Back-to-School Organizational Tips and Tricks

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my lack of posting recently! August was a SUPER busy month and I've been running in a million different directions.

One of the biggest things for me this month was starting my SENIOR year of college. In less than a year, I will be a registered nurse and I can't wait! All of the late nights studying, early mornings driving to clinical, and lots of stress will soon be worth it.

One of the hardest things about going back to school for me was getting into the swing of things. I'm trying to get out of my "summer state of mind" and get back to reality! In my years of schooling so far, I have picked up a couple great ways to help me stay organized, focused and productive. I'm going to share and I would LOVE it if you would comment and post any tips and tricks you've learned along the way as well.

1. Get a planner and fill it out ASAP. It's super hard to stay organized if you don't know your schedule and what you have planned. Somebody once told me "if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail" and I couldn't agree more! It helps me to color-coordinate my planner with highlighters. This makes it super easy to see "at a glance" what my week looks like. For example, pink means "payday", yellow means "class" or "clinical", purple means "to read, do, or study before class", etc.

2. It helps me to keep all of my classes together in one binder. This may be harder if you have a full class load, but this semester it worked out well for me. I keep everything together in my binder so all of the information, handouts, and notes that I have are all together and in one place. You'll also notice that I threw some extra post-it tabs in mine so I can quickly find my class syllabus, schedule and clinical instructions. 

3. Read before class and stay on top of the information you are responsible for! This is probably the hardest because reading textbooks can take SO much time. I put post-its throughout my textbook with the dates marked on each post-it that indicates when the chapter has to be read by. I also change colors for each week of class. For example, this week I have to read every chapter with a yellow post-it and next week's readings are marked with blue post-its.

I find that when I get all of my readings done before class, I can understand more of what is talked about during lecture. This allows me to ask appropriate questions and get involved in discussion. During my reading, I make notes of what I don't understand as well and make sure to either ask questions after lecture about it or listen closely during lecture while the professor is talking about that specific topic.

Whether your just starting out college or just finishing like I am, I hope these can help you be successful this summer! Again, please share any ideas, tips and tricks that you may have. Thanks :)