Does anyone have any organizational tips?

[SeniorStatus14]

So I'm about to enter my second and final year of IB and I decided it's time for me to get organized for 3 reasons.

1) College apps and scholarships: Really need to be able to keep up with all my apps, deadlines, etc.

2) I.B: So I'm gonna be honest and say I.B. 1 SUCKED. Now this is not to scare any incoming I.Bers but I'm surprised my unorganized, procrastinated self made it through without serious injury (well, except the 2 I made on my I.B. Chem exam.). At our school, on top of making us make the Pre-IB to IB jump they also make us do our entire CAS project and our ENTIRE Extended Essay (Minus the viva voce and corrections from that) in our first year of IB. So yeah IB1 was super stressful and I'm really terrified by that 2 I got so I want to get organized and turn all around so I can make high scores on the rest of my exams.

3) I'm 100% sick of my messy room: By the way I keep my locker and stuff at school, you would think I was OCD not a slob, but at home I have things EVERYWHERE so I really wanna fix that so I can find things when the school-year starts.

So I was wondering if anyone has tips on getting organized for senior year? Like how to keep up with everything for IB and college? I know it might seem like I'm really bad at organizing and things, but I do have one thing I like in my room. I have a pretty big whiteboard calender, so that I don't have to change months I just write the month at the top and fill in the dates. About 1/3 of the board is empty for notes so I decided to label that part "Upcoming" and I write everything for the next month with their dates and times under that. The other 2/3 that is a calender part has big enough squares to write everything that goes on that day on the square. My writing is semi big and I can still fit 4-5 events under each date. So I do recommend investing in one of these.

[Brienna]

One thing I really love to use during the school year is a little pocket planner with calendars and spaces for notes and whatnot. It helped me keep track of my assignments and kept me working in a timely fashion. For example, if I had an IA due in two months, I would give myself deadlines for finishing each section and mark them in my calendar to keep myself from getting behind. It works great with EE management too. Lots of my friends use the reminders on their phone to keep themselves organized, but I would always forget to type them in there.. The whiteboard you have sounds like a great idea for this!

I feel your pain about your room being messy. If I let it get out of hand I end up with so much stuff piled on my desk I can't even use it. Every week or so I try to make myself organize my room, my closet, my notebooks, etc. The calendar is useful for setting reminders for this too.

To keep things neat I just recommend lots of folders. LOTS. Keep everything together and organized where you can find it easily. As someone who's lost countless assignments in my piles of paper, just trust me on this one. I also try to organize assignments by date so that I find them easier later.

I hope this helps

[IBwanting2survive]

I agree with Brienna. Having a calendar will really help. Im going into my second year as well and I found that for CAS especially, it was extremely helpful to have a calendar to enter in any volunteering ect. when I was too busy (or too lazy) to update managebac. Also, every few weekends I would suggest taking any new papers you received (idk about u but my teachers seem to love killing trees) and put them all in a binder that way when finals or External Assessments come, you dont have to freak out about finding your papers from year 1.

[SeniorStatus14]

Those tips sound really good. I like the ideas about going through my papers every few weekends to weed out whats important and what's trash and the idea of cleaning my room once a week and organizing by folder. It seems easier than just throwing everything together.

[ctrls]

One be thing I try to do is keep my routines as simple and doable as possible.Trying to get EVERYTHING organised is simply to much work, you won't be able to keep it up for the entire year. Punctuality is more important, try to do a little bit every week.

That said, I'm pretty bad at keeping consistent schedules and being organised in general, so I probably shouldn't be talking. I do stick to certain things though, like the time I go to bed and study schedules.

Edited July 31, 2013 by ctrls

[Luka Petrovic]

I know this is geared towards "gentlemen" but the tips and suggestions are universal. This guy turned around his failing grades in university to grade A marks, hope it helps.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/03/ace-your-exams-study-tactics-of-the-successful-gentleman-scholar/

For your room all I can recommend is getting rid of (donate or give away or recycle, nothing is garbage) things that you don't need and don't plan on keeping (idk like a wool sweater you want to save for a future child lol, something like that). A good rule is if you haven;t used it within a year, your probably don;t need it. Exceptions apply of course for formal wear, etc. As well rather than doing a mega clean up every once and awhile, try doing a little everyday. take an extra 30 seconds and fold and store a shirt rather than just adding it to the growing pile. Things like that.

[priyav]

I'm super organized and what helps me stay on track is making a to-do list. I think the most satisfying feeling for me is being able to cross of all my tasks on the list. I also like to use colours to help stay on track! For example, in my planner, I represent each subject by a different colour. Geography for instance, is green. Whenever I look in my planner I am able to see what subject I need to focus on the most. I think another huge part of staying organized is making it a gradual process. Try to organize yourself a little bit each day, rather than attempting to organize everything one day and not sticking with it. Try not to overwhelm yourself with things. What helps me is taking 10 minutes in the evening to organize everything for the next day. Hope this helps and good luck!

[injeopardy]

Why don't you make a timetable? That usually helps. I try to do that. Even if you don't finish everything, you do end up finishing most of the things you wanted to. And you have a clearer idea of what all you have to complete. Now, I'm not very good at making them myself so I just get them done here: http://getrevising.co.uk/ it takes some time to make a schedule but after that it's REALLY useful.

[SeniorStatus14]

I'm loving these tips! Thank you guys! I've been trying to start timetables forever but I stink at making them, so thanks for the link!