6 Easy Semester Organization Tips to Keep Your Busy Semesters in Check

Please note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

The school year has finally started! I wanted to share some tips I’ve found useful when trying to stay organized for the upcoming semester. As a pre-pharmacy student, I had tons of science classes with lots of labs and assignments due throughout the semester. Science classes also require quite a bit of studying as you progress into the higher-level courses. However, none of it is impossible as long as you prepare yourself for the semester ahead. I’m going to be sharing some easy semester organization tips that I’ve found useful for myself and others to stay on top of the workload.

1. Planner

Why and What Kind

Growing up, my school gave us a planner at the beginning of every school year. I learned how to use a planner in fourth grade. I’ve bought a new yearly planner at the beginning of every school year and love using them! I know people taking the same courses as me and they refuse to write down anything. Then, there are people like me.

My planner has a monthly view and a daily view. I love the brand I use because of the little extras. The monthly view has a notes and to-do section. The daily views have spots for your schedule, top three goals for the day, to-do list, notes, and gratitude for the day. There are also different inspiring quotes each week. (If you want to know which planner I use, it’s this one!) However, everyone likes their planner a little differently than someone else. How I organize my planner might not be the most effective for you, but it’s a good place to start.

How to Use it

As soon as I get my new planner, I write all the important dates to remember. These important dates include birthdays, anniversaries, the first day of classes. Basically, anything you need to remember should be written in your planner.

Next, I find my syllabi (more on the importance of syllabi here). I write everything from each syllabus in my planner, in the order of the classes that day. First, I start with the monthly view. I put all the due dates for assignments and exam dates with the class. Then, I highlight with a color that matches the folder I am using for that class (more on this under number 4).

After the monthly view, I go to the first week and write down what we are covering each day. This helps me to mentally plan for the day as well because I can look ahead at the chapters and get a feel for the material. Every day, I make a list in the to-do section of all the homework I need to do. Now, I don’t always finish all the homework I write down that day, but I organize it in a way that the more important stuff gets done first. As I go to my classes, I write down assignments that the instructor gives us, as well as reminders about what I need to get done. I do this every week to keep up with homework.

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but once you start doing it you will feel like you have control over your life. Using your planner can help you with your semester organization.

2. Sticky Notes

Sticky notes can be a lifesaver. They have so many different uses which make them essential for all college students. I use sticky notes for literally everything. Usually, I use them as bookmarks in my textbooks. They’re great at marking pages that have important material. If there’s a table or image I may need later in the course or in my career, I use a sticky note to save the page while labeling what that page has that’s so important. I also use them as a way of knowing where I left off in my reading. Sometimes I have to stop in the middle of a chapter and I use the sticky note to mark the section I was reading.

The great thing about sticky notes is that you can use them in so many ways. One way I used to use them was as my to-do list. I used the mini sticky notes and wrote a separate task on each sticky note. They were also color-coded based on importance. As I finished a task I could pull down the sticky note and throw it away (or recycle it!) and I had a sense of accomplishment every time I did this. I find that they help me visualize everything I need to accomplish and it helps me feel less stressed when I think about the task ahead of me. Sticky notes are a semester organization essential.

They’re also great for the minor things you don’t want to waste space putting in your planner. I like using them as little reminders. I recently got a new job and I was trying to get everything organized for my first day. Enter my sticky notes. I made a list of everything I needed for the first day and made a pile of those items. Then, I stuck the sticky note right on the stack and knew I had everything I needed.

3. Planned Study Time

I cannot stress how important it is to schedule your studying time! It sounds cheesy I know, but this is a super important semester organization skill. I used to be one of those people who said I would study whenever I have a break between classes. Then, enter Netflix and I’m sure you can see where my “study time” went.

But, that was a freshman me who was on her own for the first time in her life. Instead of studying during the day and relaxing and sleeping at night, I relaxed (and didn’t sleep!) during the day and often did homework until 2 in the morning. This isn’t a healthy thing to do all the time. You need sleep in order to function properly. That’s why it’s important to schedule your study time.

When I say to schedule your study time, I don’t just mean saying “I’m going to study from 1-3 this afternoon.” What I mean is saying “I’m going to study my clinical immunology vocabulary from 1-2:30 this afternoon, then I will read Chapter 18 for anatomy and physiology from 3-5.” You need to set a goal for each section of your study session. Make it a point to not end your study session until you reach that goal. Again, it might sound cheesy but it will make your study time more effective if you’re focused on something in particular rather than doing an assortment of assignments.

Notice how I organized my study time above. I left a gap of time between the two subjects. This is so I can, in a way, reset my brain and get it out of clinical immunology mode into anatomy and physiology mode. I think it is important to take that break because study for hours on end is a chore and if you’re not mentally there for studying, nothing is going to stick. Taking a break allows you to refresh yourself and get a snack to power your body up for another round.

4. Color Coding

Remember when I said to use highlighters and different colors for different classes? It’s not just to make your planner look pretty, but to help keep yourself organized when you have a million things to do. I’m going to break down the different ways you can use color-coding. This is probably one of my favorite tips for staying organized because it incorporates my craftiness.

In your planner

Using color coding in your planner is super helpful when you have everything due at once and it’s hard to distinguish what task goes with which class. I like to match colors as best as I can to the folder and/or notebook I’m using for each class. I probably have 3 packs of the multicolor highlighters at all times. This is because I like to keep some in my backpack, some on my desk and a backup set in case they start to dry out (or my brother gets to them and colors his pictures).

Trick #1 – Monthly View

I use the monthly view for all my due dates and highlight each due date with the matching highlighter. This creates less clutter because you don’t have to write the class name each time there’s a due date. Plus those squares for the monthly view are really small and hard to write all the information in.

