How To Get Organized for a New Term

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season, I know I did. My break was full of sleeping, eating, and lots of extra doggy time.Since most people are headed back to school/already at school now,  I wanted to share some tips on how I organize myself for a new term/semester. Personally, I am at a school that runs on a quarter system, so my post will be geared towards a 10 week grading period, but I'm sure you can adjust it to your own liking.

Printable Schedule Using Microsoft Word

Okay, so my school gives me the option to look at my scheduled online by week/time and print it out through our online services, which is pretty handy, however it looks absolutely horrid.

NO COLOR COORDINATION?! This is unacceptable. I will commend my school for making it easier to understand than the fall term layout, but still I prefer something a little bit more... cohesive.

Like this! Much easier to understand with the colors and table design (plain table 5). You could get fancy and change your fonts and stuff, but I like to think Microsoft knows that they are doing with the default font. You can modify your times column depending on what times your classes end/start. Some of my classes start/end at a funky time, like Writing 121 at 8:30, so I just wrote in parenthesis next to it the exact time it started (8:30) and ended (9:50). I also like to differentiate whether I'm going to a lab or a lecture, like in my Sustainability class, I wrote LAB next to, obviously, the lab. The only problem with this schedule is that I don't have any of my class locations written down!

 Fixed! For this schedule I just used 4x6 plain table 1 and modified each of the box sizes to what I needed them to be and added some rows in the 2nd ,3rd, and 4th columns. It's okay if it's not perfect at first, just play around with them a little until you get yours to your own liking. I also made the lines in between each day a bit thicker so it was easier to visualize one day at a time. I did not put my classroom numbers on this table because I don't want anyone stalking me around campus, however you should put them in your own schedule for sure! This schedule is my personal favorite, my roommate even made one for herself this term and we both keep them taped above our desks so we know each others whereabouts/schedules.  You can refer to Lauren's post about roommate 101 for further tips on roommate coordination.

Microsoft OneNote

One of the most important tools I used my first term in college. If you have a copy of Microsoft Office 365, I highly recommend taking advantage of this tool. I created a "notebook" for each of my classes (color coordinated to my schedule), and with in each of there notebooks created sections for the syllabus,weeks, and projects, and within each of those sections you can create more pages.This program is perfect for anyone who finds the simple joy in things that are mega-organized (me), or for someone who needs help imporving their organizations skills. I also went bascially paperless after using OneNote!

 I will say that you don't need to make a notebook for every class, I didn't make one for my Physical Activity Course (Ballet) because there was no notes, or online information that was needed. But they were extremely useful in classes that posted a lot their information onto blackboard, for example my Communications course:

Most classes will post a syllabus online, as well as hand one out in class. I always came to class prepared with a copy of the syllabus in my notebook on OneNote on my laptop. I would either directly copy and paste the document from Microsoft Word directly onto a new page, or print the document into OneNote. To print a document into your notebook ,simply go about printing the document like you would on a printer, but when it comes time to choose a printer, select "Send to OneNote" and it should then ask where in OneNote you would like it to be printed.

I would do this for lecture slides as well. This cut my note taking down immensely, allowing my to have access to the information presented without having to scramble to write it down before the slide changed, and instead concentrate on the information being presented and taking notes on the information not written down on the slides. My laptop is the lenovo yoga, so it is a tablet/laptop and I took note with a stylus on top of the slides, but typing them out is just as helpful. You can also use highlighters to mark stuff that is super important. Like here:

Ignore my messy handwriting please.

Et Cetera

Make sure you buy your books (I recommend used if you can get them), find out when all your finals are, and drink lots of water! Oh, yeah and don't forget to mix in a little fun with all of that studying, okay? Hope y'all have a great first few weeks of your term/semester!

XOXO
Natalie