For some of us, getting organized is second nature. But for many, the pure thought of simply cleaning and organizing can be as overwhelming as looking up your symptoms on the internet and convincing yourself that Death will be knocking on the door.
To make the matter even worse, life as a student can be hectic. With preparation for classes, studying for exams, and being faithful to the snooze button, there’s no free time to keep your life together.
The inability to get organized can come from having a lack of motivation, a high tendency for procrastination, or even a low level of self-determination. So if you’re someone who has missed a deadline because you can’t remember the due date, or if you’re constantly searching for that one crucial document for class, then getting organized could be the answer to these problems.
Don’t know where to start? If your life’s a mess like season 8 of Games of Thrones; we got you covered. Below, you can find valuable benefits for being organized, along with tips and tricks to make the most out of your schooling.
The Benefits to Tidying Up
When you have a lot on your plate, it can be challenging to keep your life together. But having the feeling like you’re forgetting something important all day can be overwhelming; that’s no way to live life. If you want to feel at ease, you’ll need to invest a bit of time and effort to stay organized.
Just imagine how bad things can get if you don’t. You can wake up late for a final exam because you got the time wrong or accidentally send a text to the person you’re talking about because of poor naming conventions in your contact list. That would be devastating.
While there are tons of disadvantages to being unorganized, here are some advantages to having a structured lifestyle.
- Peace of Mind: Going home after a long day of school to a cluttered home with clothes on the ground, dirty dishes, and papers all over your desk can increase your stress levels. On the other hand, coming home to a peaceful and orderly home can help you relax and recharge.
- Decreased Stress: Living in a space with clutter can impact on your brain. Staying organized will help lower your cortisol levels, which are the hormones that produce stress in your body.
- Feel Empowered and Energized: A benefit to being organized is how it can increase your energy level. When you accomplish things on your to-do list, that can increase productivity, which can help you feel empowered and excited throughout the day.
- Save Time: You probably waste tons of time looking for items that are misplaced. Save yourself the trouble by giving things a home, so you don’t have to waste time in the future. With the time saved, you can focus on doing things you love, like cooking, painting, or stalking an ex on Facebook.
- Sleep Better: Decrease hypertension in your brain by having a clean room. Without the clutter, your brain will have less stimulation to keep you awake at night.
How to Be More Organized
Understanding how to organize your life is crucial to achieving a successful education. Unfortunately, organization is a skill that needs to be learned. With an overwhelming amount of assignments, classes, and time spent holding back tears due to a bad group project, getting organized for school can feel like a chore.
On the bright side, there are small tips and tricks you can use to stay organized in school to improve your productivity while lowering your level of stress. Below, we have five best school organization practices for you to try.
- Start a Routine: Building a routine can help you become more consistent with your day. Begin by writing down a weekly schedule on a calendar, then block out a definite time you can spend doing homework or other school-related activities.
- Do Five Minutes of Planning a Day: When you wake up in the morning, set aside five minutes to build a to-do list. This will help you decide what tasks should be accomplished for the day.
- Use Tools to Help You Stay Organized: There are an abundance of supplies in-store and online to help you keep everything you need organized so no assignment can get lost or misplaced.
- Planner: Write down due dates, to-do items, and study schedules to better plan out your week and squeeze in time for fun activities with friends and family.
- Multi-compartment backpack: Get a multi-compartment backpack with two or more large pockets. You can use the various pockets to organize your books, notebooks, and personal items so that you know exactly where to find them.
- Binder clips or folders: Stop wasting time digging through stacks of papers all day; use clips or folders to combine different course materials into one central location to help you find items more easily.
- Clean and Tidy: A messy room can be a distraction to your study sessions. Maintaining a clutter-free study space is important for learning, especially if you’re in a small room or apartment. You can tidy up by throwing away unnecessary items and cleaning out your backpack at the end of each week. Make weekly or daily cleaning a part of your routine to ensure that you have everything you need for school.
- Set a New Deadline: If you can, set a new deadline for assignments and projects. Planning and completing assignments before the due date can help reduce stress since you won’t pull an all-nighter or work on tasks at the last minute.
Revamp Your Life
Starting the journey to organization can be overwhelming if you are not used to the practice. So it’s ok if you’re not organized like Monica Geller from Friends, and it’s ok to start organizing by taking it one step at a time.
Take your first step by pinpointing which areas you need to work on the most, then practice that habit every day until you’re ready to adopt more. In the end, no one is perfect. Being a student is all about growth and progress, so start making progress to become more organized today!
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