Get organized

It’s hard to manage schoolwork, dirty laundry and your ratings in the popularity department at the same time. But that’s college. And if you want to deal with the onslaught of endless classes, fraternity meetings and socializing events, you’ll need to start getting organized your senior year of high school. Practice makes perfect, right?

Here are our top ways to get organized now so that when college comes, you can do well in your classes, finish assignments on time, score high grades and still have a life!

Write it down
The first step to organization is always to make checklists. Start by making daily and monthly ones. The daily checklist will help you remember what you need to get done each day, and the monthly one will help you analyze how much you’re expecting from yourself and how much you’re actually doing. This will help you ensure you’re setting effective targets and actually working toward them.

Do it now
Don’t put anything important off for later. “Later” never comes. Trust me—you’ll never get around to doing something if you put it off because it’s dull or boring. You just won’t find the energy to do it. Sometimes we tend to spend more time thinking about what we want to do than we actually spend doing it, like agonizing over the report due tomorrow that you’re not in the mood to do. Instead of spending all that time thinking of what you should be doing, take Nike’s advice and “Just do it.”

Plan ahead
Jot down all the important events for the school year in your planner. (You do have a day planner, don’t you?) You’ll need to write all the important dates in it now, rather than try to remember them later. You might want to visit your school’s Web site or get hold of an academic calendar. Put in deadlines, holidays and testing dates right away.

Throw things out
We know you don’t want to throw away those tickets to the first movie you ever saw with him or the scraps of the rose he gave you on your one-month anniversary. But if you want to get organized, it’s time to throw things out. If you really, really want to keep something, put it in a special storage box with all the rest of the mushy stuff. The same goes for things you haven’t used in two years, love notes you’ve been meaning to send for ages and gifts you can’t stand the sight of. Reduce the clutter even if it’s at the cost of throwing out the pink T-shirt your girlfriend gave you…and having to explain for the next five months where it went.

Don’t bring it to college
If you’re like me, you’re not a very fussy mover. You dump everything into a box, move the box with you, and empty it out at your new place. But that can mean you have a history of digging through stuff for hours before leaving home in one red and one pink sock hoping no one will notice. But it’s much easier if you actually take the time to sort out everything before making the big move. Don’t start with your old mess in college. You’ll get a new one soon enough.

Just say no
Learn the art of saying no to more than just a boring date! You’ll be meeting a lot of new people and be presented with a ton of new opportunities in college. But don’t set out to do more than you can handle. You’ll only end up miserable and frustrated. If you’ve got an assignment due the next day and your friend’s determined to see a movie, take stock of what’s important (hint: your assignment) and do that first.

Invest in technology
Did you forget your best friend’s birthday again? Didn’t remember an assignment that was due yesterday? We feel your pain! Get technology to do the remembering for you. Buy yourself a PDA or a digital diary to keep track of important dates and events. If you’d rather go a cheaper way, get free alarm or reminder software for your computer. Make sure you set those alarms well in advance. You don’t want to be reminded of an assignment due that day at 11 p.m.!

Contrary to what you may have heard about brilliant minds and creative idols,

a messy desk isn’t going to portray you as a genius. A pig maybe, but not a genius. So get rid of that clutter right away. You’ll thank me when you don’t have to pull out the mouse cord from beneath a stack of papers every time you want to move it.

Do your own Clean Sweep!
Use these step-by-step ideas to get organized before college!

Start with an area of your room that’s the most disorganized—your desk, your closet, your books…

Pick one small area of your room to organize at a time, like a single drawer or a shelf.

Set aside time every day for clutter reduction until you’re completely clutter-free.

Completely finish one area before you start on the next.

Make three boxes and label them Love, Not So Sure and Don’t Care. Sort all your items into these three boxes. Keep the Love box and throw away the Don’t Care box. Tape up the Not So Sure box and keep it somewhere safe. If you don’t use anything in this box within the next six months, it will be time to throw away that one, too.

Article provided by