One of the most important ways to succeed in college is to stay organized and motivated. However, when you have seven classes, impending finals, papers to turn in and not a penny to your name, it can be difficult to see the point to any of it.
However, the moment that you start to get organized and get your ambition back in shape, you will realize that you will be able to take it all on. The key to staying organized is to get serious and to make organization a priority. When you become more organized and clutter-free, the motivation will follow.
Indeed, as the New Year begins, you may want to think about making organization and motivation a resolution. Here is how to stay organized and motivated in college.
Make Lists
One of the best ways to stay organized is to make lists. Not only do you want to make lists for the tasks you need to complete during any given day – you also want to make lists for other things as well. For instance, if you want to get exercise, you want to make a list for your routine. Keeping up with your lists will also help you stay motivated.
Create a Budget
Another way to stay organized and motivated is to create a budget. It doesn’t matter if you are taking a USC online course or a University of Fort Lauderdale in-class course, you want to know how much money you have, how much money you have coming in and what your weekly and monthly budget is. If you don’t have a budget, you could risk spending too much money and you could wind up being unable to save. As a college student, it will help to have a little savings.
Take Thorough Notes
Another way to stay organized is to take much better notes. Many students have trouble taking notes – either because their short hand isn’t short enough or they have trouble picking up everything that the professor has to say during a lecture. The truth is, though, that practicing good note taking is critical for the sake of staying organized and for the sake of remaining motivated.
Create Deadlines
In some situations, you may not exactly have a deadline for a particular assignment. For instance, you may be assigned a paper that is due at the end of the semester. Of course, the paper is due at the end of the semester, which is technically the deadline. However, if the paper or essay is 50-pages long, you probably want to start doing your research right away. Plus, you want to start writing chunks of the paper long before the official due date.
Find a Good Place to Study
On top of everything, you want to find a good place to study. If you have a big test coming up and you want to be motivated to get a great grade, you’ll want to find a space where you can spend a few hours going over the material. In the end, having a good place to study is like having a safe haven.