta cute, right?

TIP #5: USE REINFORCED NOTEBOOK PAPER. Maybe I'm just unnecessarily violent with my notes, but I swear there are always several pages that come completely out of the rings over the semester. And who wants to individually reinforce all three holes on each sheet of paper? No one. Luckily, someone threw a bone to the lazy people by inventing paper that is pre-reinforced. Score!

Let's move on to the desk area.

TIP #6 PART 1: SURROUND YOURSELF WITH FUNCTIONAL THINGS THAT KEEP YOU ON TASK... Here I have yet another calendar so that if my planner is in my backpack or whatever, I can still see at a glance what I have to do in the next few days. 

I also like this little plain whiteboard where I can hang inspirational quotes or jot down something I need to do later.

TIP #6 PART 2: BUT ALSO SOME THINGS THAT ARE JUST FUN. It's nice to be able to look over and see something that will put a smile on your face when you're in the middle of a not-so-fun study sesh. Enter bulletin boards!

I filled my bulletin boards with magazine and newspaper clippings, mementos, doodles, and ticket stubs. Each one of them has a memory attached to it that gives my poor tired brain a nice break from working. My favorite things on my bulletin boards is a comic that shows two adult Kool Aid pitchers having dinner looking proud while their baby Kool Aid runs around wrecking things. This makes me crack up every. Single. Time. 

I'm so excited to begin graduate school. It seems like it'll be really hard, but studying and staying organized is always something that I've been good at, and something that has helped me maintain good grades. Nothing is a substitute for good note taking and study skills, and I hope that some of my tips can help you improve yours if you're struggling, or inspire you to add to them if you're not.

This concludes my organization series! Thanks for sticking with me while I tried out something new :)