by Lily R.
There may have been times where you’ve gotten to the end of a semester and wondered to yourself, “How did I get so behind?”. As a university student myself, I know that falling behind in school or realizing that you forgot about an assignment or test is a stressful experience that nobody wants to have to deal with. However, despite my best efforts, there have been times in the past where it feels like I’m doing everything to stay afloat and yet I’m still drowning in school work.
In previous years, by the end of the semester I would often feel defeated, stressed, and burnt out, to the point where I felt paralyzed and had trouble starting my assignments. I also wasn’t retaining any of the things I was learning in my classes because I was constantly cramming for exams. I felt like I was paying a ton of money to be in university and to learn, but all I was getting in return was stress and forgetting the content I had learned.
Professors, friends, and academic skills experts used to always mention the importance of getting organized and scheduling your time for school, but for people like myself who grew up with little-to-no routine in my life, organization and scheduling can feel like abstract buzzwords, and it can be challenging to figure out where to start.
Different organizational strategies work for different people. Learning how to effectively use Google Calendar and to set S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based goals) and detailed plans for getting schoolwork done can help break goals into manageable tasks. However, getting organized and getting motivated don’t always go hand-in-hand.
I realized that what was helping me the most with motivation was physically writing down my tasks for each day, and then crossing them off. If you use social media, you may have previously come across the meme “Every day I put on my silly little outfit and do my silly little tasks”. Sometimes it can feel a little bit silly to feel excited and motivated just by crossing a task off of your to-do list, as it’s a fairly simple thing to do. I believed that since I had struggled so much to be productive, any strategy I used to help me get organized and motivated would surely require a ton of effort on my part. So, when I discovered that using to-do lists and crossing things off was actually helping me, it felt a little absurd and embarrassing because, for me, it didn’t require a ton of effort. However, I realized that one main goal of getting organized is to figure out what works for you specifically, and what works for you (in comparison to what works for other people) can vary in terms of how intricate and meticulous of a system it is. When I decided to take a more open-minded approach to trying out organizational strategies, I ended up finding something that works for me.
It took some effort and trial-and-error to find strategies that work for me, which at times only added to how demoralized I felt. However, I feel significantly less stressed, less overwhelmed, more hopeful, and more motivated to do work now, even if it has taken some time to find something that works for me. While it can feel demoralizing to try multiple organizational strategies and not see any positive results, learning what doesn’t work for you can also be helpful. Identifying unhelpful strategies may help you narrow down your list of other strategies you’re thinking of trying by eliminating methods with similar characteristics to ones you’ve previously tried. Through this process and by having an open mind, I’ve been able to find something that works for me. I’m now having an easier time staying on top of my schoolwork and as a result, I’m enjoying my courses more. If you’re interested in starting your own journey of getting organized and motivated, here are some resources on organization and time-management:
- If you want to learn more about S.M.A.R.T. goals, check out this page or this video.
- If you are interested in creating a calendar/daily schedule for yourself, check out this video on getting the most out of Google Calendar.
- If you’re interested in changing up your note-taking style check out this video that goes over some of the research on effective ways to take notes in class.
- If you want to try a new studying technique, the Pomodoro Technique divides studying into manageable intervals.
The methods I’ve mentioned in this post might not work for you. And that’s okay. But every day, I put on my silly little outfit and do my silly little tasks, and that’s okay too.
