For many students, being organized can be hard to control. The stress of schoolwork, sports, or extracurriculars can often lead to rushed assignments and lazy work. While there are many methods to try and tackle this problem, one of the best ways to become organized is by using a planner.
Before high school, I had never used a planner. My classes were easy to manage, and I wasn’t busy outside of school. When I entered 9th grade, however, my academic life shifted greatly. New opportunities for clubs and activities were offered, all while my school work became more rigorous. This made life challenging, and balancing the different components of my life was becoming difficult. After the first quarter, I decided to buy my first planner. Because of it, my organizational habits changed forever. In this blog, I will give you tips and advice on how to use a planner effectively.
1. Choose the right planner + planning format
An important step is to figure out what kind of planner you prefer, as well as what format of planning you want to use. In today’s world, there are a variety of different planner options - you can use a computer, cell phone, or a notebook to jot down your schedule. Some people prefer a physical copy rather than a digital one, and for others, it’s vice versa. It is up to you to determine what works best.
Once you find a planner that works for you, you will want to determine how to format your schedule. There are 2 main formats of planning and are as follows:
Weekly/Monthly planning: This is a calendar-like spread that has space to plan for each day of the week, usually fit on 2 pages. It is ideal if you want to be able to see your commitments at a glance, and is a place where you can easily see when you are busy.
Daily planning: This format consists of having one page of planning dedicated to every day. It can be useful if you want to lay out daily tasks or reminders and is commonly used by people who have busy schedules or have long to-do lists on a daily basis.
Again, it is up to you to find which format most fits your lifestyle and schedule. Though those 2 formats are the most commonly used, there are a variety of different ways that you can adjust it to their liking.
2. Get in a routine and be consistent
This step is important not only for planning but for many aspects of your life as well. On average, it takes several months for a habit to develop so having a planning routine and being loyal to the routine is crucial. To accomplish this, set aside a specific time of the day/week to plan, and continue to do it every day/week. Eventually, it will become second nature.
3. Find other techniques
There are many useful ways to enhance your organization even further. For example, colour coding is commonly used if one’s schedule is busy or looks cluttered. It helps differentiate different tasks at a glance and can be very useful. Overall, there are endless strategies to use when refining your planner, and there are tons of resources, especially on the internet, that can inspire you.
Overall, using a planner is a great way to improve your lifestyle. Whether you decide to use a planner or not, I hope that this blog showed you how easy and effective it is to plan out your schedule. Hopefully, you can take some of these tips and use it to improve your organizational habits. Happy planning!
Gabriella Ignacio is a grade 10 student attending Newport Highschool in Bellevue, Washington. Her favourite subjects are Math, Science, and Visual arts. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in engineering.
Comments