I Went Nuts Organizing, Part 1: The Student Planner

Several of my friends and family have taken note that in the past week, I have been practically living in my basement organizing, well, everything I could put my hands on. However, I created a few organization systems that I would like to share with you readers, so that maybe it could be useful to you as well.

Today I'd like to start the series with one of my new best friends: my student planner.

Materials:

• A 2-inch binder
• Copy paper (colored or plain)
• A printer
• Microsoft Word or Google Drive (I used Drive.)
• Colorful Paper of some sort (copy paper or standard construction paper)
• Labels & Notebook paper, Sheet Protectors, or Dividers
• A weekly planner that works best for you, which has 3 holes down the side, so that it can fit in a binder (My weekly planner was provided by my school, but you can buy them virtually anywhere on the internet or in office supply stores.)
• 3-hole puncher
• Pens/Pencils/Markers/Colored Pencils/Crayons

Now this may seem like a lot, but these were all things that I found around the house or were already provided for me. The good news is that it's school supply season, so most of these materials should be reasonably inexpensive. 

Step 1: Reflecting
If you're a high school student like I am, chances are, maintaining a student planner is not your first rodeo. Think about what you've always wanted in a planner that the store brand never has. Answer the question, "What does my dream planner consist of?" Does it have a fitness log or a monthly goals page? Does it have a notebook as a journal or encouraging verses to get you through the day?

Step 2: "Have It Your Way"& Monthly Planner
Now that you've thought about the things that make the perfect planner, make a document in Google Drive or Microsoft Word that starts to fill in all the things you've wanted.
For me, I wanted different sections in my binder that had daily routines, a monthly planner, weekly planner, daily planner, and school-year calendars along with other schedules, calendars, and agendas. So, I started a document in Google Drive in which my first page had the name of my schools, the school year, my name, my grade, my homeroom teacher, and the label that it's a student planner: 

On the next page of my document, I started a monthly planner page. Now, this varies for different people depending on what they want in a planner, but I made a section for what month it was, my monthly resolutions, and important events and their dates. 

The important events section is so that I can write down all of the important events coming up in the month such as big projects, concerts, school meetings, etc. and then write them down on a month calendar that would look like this each month:

Step 3: Weekly Planner

The next step is to make sure you have everything in your weekly planner that you want. If you don't want to buy a weekly planner, then make your own! 

Step 4: Daily Planner

In my document, after the monthly planner pages, I made a daily planner section. This is where I customized the most, because each day is where I make the biggest planning decisions. I started by putting a header and a space for the date. Then I made an agenda table like this:

This helps me organize when I can do certain things during the day. For example, in the mornings and early afternoons during the school year, I have school assembly, class devotions, online classes, and then electives. But then after school, I have things to do such as music practice and rehearsals, youth group meetings, exercise, dinner with the family, and so forth, which makes things difficult to schedule in things like homework.

If you have a Google Calendar account, that might work better for you as well, so that you can see different colors for events, and easily print out your calendars.

After I make a daily agenda, I use the next page on my document for my personal customizations. First, I made tables for practice, exercise, and quiet time with God.

Since I know that I have to practice at least 30 minutes every day, spend at least 30-60 minutes exercising every day, and make sure that I dedicate my life to the Lord in His Word, I make sure that I record those things in my planner to keep myself responsible.

Next, I made a prioritized to-do list section. I have a lot of assignments at my school, and it's often difficult to prioritize what I need to do each day in order to get them done. So, I made a table of 5 items to complete during the day in prioritized order along with a check box on the side, so I can check each item off as they are completed.

My next items are a bullet list table of reminders and chores. Reminders are like my organized sticky notes in my planner so that I don't forget certain small things I still need to do, and of course, what chores I need to do when I get home from school that day.

After that, there are things that I know I still have to do that might not have made it onto the prioritized list that day, but could still get done in time to spare.

Then, I have the bullet list tables of prayer requests and things that I need to ask my parents that day. These are both important because each day we have things we have to come to God for, and then we have to come to our parents for when we need help or support.

Finally, I have a list of free-time rewards. This is one of my favorites, because it helps me remember that after all the work I get done, I can spend some time playing a board game with my family, watching my favorite t.v. show, or even catching up on my favorite blogs.

Step 5: Academic Calendars

The next page in your document should be a copy-paste page from your school website about important events coming up in the academic school year. If you only got a hand out of this page on the first day of school, then 3-hole punch it and save it for when you put it in your binder.

Step 6: Routines

I made a separate document for this step. During the school year, I tend to be in the bad habit of dilly-dallying when I should be doing something productive. Making routines for the mornings, evenings, and at school can be really helpful if you struggle with this too.

