#school organization tips

[ladyhannahjane]

Consistent Planning

It’s an easy mistake to make, to forget to plan. But if you’re like me, and life seems to be coming at you ten things at a time, keeping (and continuously updating) your planner is essential. Successful students commonly advise: Get a planner and use it. But there’s an ongoing joke on how many people buy a planner and then stop using it two weeks into the school year. I understand because there were weeks when my planner is just a scrap of notebook paper with a bunch of assignments and dates on it. However, I cannot stress enough: plan. 

Here’s my tips on how to be consistent with your planner, especially in school.

Keep a small planner with you ALWAYS. It can be a mini planner that easily fits into your backpack, or even your phone. I prefer physical planners because I don’t check my phone enough to make a calendar on there very effective + the act of just inking a task into my planner helps me to remember it.

Plan a time to plan. That’s right; set aside a time once every week where you just fill in the big things you need to get done that week. If it’s due dates, birthdays, events, tasks—put it as much down as you know at once. I like to plan every Sunday evening. It prepares me for the week ahead.

I also find time at the end of every month to plan the next. Again, just put down everything you know. This will save you time later.

Make it pretty but productive. I have a personal belief that when things are pretty, I am much more likely to use it/look at it/enjoy it. That’s why I spend so much time making my school notes look neat. It doesn’t have to be much. Most planners are already pretty h*ckin cute.

DISCIPLINE. When you hear about a due date, jot it down. Immediately. If you have trouble sticking to a planner longer than a month, then this will be the best practice.

Have a system. My planning system is extremely simple. Because mine is structured into three boxes for morning, afternoon, and evening, I end up putting events, classes, and birthdays in the top box, and a running to do list in the next two.

Keep your day realistic. Are you going to work sixteen hours straight? Probably not. You’re going to take breaks, you’re going to hang out with friends. Focus on what you need to do each day and go from there.

Previous #Wellness Wednesday post: What is Wellness?

[ladyhannahjane]

The College Backpack

Hello! If you’re just starting out at college or you’re returning to college, I hope you can find this list helpful. This is sort of a checklist -- and by no means should you include into your backpack everything on it. But, using your own judgement, you should be able to choose which of these items would be most useful to you in your backpack. :)

I hope everyone has wonderful back to school experiences!

School supplies

textbooks

folders/binders/notebooks

pencil case with appropriate contents

planner

mini stapler

sticky notes

Tech

phone

laptop (w.case)

tablet (w.cover)

charger

USB

headphones/earphones

calculator

speaker (for those impromptu student lounge parties)

Hygiene

tampons/pads

makeup

deodorant

hand sanitizer/hand wipes

tissues

spare pants (leggings) in case of period mishaps

jacket

nail file

mints

lip balm

lotion

Tide-to-Go pen

glasses/contact case

ponytail holders

sunglasses

Other

snacks

water bottle

keys

student ID

wallet

books (for fun)

umbrella

gum

lunch

Previous #Studying Saturdays post: Planner Organization for School

[ladyhannahjane]

Planner Organization for School

During summer my planning system is more like “system? what system?” but now that school is almost here, it’s time to start getting back into a schedule. Last semester I hit upon a great planning method for me -- and here it is!

This is totally a fake page btw, which is why it’s so blank.

I prefer a minimalist planning system. It helps my eyes focus, as a colorful spread might prevent. Also, although I like to decorate my planner, I don’t have time to do it every week, which is why I usually choose a planner that’s pretty enough on its own without my help. (Mine is a Happy Planner.)

The top box is usually my schedule. I place my classes and their times here and (especially during the first of the semester when I am still finding my way around), I put the classroom numbers. All of my classes have their own “assigned” color. I have come to associate these colors with these classes, so it’s easy to tell where I need to be next. At the bottom of this box I put events: these are usually things that are pretty set in stone. If there’s a birthday, an appointment, an outing planned with friends -- I usually write that in the empty space between.

The middle box is my homework related to do list. If I have an exam, I place it at the top in capital letters to help it stand out. Due homework and subjects I want to study are usually lumped together, but if you want to distinguish one from the other, I recommend using one color for due assignments and another color for topics you plan to review. This is to streamline your planning as much as possible. I find I get distracted when I color code everything.

The bottom box is for personal tasks. A lot of times these tend to be health-related, but it’s in this box that I jot down all of the to do’s not related to school -- things like “bank deposit,” “clean bathroom,” and “post #Studying Saturday.”

On the weekends, all rules are off, and it’s a free-for-all to do list. Because I don’t have classes on the weekend, it becomes one long list of things I want to accomplish during that free time. 

This method -- of having sections for your schedule, school-related tasks, and personal tasks -- works well for me, but there are dozens of other ways to plan your school week. 

