Get Organized for College: Week 2 Calendar
Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from The Marble Jar Channel and today's video is the second in a 7-part series to help you Get Organized for College. Even though this targets college students, it could be helpful for anyone who is struggling to organize life! This video deals with choosing a calendar system to handle all of your events and scheduling.
Your calendar is one of the most important -- perhaps THE most important -- organizational tool in your toolbox. It will help you to remember appointments and assignments, plan your time well between events, and see what you have going on for your day, your week, and your month. It's crucial that you find a calendar system that works well for you.
As with almost everything these days, there are digital and paper options. For those who choose a digital calendar, I like Google Calendar, but there is also Outlook, iOS Calendar, and a BUNCH of other calendar apps. For those who prefer paper, some people use a planner that they can carry around, some like a big wall calendar, some use a calendar within their bullet journaling system. I really think you need a calendar that you can have with you at all times, so make sure, if you choose the large wall calendar, you also have something portable as well.
Digital Calendars
Let me just make a quick plug for digital calendars. One plug for digital calendars is that they are
- Less Messy - and less confusing. Yes, planners can be beautiful, when you first set them up, but inevitably, you are going to need to change the time or location of an appointment, which can result in a messy, overwritten, crossed out paper calendar. With a digital calendar, you won't have to cross anything out to make changes. In addition, there is
- Less Upkeep - for digital calendars. Because you can set up appointments to be recurring on a digital calendar, you won't have to write the same thing out week after week -- or month after month. Plus, there is no requirement to have nice handwriting or to decorate a digital calendar -- it's simply functional. Plus, digital calendars can contain
- More info - You can only include a limited number of details with a paper calendar, but digital calendars allow you to include a Zoom link, location, appointment details, and even invite other people. You can also set an alarm on a digital calendar which can tell you when you need to leave your house to get there on time. I'm not saying you can't supplement your digital calendar with a big wall calendar or a planner that is just for school planning, but I think a digital calendar is the way to go.
Types of Events
As a college student, what kinds of events will go on your calendar? Here are some ideas:
- Classes - this is obvious and a great example of why recurring appointments are nice. Enter in your classes and put in where they are held in the location field. You can also put a link to a map of campus in the description section just in case you get turned around during that first week of classes. And yes, I realize that you can keep this in your head after the first week or so of school, but why clutter your head with this info when you can keep it on a calendar in a recurring appointment?
- Activities - this includes sports practices and games, club meetings, rehearsals, performances, yoga class, etc. All of that goes on your calendar and most of these can probably be set up as weekly or monthly recurring events.
- Appointments - doctor's appointments, therapy, meetings with your advisor or professor. This is especially nice for when you schedule your dentist appointment for 6 months out -- how else are you going to remember this?
- Work - put your work schedule on your calendar. That way you can make absolutely sure that it doesn't conflict with anything else. And if it does, you'll have time to rearrange things before it becomes a crisis.
- Exercise - I block time for exercise on my calendar. I'm much more likely to stick with an exercise schedule if I've already allocated the time to it on my calendar.
- Studying - same thing with studying. I'll block off this time on my calendar and maybe even specify which class I'll be studying for during that time each week. So, Tuesday I'll spend 2 hours studying for Geology and Wednesday 4 hours of reading for British Literature. You get the idea.
- Professor's Office Hours - Thomas Frank, who has a YouTube channel dedicated to productivity, suggests setting up a separate calendar with the office hours for professors. That way you can turn the calendar on and off to see that information without having to go back into your syllabus to look for it.
Daily Agenda
If you have decided to use Google Calendar, one nice way to combine your email system, that we set up last week, with your calendar system -- is to turn on the Daily Agenda in Settings for your specific calendar. That way you'll receive an email with all of the events of your day each morning. It's a little like having your own personal secretary review your schedule for the day.
Regular Scheduling
As you are going through your communication streams (email, paper pile, texts, What's App, etc.) you will come across messages that will contain events. This is considered something that you need to "Act On" and, since all you have to do is add the event to your calendar, it is generally one that you can do in 3 minutes or less. Make a habit of regularly adding events to your calendar and include all of the information that you need in the event including location, a link to the event page, what you need to bring, what you need to wear, etc. That way, you won't have to hang onto the original message, because all of that information is now captured on your calendar.
This Week's Tasks
Your tasks for this week will involve choosing a calendar system, determining what kinds of events will go into your calendar, and putting in all of your appointments. There is a link to a worksheet containing all of these tasks in the description below.
I'd love to hear how things go. Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!
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