Get Organized for College: Week 4 Files & Notes

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from The Marble Jar Channel and today's video is the fourth 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 discusses systems for organizing paper files, personal notes, and notes for classes.

So now you have your incoming messages under control, you've organized your calendar, and you've got a task management system.  Now we'll work on getting your notes, papers, and files in order. 

Up until this point, you've been able to choose whether to use digital or paper for each system.   But when it comes to notes and files, you don't really have a choice.  It's too much work to force all of the things that come into your possession to be either digital or paper, so you really need an organization system for both.  Fortunately, as time goes on, things are becoming more and more digital, so your paper files can be more minimal.  We are going to talk about class notes at the end, so first let's concentrate on everything else and start with

Paper Organizing
Organizing is organizing whether it's paper, clothes, books, or other items.   Here are the 3 steps: dump, sort, and organize.  First,
  • Dump - Get rid of stuff you don't need - as I'm going through things the first time, I sort into 3 piles: Recycle/Trash, Need, and Goes Somewhere Else.  Then recycle or pitch the stuff you don't need and return the other items to the places they belong. 
  • Sort - Okay -- now that you have a pile of things you need, start sorting those papers into like piles.  What do I mean by that?  I mean all of your bank statements go in one pile, papers for financial aid in another, and so forth.  Put sticky notes on the piles so you don't forget the categories.  Add 2 more piles -- one for miscellaneous things that don't seem to have a natural home and one for important things (passport, birth certificate, etc.)
  • Organize - Now that you have everything sorted out -- go get a file box like this.  You may need a bigger solution, but this should work for most college students.  I've included links to all of these products in the description below.  You'll also need some hanging files and some folders.  I like to put multiple folders in one hanging file, but you can make your own choices here.  Make sure you label everything well.  I use sticky notes to label my folders so that I can reuse them later.  Figure out a good system for yourself that is again -- easy to maintain.  I keep a hanging file folder in the front called Not Filed.  As things come in, I put everything in there.  Then I have a monthly task for to go through and file all of these unfiled papers.  That way -- I don't have to make the effort to file every new paper that comes in the door.  Next up,

Digital Organizing
  • Purpose - You may wonder what you need digital files for.  Well, things come into your life that you are going to need to save.  True you already have a method for saving emails that you can refer back to later.  But, you also need a place to take notes -- because your brain should be for generating ideas, not keeping track of them.  I make notes on everything -- from my favorite make-up products, to the steps to complete infrequently used processes, to lists of books to read, and places I want to visit.  I snap photos of flyers or business cards, invoices, directions, invitations, etc.   You need a place to keep all of this information.   Just a note -- you can also use a Bullet Journal for this information it you want to stick with paper only.
  • Choose an app - I use an app called Evernote, but there are lots of note taking apps available.  You will want something that has an organizing method that you like and that you think will serve you for the long term.  For example, Evernote's first level of organization is notebooks -- so I have notebooks for General (which I call Lara's Brain), Recipes, Therapy Notes, YouTube, and Reading -- I used to have notebooks for Grad School and Kids Activities.  In addition, you can apply tags and sub tags to your notes for more granular organization.   An app like iOS Notes has folders, which are kind of like Evernote's notebooks, but no tags.  And Google Keep has labels, which are like tags, but no notebooks.  So, play around a bit -- or just select one to start using. 
  • Organization - Because of the nature of digital files, you don't have to worry too much about running out of space, so it's less important to purge files that aren't useful.  You do, however, need to figure out how you want to categorize your files so that you can find them again.   Some people are super old school and handle their digital files similarly to how they handle their physical files.  In other words, they keep their files in notebooks or folders and then further divide them into smaller folders.  I prefer to use some of the shortcuts of technology to help me find things rather than forcing myself to always file things in the right spot.  For one, I use really long titles that include as many key words as possible so that I can always find things with the search function.  Sometimes this leads to clunky, nonsensical titles like this one, but I don't really care as long as I can find it again.  I also like using tags to pull up like files -- even if they are stored in different notebooks.  Google Keep has a great way of applying tags that is inline with the text so you don't even have to go to a different screen - just do #tagname.  However you choose to do this -- start a system now that you can rely on to store information because your memory is only going to get worse as you age!

Class Notes
Okay -- I left this to the end since it's worth having a specific system just for organizing notes and materials for your classes.  First of all, you will definitely have both digital and paper files related to your classes, but it's really up to you to determine whether you'll take your notes on paper or digitally. First, let's do
  • Digital - you can certainly take notes in Evernote or any other notetaking app.  You may prefer an app like Notability for this if you like to write notes by hand on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.  You can create a notebook for each class, but if this is the same app that you are using for other notes in your life, you may not want it cluttered up with a ton of school notebooks.  When I was in Grad School, I had a single notebook for school and then kept track of notes for different classes by using tags for each class.  I also grouped class tags together by semester by putting S22 for spring 2022 before the class name.  Digital class notes are fairly straightforward. 
  • Paper - is a little more complicated. Mostly this is because your notes have to be portable so that you can take them to class and to the library for studying.   If you are going to take notes by hand, I would recommend using college rule, loose leaf, 3 hole punch paper.  I would have one binder or flex folder that I would carry around for all of my classes that had dividers for each class.   This way you don't run the risk of bringing the wrong notebook to class.  Obviously there isn't enough room in a single binder for all of your notes for each class for the whole semester, so you will need a home base.  You can either have another file box for your classes with a hanging file folder for each class OR a separate binder for each class that you keep at home. That way, when you've taken the midterm for the class or finished that unit, you can offload your old notes onto the home base.  This allows your portable binder to remain light and all of your notes to be together when it's time to study for the final.  And yes, I would strongly recommend choosing one color per class for both digital and paper systems just to have that visual distinction. 

This Week's Tasks
Your tasks for this week will involve sorting through your paper files and organizing them into the system of your choice, choosing a digital note-taking system and applying some organization, and determining how you want to approach your notes for classes.  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!

Organizational Tools:

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