[ladyhannahjane]

School Supply Minimalism

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love the concepts behind minimalism -- when it comes to everything but school supplies. When stationery is involved, I go to the store and just 

But this semester, I am making a concentrated effort to streamline my school supplies! And here are some tips and steps I have taken to implement this goal.

Take inventory of the school supplies you have, and then declutter. How many extra highlighters do you have? How many spare notebooks? How many pens do you keep in your bag that have been limping along on their last vestiges of ink for awhile now? Whatever you don’t need, get rid of. Some things (like dried out sharpies) need to be thrown away. Other things can be donated. 

Look at your methods of studying and ask yourself what you frequently use. When I consider the way I take notes in class and the way I study, I can think of four staples that I absolutely need: paper, pens (in black, blue, and red), highlighters, and stick notes. Last semester I took a lot more than this to school with me, but now that I’m trying to streamline, I realize I can fit 3/4 of those items in my purse and the paper I can carry in a binder. No backpack necessary.

Keep what you want. Carry what you need. Now, I am one of those people that finds immense satisfaction in school and office supplies. I still have a lot of page flags, pens, markers, etc. that I use in my studying, but my point is to only carry to class what you need. This makes it so much easier, and instead of trying to use the correct colored pen for each type of information in the lecture, you can focus more on what’s being said.

Relegate everything to pouches. Pouches make it easy to always keep the necessities with you. For example: a pencil pouch/case. I can stick my pens, highlighters, and sticky notes in it and then throw it in my purse or backpack as needed. Another handy pouch to take is a cosmetic bag. 

My semester starts on Monday, eek! I will try to post as regularly as possible, but I may miss one of my usual masterposts depending on my homework load. I hope everyone has amazing back-to-school experiences!

Previous #Studying Saturday masterpost: Planner Organization for School

[ladyhannahjane]

The Master Binder

What is the master binder? The master binder is where you place all of your notes, syllabi, etc. into one giant binder.

Why have a master binder and not notebooks and/or folders?

When you have time between classes or, for whatever reason, you have to stay on campus for any period of time, you have all of your notes to study of different subjects.

It’s easy to customize.

Unless you had a lot of other things you needed, you could ditch the heavy backpack and simply take your binder and (in my case) a purse.

How do you organize your master binder?

I use one folder for returned homework/due homework. With my last binder, which had circle rings, I placed it at the back since I also used it as a buffer, trying to prevent the other pages from tearing. With this D-ring binder, I plan to keep the folder in the front. I also have a small flashcard with my class times on it.

I use simple dividers to separate subjects. These dividers also serve as a “dashboard” on which to stick hasty notes or reminders per subject.

The way I organize the pages vary by subject. (Here’s my method for how I take the history notes shown below.) However, for the syllabi, I tag it with a page flag of each class’ “color.” (For example, English is green, so for English I use green highlighters, sticky notes, folders, etc.)

For those classes that I use flashcards, I stick them in a plastic bag and punch holes in it. I place it near the notes it’s relevant to. This makes turning pages a bit more of a pain, but tbh I had no idea where else to store these flashcards lol.

Why not use multiple binders? An alternate choice would be to have two (or more) binders for however many class days you have. For example, I have the same classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I could have a MWF binder. On Tuesday and Thursday I have the same schedule as well, so I could have a TR binder. The reason I personally don’t do this is because

I tend to hang around campus and study, and I may want to study a subject not in that day’s binder. I’m a lil finicky like that. ;)

I’m forgetful LOL and I can just see me running late in the morning and grabbing the wrong binder.

Sometimes I may want to reference things from other classes. While in Government, sometimes it’s helpful to have your History notes nearby.

Previous #Studying Saturdays post: Planner Organization for School

[ladyhannahjane]

Planner Organization

I love my planner! It keeps my organized and also, even when I don’t decorate it, it still looks pretty. Even a planner needs some structure, though, and so this is the method I use to plan. :)

Top box

My planner has three boxes. I title the top one as “Today” and in it I write down my classes and what times they are (because I have an absolutely terrible memory). At the beginning of the semester, I also wrote down the rooms they were in, Each class has its own “color” and it’s the same color I use for binders, folders, and highlighting each subject. (Side note: pls ignore my mistake with History. It was supposed to be blue lol.) 

I also write down any events that are happening in this top box, such as get togethers with friends or birthdays. 

Middle box

I title the middle box as “Tasks” and list my homework assignments, quizzes, tests, and important things I need to work on.

Bottom Box 

The bottom box is sort of the versatile one. In the past I’ve used it to keep track of my workouts, sleep, water intake, etc. Right now it’s sort of a to-do list of things that I want to get done, but that aren’t immediately urgent.

Also, it’s April, which means CampNaNoWriMo! So I have my daily word count goal at the very bottom.