Trick #2 – Daily View

The second thing I like to do with color-coding in my planner is in the daily view. Each day has a schedule section and a to-do section. I use the schedule section to write all my classes and work schedule for the day, plus anything extra that is scheduled for that day. I also put the due dates in this section. The to-do section is where a lot of my organization occurs. I use this section to write everything I need to do that day, from studying for a test to running to the store. If it’s something that I can check off when it’s done, it goes in this section. When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING!

Because I put so much in the to-do section I need a way to keep it organized and stay on task. This is where my second round of color-coding happens. My daily views have only 3 colors for them. I don’t use my matching colors in this section and you’ll see why soon.

The three colors I use in my daily section are purple, pink, and orange. The purple is used for due dates. I don’t use the matching colors because the due dates go with the class that day and I want to try to keep it as simple as possible.

The pink and orange are used to distinguish which tasks in my to-do section to complete first. Pink is the top priority. These are the things that are due either that day or within the next couple of days. These are also tasks that may take really long and need to be broken up into little bits and pieces. The orange is like the second group of things to do after the pink tasks are completed. These are things that don’t need to be done right away, but their due date is coming up shortly. Then, I leave other tasks that don’t need to be completed right away unhighlighted.

For example, I might have a homework assignment due tomorrow, so I would highlight it pink. But I might also have a test in 3 days that I need to study for, so I’ll highlight that orange, so I see it and don’t put it off. Lastly, I might have to run to the store for shampoo, but I won’t highlight it because it can wait until my other things are done first.

Coordinating Folders and Notebooks

This part can be one of the harder tips to accomplish, just because it’s very dependent on what the stores have in stock and how much time you want to put into it. I have some tips on implementing this tip that I’ll share with you as soon as I explain why this tip helps me and what I mean.

I like to coordinate my folders with my notebooks, and often this corresponds to the color I associate with a particular subject. For instance, when I think of biology, I think of the color green because of living things and the environment. So, when I was taking general biology, my folder and corresponding notebook were green. I use OneNote to take notes in school, and it’s great because typically you can choose any color you want for the subject. I then use this to match up with a highlighter (green for this example) for all my highlighting in my planner.

However, I also like to use specific colors for classes I don’t think I’ll enjoy. I often use my favorite colors (purple and pink) for these classes. I have to take 2 semesters of biochemistry, which is not a fun class. So instead of choosing some random color, I chose a pink folder and notebook. I like choosing my favorite colors for dreaded classes because I’m more likely to open up a pink folder than a black folder to study.

Now, as I said before, this tip is dependent on what the stores have in stock. One thing I found was to not buy the cheapest folders and buy a pack of sticker labels. I used to get the cheapest folders I could find (I mean, hello, I’m a broke college student) and just write the class on them. Then I decided to become more eco-friendly. I started buying the plastic folders and wrote the class on them.

I have just about every color plastic folder I could find. They aren’t the cheapest but they also aren’t the most expensive. I use the sticker labels to write all the class information on the folder, like the course name and when and where the class meets. Each semester I use a new sticker and keep reusing the folders until they break, which has yet to happen. I have a wide variety of colors to choose from to help me color coordinate better.

5. Friend Groups

Making friends in college is not the easiest thing to do. It’s not something you can decide to do and get it done within the next couple of days. Making friends takes time, energy, and courage. When I went away to school I made so many friends who lived in the dorm with me. We were there for each other all year. But then I moved away and lost contact with them. I still follow them on social media and see what they’re up to from time to time, but that’s about the extent of our friendship now.

Then I transferred to a college close to home. I had just gotten out of a relationship and there was a lot of drama involved with that which made it hard for me to make friends when I first moved back home. Everyone I knew me as the person who was trying to break my ex and his new girlfriend up (which wasn’t the case). So I just decided to be the typical commuter student. I went to campus for classes and then went home right after. I didn’t stay to make friends and I very rarely talked to anyone in my classes. But then I met two girls in one of my labs.

We were talking about how drained we were from the 3-hour lab and how we didn’t want to stay for an hour and a half lecture. So we decided to go get dinner at one of the restaurants off-campus. The three of us ended up spending over an hour talking and getting to know one another. We exchanged Snapchat usernames to make a study group and have stayed in touch ever since. These two girls are now two of my best friends and I think we will stay friends for quite some time.

Now the whole purpose of finding friends is the whole reason I became friends with the two girls from my lab: to form a study group. This only works when you actually study during your study time (another reason tip 3 is so important and useful). It’s okay to have fun while you’re studying. In fact, I studied best when we made games out of what we were working on. Having these friends who are in your classes helps because you have someone to go to if you’re having problems understanding the material.

These friends will also help keep you on schedule with what you need to do. Whenever I don’t feel like doing homework I just text them and they yell at me to do my homework, but in a way that makes it not too mean. Having friends in similar classes is helpful in so many circumstances.

6. Use a Reward System

My final tip is something we’ve been taught from a young age. If you complete a task you get to (fill in the blank). This tip helps me get through some of the harder assignments and helps me to stay on task. You need to treat yourself every now and then, so why not treat yourself for accomplishing something that needed to be done. I use this tip a lot. It can be as simple as getting to eat a candy bar after finishing 5 homework problems. Or it could be as complex as getting your hair or nails done if you get caught up on all your homework by Saturday. Using a reward system gives you that extra motivation to do those boring tasks because you know you’ll get something good out of it.

Wrapping Things Up

I hope this post has helped you with your semester organization. Remember though, this list is not going to work for everyone. You also need to continue organizing throughout the semester for the best benefits! I know it sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, once you find what works for you, all the hard work will be worth it!

As always, if you like this post and want to stay up to date, follow me on Instagram (@averylivinglife) and Pinterest (username: averylivinglife) for news and updates on my adventures!