kudos from kayla

1. A Great Planner

I got this adorable personalized planner from maydesigns.com This planner is small (only 5x8) so you can fit it in your bag with all of your other textbooks. Based on last year's experience, smaller is better for planners. When I had my laptop, binders, and textbooks in my bag the last thing I wanted to do was add another bulky item to carry.  

What I loved about this planner is how I could personalize everything about it. I picked my background (the navy blue flower pattern) and the color of my monogram. You also can pick the font for your monogram or if you'd like you can put your full name or just one initial. 

2. Color-code Everything

Okay, this is my binder from last year, so it's slightly dirty and I don't have a new purple notebook yet because I still have a few months until school, but you get the picture. I was able to keep each class binder organized because I easily knew which folder goes where and which notebook to grab when I started a late night study session. Instead of having a pile of 20 different colors and no obvious class pairings of notebooks, I would have probably grabbed the wrong notebook for a class at least once a week. 

3. Desk Organization

I think having my textbooks stare me down while I was in my dorm room really pressured me to study when I would much rather be watching my favorite TV show on Netflix, so I recommend keeping your binders and books in plain view so they guilt you too. My method was to buy this organizer from Office Depot. It holds all of my binders and textbooks. Each divider was a class and I was able to fit my binder and that class' textbook in each section. So, in the morning when I was packing my backpack, I would just grab one section and if the section was empty, I knew I had everything! I never once forgot a book or notebook by keeping organized this way. 

4. Schedule Free Time Wait, how does this help you academically? Well trust me, it does. When I finished all of my classes for the day I allowed myself to watch one episode of my favorite show before I would start my homework. Once I worked for over an hour, I would allow myself to watch another show, or at least part of one, if I needed a break. By taking time to de-stress, you will be able to tackle your assignments with a renewed spirit and you will most likely punch out better work than if you were sick and tired of school. 

5. Work and Then Play I always finished my homework earlier rather than later. About 90% of the time, I would have all of my assignments finished before I ate dinner and I loved having my schedule that way. I would have all of my evenings free to do whatever I wanted with them and I was able to have a good break at night from anything academic. If you get caught up in the afternoon with all of your tv show watching and other activities, you may have to pull a super late night because that one assignment you thought would take an hour actually took three. Also, some people are still in class in the afternoon, so not much is going on around campus until the evening anyways.   Now, obviously there are exceptions. For example, at IWU everyone goes to Teter Cafe (which opens at like 8pm) to do homework and socialize. So, if I was planning on that I would leave some assignments to do at night, but always a small amount.