Weekend

The weekend is a bit different... it ends up being a giant to-do list for the entire weekend, since Saturday and Sunday are, a lot of times, pretty unpredictable for me. I could be studying all day or I could be hanging out with my friends all day. It’s sort of a 50-50.

For decoration, I don’t use a lot - some stickers and some washi tape will do it! 

Products:

They don’t carry my exact planner anymore, but here’s one similar to what I bought.

My washi tapes are from Recollections and they were a steal, omg, still so in love.

I just realized I shop a lot at Michael’s, lol. Anyway, here’s the stickers. :)

[ladyhannahjane]

[day 24. school supplies organization]

For my textbooks [top left], I use my shelves. I stack whichever ones I’m not using next to the evidence of how much paper I stockpiled this year. I try to keep these books here because I tend to leave my possessions everywhere and this just lessons my scatterbrainedness a teeeeensy little bit. 😅 (As you can probably tell, I like Rick Riordan’s books.)

For my stick notes and page flags (and other miscellany) [top right], I use plastic baskets from Target. I’m able to stick all of those little things like paper clips, rubber bands, staples, clothespins, erasers, and chalk in these two little baskets. 😎

For my most used desk supplies [bottom left], like highlighters and my stapler, I stick them on my windowsill, since I tend to use my whole desktop when studying and the extra space is much appreciated. Also, my dancing Groot gets his energy from the sun, and my bedroom seems so empty if he’s not groovin’ away.

For any other papers left [bottom right], I put in a wire organizer (also from Target). This is usually full of mail, math scratch paper, and my “stuff I’ll take care of later” pile, but ideally I keep it a bit more presentable. 😂 During the weekends I keep my planner in there for easy access, and there’s almost always a notepad or two for when I hear a good song on the radio and I need to scribble it down. Also, my pencil case is in there. Idk why. Ask Groot.

For returned work , I keep separate folders for each subject (color coordinated ones, wow!) and just chuck all of it in there. My backpack I clean out daily, and the only things that live in there are my graphing calculator and some tissues.

I have quite a few office supplies, but the only things I regularly use for school are textbooks, highlighters, pens, paper, sticky notes, and page flags. It turns out they were right: You don’t need a lot for college. 😂

[ladyhannahjane]

How I Clean My Desk

If you’re like me, your desk is one of the places easiest made messy. It's not only my workspace, but it's where I write, study, do art, and where I sit for a large part of every day. Also, I have a bad habit of letting stuff pile up on it or putting everything that I chucked on my bed during the day on my desk when it comes time to sleep. I'm always cleaning my desk, so in my pursuit of Tumblr post ideas, I decided to take pictures of how I do it! 

1. The first thing I do is actually clean up AROUND my desk. I hung up the coats draped over my chair, put the shoes that were lurking under my desk in the closet, and threw away anything that had fallen on the floor.

2. The next thing I did was attend to all those random pieces of paper floating around. Some I threw away, some I put in my school binder (if you want to see a post on how I organize that, let me know!), and others I put back in this metal organizer I got from Target.

3. Once all of those spare things are out of the way, I put everything that's left on my desk in piles and try to decide what things I want to keep and what I want to store for later. Here, I made separate stacks for the school supplies, planners, sticky notes/notepads, and library books.

4. Some are really easy choices. All of the jewelry, for example, gets put away. (This ring is huge omg.)

5. Others are a hit harder. I use sticky notes frequently, but I decided to put them in this storage container, since I only need two pads at a time for whatever subject I'm studying. (Tip: Make sure your supplies are always easily accessible. This goes on my shelf and it's extremely easy to pull out and grab something from it.)

6. I always store my school books in my backpack during the weekend, because they are huge and heavy and ugly. 😬 Sometimes I'll stick them on my shelf. The only things I do not put into my backpack that I regularly take to school are my planner and my pencil case, which has my most-used writing utensils. I also take this time to clean out my backpack.

7. Next I stick my library books on my shelves. Since I only have two and I'm currently reading them, it shouldn't be too hard to remember they're mixed among my own books. 😬

8. I take some of the highlighters and makeup out of my pencil bag and return them to their rightful place.

At the end, here's my desk! All I have is my clock/radio, my rainbow lava lamp, my pen holder and pencil case, a clipboard I like to keep goals on, and my planner. (Also, in the time it took to make this post, I added a snack, hehe.) You could also Windex your desk surface, if you want to be super fancy.

I like to keep my workspace as clean as possible, but I do make use of my windowsill. There I keep have a cat sticky note dispenser, two mason jars full of highlighters and markers (for those aestethic picturessss), a stapler, and my solar-powered, dancing Groot there. (He's my studdy buddy.)

I hope this was helpful or at least mildly entertaining, lol. It motivated me to actually clean my desk instead of dumping everything back onto my bed. 😂