Organization System

I love the sentiment that your head is a good place to have ideas, but not the place to hold ideas and I believe that makes sense. I have been talking with a lot of students lately about the fact that I need to write everything down.  It would be impossible to remember everything that I need to keep track of if I didn't write it all down.

What works for me is making lists.  It doesn't have to be making a list (although I would argue that there is great joy in being able to cross something off once you have accomplished it), but everyone needs some sort of a system to help keep your thoughts organized. It is much more difficult and demanding to try to hold something in your head than it is to refer back to it on paper.  It doesn't require a lot of time, but the payoffs are large as long as you stick with it. 

As you start thinking about the end of the semester, please work on staying focused and organized. What do you need to do to make sure that you end this quarter successfully? What about preparing for exams? There is still time left to make improvements, but you need to start now. If lists are not your way to stay organized, that is OK, but find a system that works and use it.

Figure out what you need to do, gather your materials from the semester and organize them, prepare now so that as you are studying you already have your resources at your fingertips and don't have to waste time searching through everything and above all, organize yourself so that you can apply yourself completely to the end of the semester.

(And, for the record, if your bookbag looks like this one, PLEASE, stop everything now and get organized!)