This post is all about how to stay organized in college.
One of the most important things to know as a student is how to stay organized in college.
Before you know it, social events, school work, exams, and your work schedule get the better of you and suddenly you feel like you have no control over your life! That’s never a fun feeling.
Being successful in college is more than just studying and going to class. It’s so important to learn the right strategies to stay organized in college that really work for YOU to take control of your daily schedule throughout your college years.
Whether you’re totally type A or struggle to stay organized, this post will have some actionable ideas you can apply to your life to become a more organized student!
This post is all about how to stay organized in college.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll earn a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Our full disclosure policy is pretty boring, but you can read it here.
HOW TO STAY ORGANIZED IN COLLEGE:
1. Have the right stationery supplies
Staying organized starts with having the right supplies!
Lots of your work in college will probably be online, but it’s still super helpful to have the right stationery supplies. Having things like sticky notes, a paper planner, a couple notebooks, and some good pens and pencils on hand will make sure you have all the basics when it comes to study materials.
I’m linking the TOP stationery supplies I recommend here!
If you want a checklist of the supplies you might need, check out this post on essential stationery supplies for college!
2. Use templates for everything
Why figure out how to do something yourself when someone has already paved the way for you??
My big thing on this blog is helping you improve your life and your time management skills, so I have a BUNCH of college templates designed to help you stay organized in many aspects of your life!!
When it comes to things like budget planning, packing for college, setting goals, and cleaning your apartment, these are all things that can be made easier and more organized by using templates.
We have free templates for all the things mentioned above!! Just click the image below to download all of them at once.
3. Use a planner
As a type A girl, I really feel like a planner is a non-negotiable in college.
Being really organized isn’t just about having a planner, but actually using it effectively. Making a habit of using a planner is one of the best ways to stay organized in college because it gives you a central place to keep track of all your due dates, events, and to-do lists.
Here’s how I organize my college planner. I could not survive school without it!
You can get a physical planner or even a digital planner for your iPad/tablet! At the very least, planners are a great way to keep track of due dates, your social life, extracurricular activities, and the other million things you have going on throughout your college experience.
4. Have a place for everything
College living often means living in tight spaces like a small apartment or dorm room. That makes it 10x more important to have a place for everything, because otherwise your room can quickly turn into a mess!
Even if “having a place for everything” means that you keep your laptop in your backpack under your desk, or always leaving your keys on your bedside table, it’s still better than leaving the important things in a different place every day.
Having a place to put everything means you’ll waste less time looking for the stuff you need, and you’ll find it much easier to maintain good habits like keeping your space tidy.
This goes a long way for your mental health and even your time management!
Plus, maintaining this habit will also help you keep a more organized study space which makes a huge difference!
5. Use a digital calendar & automate it
One of the best ways to learn how to schedule out each week is to put all your classes on a Google Calendar (or any other digital calendar) and set up the automations so that it repeats weekly.
Here’s an example of what a week in my real college calendar looks like this semester. These are all the weekly classes & meetings I have set up.
Having these recurring classes already in my calendar each week makes it way easier and faster to plan around those events and frees me up to put my mental energy towards assignments and other aspects of each day that I need to accomplish.
Here’s a video that goes through how I set up my Google calendar to keep it super organized!
6. Label your files well
You might not think of it, but knowing how to label your files well is really important when it comes to how to stay organized for school.
College life is so much easier when you have your files all labeled really intuitively. That way, you’re not wasting time looking for an assignment or notes from a certain class, having no idea what you labeled it.
Here’s a post that goes through how I organize my digital files in college (see tip #7 on the post).
My biggest tip?
DO NOT label a file with just the date that you created it!
It blows my mind that so many people do this. When you want to go back and find a certain set of notes or a particular assignment, you probably won’t remember what day it was when you created the file.
It’s also not helpful to give your files super broad names like “Essay” or “Research Paper” either. If you have multiple classes, it’s going to be hard to determine which file is which if you’re giving them all such broad names.
Instead, follow these steps (see tip #7 on this linked post) when you’re naming files to stay way more organized.
7. What’s in your bag?
It’s crazy how quickly your backpack can get cluttered!
One of the best tips on how to stay organized is to periodically check your backpack to see if you’re collecting items that you really don’t need to be carrying around everywhere.
Only carry the essentials with you so that it’s always easy to find the things you need!
