Transitioning from high school to college can get difficult. Sometimes, you have exams, quizzes, or tests on the same day as four other classes. All the information you write down can be hard to remember. Most of all, it can get pretty difficult to stay organized.

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To Step Up and make sure you’re never behind in college, it’s important to be organized. The first thing you should do is buy a daily planner. When you write things down, it will help you remember them more, and there are tons of daily planners out there for you to choose from. You can choose planners that are small, big, thick, reusable, and more. You can choose from daily planners to weekly planners to monthly planners. Use one that is appropriate for you and then start writing down important due dates. For example, write down research paper due dates or exam dates on your calendar so that you don’t forget. Writing due dates and assignments in a different color can help you stay organized as well. I like to write due dates in red so that it’s screaming in my face, and then I’ll write down homework assignments in blue. After you finish an assignment or task, highlight it in any color of your liking to remind you that you finished. It is important to write down everything you need to do so you don’t forget.

If you are dorming, I suggest getting a huge calendar to hang on your door so that the calendar will be the first thing you see whenever you’re about to leave your room. You can use bright colors to write down important dates so they stand out, and you won’t ever miss an event, assignment, or meeting. You can also have a calendar on your desk so that when you sit down and go on your laptop, you’ll notice your calendar with all the assignments you still need to do. This will then remind you of what tasks you still need to get done.

Another way to stay organized is to write everything on your phone. For those of you who hate carrying around a physical planner, try using your phone. Add important exam dates and assignment due dates to your calendar. Then have the calendar send you a reminder. Whenever I had a meeting with my advisor, I liked to set a reminder for myself an hour away, then 45 minutes, then half an hour, and finally, 15 minutes away in order to remind myself to leave my dorm. For assignment due dates, have your phone remind you every day so that you get a notification reminding you that you still have to do it. Then, when you finally sit down to do the assignment, delete the reminder so that the notification doesn’t freak you out the next day when you forget that you already finished the assignment. If you don’t like using your phone’s calendar, there are numerous apps to help you stay organized that will send you constant reminders about dates, such as Planner Pro, the Homework App, and Productive – Habit Tracker & Goals Reminder. These apps will change your life. Whenever you’re out and about having fun and forgot that you had a Student Life meeting, your calendar or app will send you a reminder. Then, you’ll remember and you won’t miss the meeting.

If you choose to add everything onto your phone’s calendar, a great feature on the calendar is that you can attach it to your email. So, for those of you who hate having too many notifications sent to your phone, you can get emails sent to you about events and due dates coming up. I like using Google calendar, as I am able to check my Gmail account frequently when I’m on my computer at work. It’s really helpful when I receive an email reminding me that I have to complete a task that’s due soon, reminding me to stay on top of my work. You can also choose to turn on your phone’s notifications so that you automatically get a notification whenever you receive an email or reminder.

These are the different methods that I usually use to stay organized. I hope you find these tips helpful! Remember, staying organized will allow you to be productive and still have time for fun!