Transition from Summer to School Smoothly

Summer is winding down and it’s (unfortunately) time to get back into the academic flow. It’s beyond exciting to get back to campus and see all of my friends who have scattered across the US this summer, but it can be especially difficult to transition if you’re like me and spent the summer babysitting one of the world’s cutest families instead of a 9-5 internship or job like I have every other summer. When it comes time to transition from summer fun to school drudgery, I need a definite system to keep myself on track.

Probably my favorite back-to-school organizational tool is my dry erase calendar. It’s perfect for my very Type A personality and without it I absolutely would be a disorganized mess. At the beginning of each semester, I grudgingly print out the last page of every syllabus: the assignment list. I set up my month by using my vast array of markers to assign each class, work, DZ, and other things like university events (aka football games, Go Bucks!) a color and mark the assignments accordingly. If I have an extra important assignment like a midterm, I border the entire box so that date is heavily outlined and when I look at my calendar from afar I can clearly see when it’s appropriate to start panicking.

It's actually become infamous among my friends 

Another great way to stay organized is to hang each assignment list somewhere in your room. As the weeks go on highlight the assignments you’ve already completed. I think highlighting is a better alternative than crossing out assignments because you can still read what the assignment was in case you need the dates or anything later on. It’s a really easy way to look at your month week by week to ensure you don’t miss anything important.

I do carry a planner around but since my assignments are pretty spread out, the week-to-week setup of a planner isn’t very helpful and the monthly calendar is so small it would be impossible to fit five or six classes worth of info in those tiny boxes. While I depended on my planner in high school to get by, four years later it’s not such a helpful utensil for me. But my roommate lives by her planner, so it can also be used as a really helpful tool to keep you organized and have a monthly assignment list with a week-by-week breakdown. The same way I use different colored markers on my calendar, I’d suggest different colored pens for your planner just so every assignment doesn’t blend together.

This is probably the most I ended up using my planner… #priorities

One last really easy trick I use to keep my life organized? Since I always have my computer with me (most of my classes run on PowerPoint presentations) I saved my syllabi to my desktop and keep them all in the same place. Next to them I have the document outlining my graduation requirements for quick reference. So when I’m on campus and far from my insane calendar, I have an easy way to find my assignments, even when the wifi decides to kick everyone off the network.

I hope this helps keep your life in order as you switch from summer to school mode, good luck!