It can also be helpful to do a full backpack cleanout at the beginning of the semester. Make sure you don’t have random little papers, sticky notes, lip gloss, or pens shoved in the bottom of your bag that you forgot about (that always happens to me).
RELATED – Top 10 College Essentials This Year (According to YOU!)
8. Plan each week
One of the most reliable tips on how to stay organized in college is to take 20-30 minutes at the beginning of each week to plan out your week.
Whether this means filling up your digital calendar or whether it just means taking a look at what due dates you have coming up, the point is just to do something that will help you mentally prepare for the week ahead and get laser-focused.
9. Clean up every day
This might sound overwhelming, but hear me out.
Staying organized at school means knowing how to stay organized at home. Giving your room or apartment a quick clean every day is actually a lot more manageable than you might think, and goes a long way.
Work a 5-15 minute clean-up into your daily routine. Spend this time just putting things back where they belong, sweeping, or de-cluttering. You’d be surprised how far a few minutes can go! Having a clean, organized living space is such a good habit that will make you feel better overall.
RELATED – How to Keep a Clean Apartment (Easy & Low-Effort!)
10. Make a weekly to-do list
Rather than just thinking about daily to-do lists, having a weekly to-do list is also a good idea.
This is one of the simplest tips on how to stay organized in school, but it’s so effective.
I always have a running weekly to-do list of things I need to get done, whether school-related, work-related, or anything else. You can add this to-do list to your calendar app, planner, or any note-taking apps.
Having this ongoing weekly to-do list is great because it means you can just find one or two things per day that you need to get done and check them off. It really helps you gain a sense of accomplishment, stay focused, and not forget about anything!
11. Use the note taking method that makes the most sense to you
When it comes to staying organized, you have to know how you work best.
Not everyone works or learns in the same way. So, when it comes to keeping your schoolwork organized, find a note-taking method that works best for you and then stick to that.
Here’s a post on the best note taking methods for college. Try out a few and then stick with what helps you learn and keeps you organized!
12. Keep sticky notes nearby
This is one of the EASIEST college organization tips out there.
I always keep a stack of sticky notes on my desk, and these can be used for a variety of things.
Have a random thought that I need to remember? Put it on a sticky note.
Need to bookmark a textbook page? Use a sticky note.
Making a new password I need to remember? Sticky note.
They come in handy for sooo many different purposes, so always having sticky notes in reach on my desk really makes all the difference.
13. Keep your inbox clean
I’ll be the first to confess that I used to let my inbox get so cluttered when I was busy.
A lot of us have the bad habit of letting emails pile up. Thankfully, I’m a lot better at this now so I know how much of a difference it makes! Having a clean inbox equals less stress and means you won’t accidentally overlook an important email.
Unsubscribe from promotional email lists you don’t actually open, mark emails you need to respond to, mark emails as ‘read’ that you don’t need to respond to, move spam to your junk folder (or delete it), and just keep on top of opening the ones that are actually important.
14. Plan at the beginning of each semester
Finding ways to stay organized throughout any college semester is so much easier when you’ve actually spent time planning out your semester.
At the beginning of each term, just spend an hour penciling due dates into your planner, color coding classes, and writing down other important events or to-do’s.
This will make it so much easier to keep track of everything when your semester gets super busy!
Here’s a thorough list of exactly how to prepare for each new semester.
15. Color code
Color coding isn’t everyone’s favorite thing, but I think making things easier to understand visually actually makes such a big difference.
This doesn’t have to take long or be really complicated. Simply color coding your planner by course with highlighters, or color coding your digital calendar based on what type of class or event is happening, will make such a big difference in how easy it is to keep track of everything.
You can also color code your daily tasks by highlighting the 3 most important tasks in a certain color and highlighting small tasks in a different color. It’s a really easy organizational system that only takes two minutes but helps you with better prioritization and effective time management.
16. Be intentional about organizing your desk
One small but mighty key to academic success is having an organized and functional desk. It’ll help you stay more focused in your study sessions and just make you feel better overall.
Even if you have the smallest desk ever (I sure did in my freshman year), there are simple ways you can organize a small desk to keep it tidy throughout the school year.
I’m linking some small desk organization tools I recommend, but you can also check out this post on how to organize a small desk!
17. Take things week by week
Last but not least, knowing how to stay organized at school starts with just going one step at a time.
Always focus on what’s in front of you and live in the present as much as possible. Yes, we need to plan for what’s coming up (especially in college when you always have due dates), but take it week by week and just focus on what you can do today and this week specifically.
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