Student Organisation Tips

... AKA 'Complete Chaos That Works (sometimes)'

I finish university for good in six weeks time - I'm all done with education on the 31st of May! This is both a terrifying and fantastic thought train because quite frankly I have no idea what I want to do with my life, even though I'll be turning 23 5 days before I leave higher education. Crazy, huh?

Over my time at uni, my organisational skills have definitely developed. Whilst in the beginning they were not fantastic, they are now pretty damn good! Here's a brief overview of my desk-centric system:

The week planner



Bright, colourful and most importantly - Simple. It tells me where I need to be and when. This sits on the side of my desk so I can see it at a glance and note where I should be at that time. I've written in the times I want to wake up so I can set my alarm appropriately the night before.
Even though it's plain, the front cover of this little week planner is covered with cute little bunnies and is so gorgeous that I barely want to use it! It came from Artbox but unfortunately isn't sold any more. I actually thought it was going to be bigger when I bought it so I was a tad disappointed when it arrived and was so small (it's really tiny - it's about half the height of a postcard) as I was imagining something more similar to the A4 Paperchase weekly planners. But it does the job and it takes up hardly any room on my desk!

The list pad

Purple is one of my favourite colours so when I spotted this list pad in Staples for just 83p I knew I wanted it! It has 100 sheets of paper each in the same style and it sits on the side of my desk so I can jot down anything that comes to mind whilst I'm working away. I currently have three different pages on the go and I haven't pulled any off - they're really well bound at the top so they're all on fine even though I've been flipping between them. One page has to-do lists for uni work, one has random uni work notes, and one has 'other' to do lists on it. Typically, all my to-do lists here are long term assignment related ones. The notes section at the bottom is really handy too.
I'll let you into a secret - I actually bought this with the idea of cutting it down for filofax inserts, but in the end I decided it worked just fine as it was. And I'm pretty happy I kept it that way :)

The post it

Ok, this actually a new addition to my organisation - normally I keep my post-it to do lists on my dashboard in my FF. But as I'm using my filofax every day now it's impossible to have it open on two pages and therefore the to-do list gets ignored! So I've taken to sticking the post-it on the side of my desk where I can see it from across the room and know that it should not be ignored ;) Currently my post-it to do list has a simple outline of all the things I have to do over the next month as I keep forgetting what is actually coming up uni assignment wise; when you have so many things to do it gets confusing! Admittedly this is probably a step too far and doesn't really need to be in my organisation system but I enjoy it being there.

Finally... the big Daddy of the system...

Filofax

My filo is always very messy - I tend to write as I think of things and I just can't seem to get the hang of making it all pretty and lovely. Plus when I'm rushed I write like a child so half the handwriting is neat and half is grossly untidy... It makes me sad. Anyway. In my organisation system, my filofax is where I write down basically everything; if I need to know about it or do then it's probably on these pages! I have planned meals for the week, written in all my appointments (well, almost all), to do tasks, places I'm going, things I want to achieve and occasionally a nice quote or pretty bit of washi tape. I carry it with me wherever I go even though it's getting a bit heavy now :/ When I finish uni I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with my FF, as when I've not got deadlines and things to do I don't bother writing in it. I'm transitioning the back section into a job hunting guide (based on Paper Lovestory's amazing guide here) but I don't know how much more I will be able to use it for... That's another post though that I will write in a few weeks time!

So that's basically how I organise myself now that I have a lot of appointments to keep up with! The temptation is to spend my time organising but I guess at some point I will need to actually do the work on the to do lists, haha. If you're heading to uni then getting organised is a great idea and if you're leaving it like I am soon, then good luck!

My Week #2 (+3)

Whoops, last week got kinda busy at the end and I didn't have time to post my photo before Paper did her review so I thought I'd just keep it til this week (after all, it's not going anywhere!). This week has been less busy but still quite hectic - it's tiring work being in your last semester of university!

In week 2 I tried out a new tactic of colour coding each day separately, as you can see...

Not really my favourite thing if I'm honest. I love colour but it's too much and it's still really quite messy - plus it's a hassle trying to keep hold of the same pen for the day and remembering to switch when I need to write something new in etc. etc.

Week 3 I tried out another new tactic, this time writing everything in my fountain pen (which is black ink, I swear, but for some reason dries a really weird light brown colour... like it was written 100 years ago!). This I much prefer - the stickers and washi tape add colour but it's much neater and more organised. I think I will probably be sticking with this and just using one colour for very important dates.

For those that are interested, this is dried fountain pen ink vs fresh ink...

Odd, right?! Ah well. I quite like the brown... would be nice to have it stay black though.

I hope you've all had a good week :)

My Week #1

Now I'm sure most of you have already heard about this through Philofaxy, but I was a little late to the party so I'm starting 4 weeks in! Yes, I'm doing Paper Lovestory's 'my week' blog post train!

For those who haven't seen it, reading this blog post will explain it a little better than I can. And onto my first week!

Ok, so right at the top on the Monday header I have my budget aim for the week - this will probably stay pretty static but may change if and when I find some money! This week I aimed for £20 on everything. I did ok until yesterday when I went to go watch the rugby, had a few drinks and ended up going out * embarrassed face*. I'd been working hard all week and just needed to let my hair down! As you can see, that meant that basically nothing I had planned to do on Saturday actually got done... oh well. I had a £10 'emergency' budget fund built in (not written that down because if I do then I'll take advantage of it too much) and so in the end ending the week £12.85 over budget. Not bad, but next week needs to be better! NSD stands for 'no spend day' and means that I didn't buy anything on that day. I am aiming for a lot of these!

I've written in my lectures and commitments at the start of the week so I know where I *must* be at what time. Everything else after that is what I need to do or am attending but don't have to go to (like societies).

Down the side I have my post it notes, these were on the pages but I took them off for easy viewing. The yellow one details items I've bought online and am waiting to arrive, the stripey blue and white one is blog posts I need to write and photograph and the white one is a list of my goals for the coming month. I may have slightly failed on the last one already but I was not completely sober so I guess a little pasta sauce with meat in isn't a massive crime!

I hate how untidy and messy this week is. Next week I'm going to trial new pens and writing in one colour per day/per 'thought' and see if that's neater. I dislike the messy vibe it has going on!

So, how has your week been? Is your planner as messy as mine? Or are you as neat as possible? As many colours as possible or monochrome? Also, what do you think of the new blog layout and design? Let me know in the comments!