We’re already two months into semester two, and you may be feeling some second semester slump, but I’ve found my top way to combat this is staying organized and on top of my work.
- Organize your Drive!
Keeping your virtual space organized is super helpful, especially when you’re studying for tests and need to go back over work from that unit! Take advantage of google drives folder features and make one for each of your classes that semester, any virtual work, like presentations or worksheets live there and you can find all that work in one centralized location in case you need to come back to it.
- Use a Calendar!
Keeping track of deadlines is important to make sure you’re staying on top of all the work in your classes. There are tons of agendas and paper calendars that you can buy but google calendar is an amazing feature you can use through OCDSB, or any gmail account. Using google calendar is helpful not just for school work but for clubs and extracurricular activities that happen regularly, you can set recurring event notifications so you always know what things you have to work around with free time. One thing you can do to upgrade your calendar usage, is to colour code your calendar by class or type of event to not only make sure you know where your responsibilities lie but also have a very pretty looking calendar.
Pro tip: enter all the PA days, holidays, and exam windows into your calendar using OCDSB’s 2022/2023 calendar so you can remember what the semester is going to look like ahead of time. You can find the paper version of these in the school's library!
- Make to-do lists
The art of list making is one that takes a long time to master. And having a designated space for your lists makes it easy to keep track of them. Some people use designated notebooks and some people stick to online tools, my personal favourite is Notion! Notion is a website and app designed to make notes and organization easier. It is completely customizable and the free features are really expansive. Downloading a template to use is a helpful way to start using it if you don’t know how to get started.
To-do list life hack: make your lists small and manageable, break down your tasks into small increments that are easier to complete. A list that has massive goals is a list you will be defeated by, you can even make the first thing on your to-do list be: make a to-do list, there are no rules!
- Build your study habits!
Everyone studies and learns differently, the key to doing it is learning what works for you. If you get easily distracted, try and get into a space that will help you focus, set small and manageable study goals to hit easily to keep up motivation.
My best tricks are turn your phone on a studying specific do not disturb, set out goals within a certain time to accomplish, be in a space free from distractions (stay out of places like your bedroom where there no one to stop you from getting distracted), and use sound to block out distractions such as brown noise, a calming constant noise meant to help the brain focus and block out distracting noises.
Different things work for different people and it’s important to find what works for you specifically, but once you find tools and routines that help you work better, stick to them!
- Start your work early
Take your time on assignments and do work a little bit at a time, if you start work when you get assigned it, you should be able to finish it easily. Going bit by bit until it's done is an easy way to make a lot of work seem like less.
Keeping track of your work and taking care of it in small manageable chunks makes it feel a lot less daunting, and to me, it goes by faster.
Everyone has different styles for studying well and staying organized, these are some strategies that work for me, if you’re struggling, consider trying these out.