Recommendation - Staying organised at university

So, bucket list goal number #105 is to Graduate University and although I am not yet finished and cannot tick this "little" number off my list of achievements, I am going into my final year and so far there is quite a lot I have learnt about being and staying productive, organised and prepared. My first few years of university have been slightly muddled and incoherent. I struggled with organisation which meant that files were everywhere and I could hardly ever find my papers and my notes. My grades were also all over the place due to not showing up to lectures, or preparing for classes, or doing any of the set reading to be honest. So I've decided to make my final year at university, not only easier for myself, but more productive and better organised. And this is how I have planned to do so.

Reading

First of all, my classes start in the last week of September that means that I have an entire month to get started on my reading. The last few years I either refused to read, or I would read the most limited amount as I possibly could get away with, then when time came to write my essays I'd be rushing through all the reading in order to understand the information. As a Philosophy and English Literature student I have to read several philosophical essays, and an entire novel each week, so as you can imagine, I literally scrapped the barrel in terms of knowledge and understanding. So what I've done is I've made an extensive list of all my required reading for Semester A and every day I've been reading either one Philosophical Essay (which is usually no longer than 30 pages long), or I read a few pages of one of the required novels. This allows me not only to be prepared and aware of the sort of things that will be discussed during lectures and seminars, but also, it means that I don't have to stress myself out by attempting to catch up once classes do start up again.

As well as reading, I've also been taking notes of the things I have been reading about. I spent several weeks a while back looking through Pinterest and Blogs trying to inform myself about how other people tend to keep their reading notes and I came up with my own template which you guys are free to download and print if you so wish.

This way once classes start I won't have to re-read the entire texts again I can just glance back over my notes and all the important information is right there. If I do need to refer to the text then there is a section for page numbers so I can go back into the book and easily find the quote for the corresponding note.

Something else I do when reading which I find quite useful is keeping a colour code system in terms of highlighting, the colour system remains the same whether highlighting books, articles, journals, essays, or class notes. You can come up with a system that works for you, but for inspirational purposes this is my Highlighting Key which I legit use for EVERYTHING.

Essay Planning

Another thing which I have always really sucked at is keeping up with all my essays, there were times where I wasn''t even aware that essays were due, and would only become informed a few days prior to hand-in dates, this caused me stress and is also one of the many reasons for my average grades. However, I decided, back at the start of summer, that I was going to make my final year as stress free and non-chaotic as I possibly could. So, I have prepared for myself (again with some guidance from the great interwebs) is an Essay Plan sheet, an Essay Checklist sheet, and an Essay Planner sheet, which you are also more than welcome to download (links below).

Essay Plan

Quite self explanatory, this sheet will help me stay planned and focused. I can lay out a simple and easy plan and structure for any essays I need to write, and once my plan is complete I can use it as a sort of reference, or guide when beginning my assignment. The good thing about this sheet is that I can print it off as many times as I need and then use some for drafting, and then another for my final essay piece. Also, the Writing Schedule table is useful as it helps me not only stay organised, but also helps remind me as to whereabouts I'm at in terms of essay writing.

Download: Essay Plan

Essay Checklist

Similar to the Essay Plan, an Essay Checklist helps keep track of your essay progress, the only difference is that its more generalised and it does not help you to structure your essay. It merely is a reminder for anything you may have forgotten to do, it's a useful tool to check over before you hand in your essay to make sure you have not forgotten anything.

Download: Essay Checklist

Essay Planner

I find this one EXTREMELY useful, as long as I remember to look through this sheet regularly I don't think I'll ever be behind on an Essay ever again. It's simple and easy to use. It's clear, not too chaotic like a lot of my class notes. And most importantly it has the WHAT and the WHEN, if one keeps this information in due date order, then it is simple to see which essay is due next, and once that one is done you can tick it off and move on to the next one.

Download: Essay Planner

Note Taking

I've been doing quite a bit of reading as to how not only other people take notes, but which form of note taking seems to be the most useful, productive, organised and that actually works. So I kind of soaked up and gathered a variety of different methods people tend to use and created my own little template. I made two version of this; the first is short and sweet which is for classes that I know won't require me making too many notes, and the other version is more extensive which is for classes that require more detail and information. Something else I picked up from reading about the best ways in which to take notes during lectures and seminars is that if your Tutor or Lecturer uses lecture slides during class and you have access to those slides, then there is no point in copying information from it, what you should be writing down and making notes of is the extra information that the lectures discuss and explain.

Download: Short & Sweet Notes sheet

Download: Extensive Notes sheet

Staying Organised

Finally, how will I be planning to keep all these things organised? I have come up with my own little personal system in order to keep EVERYTHING in one place (feel free to do the same thing or to come up with a system of your own that works for you). First of all, I have designated 3 different folder files, one for each of my classes, I have one Major (Philosophy) and two Minors (English Literature & Creative Writing) hence the three folders. Within each folder I have 1 Essay Planner (stuck on to the inside cover of the folder), 4 Essay Plans, 2 Essay Checklists, all of my lecture and seminar notes (for the corresponding class), a sheet for important definitions and terms that I need to learn, and a list of topics I need to study. I also have a separate file where I keep all my philosophical papers and reading notes. These four folder files are kept within an open box file, this way everything remains all in one place, but when it comes to studying or essay writing I just grab the folder that I need.

A lot of people tend to use all sorts of other systems in order to stay organised, whether it's using binders with indexed dividers, organisational folders, or document wallets. Some people just keep everything in one notebook, even extra pieces of paper, which works for them but I'm clumsy and absent-minded and easily lose things, so that form of "organisation" does not work for me and I learnt that in my very first year at university. Personally I prefer to use separate folders because they are lighter, easier to carry, and makes it simpler and quicker for me to find what I've looking for, compared to a binder. But, saying that, everyone is different so just try to find a system that works for you. The more organised your work and files are, the easier and smoother ride you'll have at university. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you need a certain paper, knowing you have a certain paper, and not being able to find it when you need it, so find a system!

Download: Topics to Study sheet

Download: Definition sheet

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So, from all this information that I gathered I'm hoping that my grades will progress and that I will have an easier ride this year, because as Benjamin Franklin once said:

"by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

and I feel somewhat prepared. I'm hoping that I can stay focused, determined, motivated and consistent with these methods, other wise this entire research and prep would have been for naught. And I'm also hoping that, if you've made it through to reading this far, you have found all of this information useful also. Good luck guys!