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Effective self-organization

Stay organized. Students prone to procrastination will find this article useful.

I hope you — the reader — do not have problems with self-organization. But chances are most students do have them. In an active student life, with so much assignments, deadlines, and maybe work, it may be difficult to catch up with all that, which may result in missed deadlines, tardies, financial problems at work, and many more. So, as you might have guessed already, this time I want to provide some hints on effective self-organization.

Determine whether you are organized or not

Just ask yourself these simple questions:

During the past two weeks…

1. were you at least once late for an appointment or class?
2. did you at least once return home (just after leaving), because you left something?
3. did you at least once forget to contact a person (by phone, email, or in private)?

If you have more than one ‘yes’ answers, then oops, you should work on self-organization.

Tips for effective self-organization

First, remember that we are all humans; only those who do nothing don’t make mistakes. Please understand, that changing your way of life might be challenging, so do not give up and be ready.

1. Don’t overestimate your memory. I understand that there are many of you who truly have good memory, but still. We absorb tons (of megabytes) of information daily, and our brain simply cannot guarantee that it would still remember what we wanted, regardless of our desire. So, the simple and effective solution is to have a notepad and a pencil with you at all times. Again, do not overestimate your memory. Your brain is well enough tired everyday; so help it with a note. When you take it with you several times, you would understand its use. Believe me, you will be surprised by the quantity of notes after a while. You would not even remember when or how you wrote them. Make sure you have appointments and deadlines there marked heavily. And don’t be affraid to write down in the public, it is OK to be organized!

2. For those who prefer a digital organizer, simply do everything stated above, only with the help of that digital device. It is even more convenient, because it has alarm built in, and other gadgets like calculator, clock, etc.

3. Now, the most important step. Have a to-do list for everyday. If you have a digital version (in your pocket organizer), make sure you have it in the startup screen. To-do lists are very important, because they clearly state your ‘mission’ for a day. Desktop to-do lists are not very useful, because you reach them only when you actually sit in front of your PC (or MAC). I understand that many of you spend half your time like this, but still you eat, meet people, and go to classes, and you usually do not stare at the screen at that time (still I dare suggest some of you do).

4. Extend your to-do list to a weekly plan. Do not be affraid to become a ‘robot’; it is normal for a businessperson to plan his/her week in advance.

Although at first you may feel uncomfortable, but you would get used to the system in several days (or weeks). You would enjoy arriving on time at classes or appointments and meeting your deadlines. I would not list all positive effects of self-organization, but I would simply state that you would feel the life changing for the better when you are self-organized…