Step 7: Extras

After all of your planners are typed up, maybe you still want a fitness journal or a diary or extra notebook paper in the back of your planner. Keep an inventory of all of the extra things you still would like to have in your planner and make sure that it is doable.

Step 8: Placement & Labeling

The next step is to print it all out and place it in the way you want it into your binder. I kept my routines in the very front, my monthly planner pages next, then my weekly planner book, my daily planner pages next, and finally, my academic calendars and extra materials in the very back. Then, label all of your sections. Maybe you like to put a colorful sheet of paper with "Monthly Planner" on the front in a sheet protector as your label, or you put a colorful tab on the first page, or you use a divider. Do whatever you want to label all of your sections of your planner. 

Step 9: Decorating

Make your binder your own. Put stickers on the front, or color your title page. Be creative!

Step 10: Maintaining

Keep your planner in a place where you know you will check it and use it constantly. All this work to make a perfect planner would go to waste if you never used it! Enjoy. :)

I hope you liked this tutorial on how to make the perfect personalized student planner. Stay tuned for more posts like this one.

Questions for the Reader: Do you have any suggestions on what other tutorials I could do similar to this one? Was this post helpful?

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." --Psalm 32:8

What's New (Literally)

Tomorrow is the first day of school.

I've been preparing for weeks in order to be ready for it, but for some reason, my mind refuses to believe that I'll be waking up at 6am tomorrow, bringing a packed lunch and new binders, and getting ready for my attendance to be recorded. This will continue to be a pattern for the next ten months, five days a week, seven hours a day. Goodness...

I think I might be worried about change. God has been changing everything around me like a storm, and yet a part of me refuses to come to terms with how wonderful it is. I find myself only seeing the negativity of change, and therefore, I'm afraid of it. I can't understand why. Change is a great thing. 

I pray that all of you who might be starting a new school year, or maybe a new phase at work may rejoice in the coming changes of your lives. It's a beautiful thing, and I'm beginning to realize that. Behold, the Lord makes all things new.

Question for the Reader: Do you ever dread the first day of school?

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." --Isaiah 43:18-19

How to Prepare for the Coming School Year

We all despise that day when we look at a calendar and realize that summer isn't going to last forever. Pretty soon, many of us will be right back where we started last August: at a school desk, listening to a lecture, writing essays, performing lab experiments, and reading until your eyes just can't take it anymore.

Now don't get me wrong, I like school. Something about it makes me want to go to the nearest Office Depot and buy everyone I know a lifetime supply of sharpened pencils. Not to mention all the ways you can decorate your binders, and label your notebooks, and cut out pieces of paper only to find one of the best crafty creations of all time. We always seem to find ourselves re-creating a mindset of eating lunch with our friends and showing our parents a report card chock full of straight A's and B's.

However, this mindset is easier to dream than to turn into a reality. How do we prepare for the challenges ahead?

Congratulations, you receive 1000 brownie points, a gold sticker, and an A+, because lucky for you all, you found my blog. So, I'd like to treat you to the master how-to checklist for conquering the preparation it takes to survive the next nine or ten months at a school desk.

1. Reflect

As students, we grow up being told to study the proper way, and the proper way is to study ourselves and figure out what works best for us. For example, in a language class, everybody has to memorize a ton of vocabulary from English to the language or the language to English. Plenty of people struggle with this, and they have to figure out what way to study truly works for them, whether it's flashcards, putting your hand over the page, or reading it over and over again until it's memorized. Before you start preparing in any other way for this coming school year, reflect on what kinds of things worked for you in studying for tests, quizzes, and homework, planning out your schedule, organizing notes and materials, and accomplishing tasks. What should you keep doing? What needs to change?

2. Inventory (Studying Materials and School Supplies)

After you reflect and answer the questions at the end of #1, the next question you need to ask yourself is, "What do I need in order to keep doing or change what I did last year?" You might need your master list of school supplies for this one. If your teachers provided one, then definitely use it, but try to add some things that you might need just for you, such as extra colored pens for color coded note-taking, or highlighters or index cards. This is one of my favorite parts because it's where I get to go on a treasure hunt around the house. Don't waste your parent's or your own money either, because if something you need is in the house and in perfectly working order, then use it for the coming school year and save your money for a new package of magic erasers to replace your crumbly, dysfunctional one.

3. Inventory (School Clothes & Teacher Recommended Items)

Speaking as a girl, certain situations arise in the late summer where I kind of freak out about my sense of style for the coming school year. I go to a school where on Fridays I have to wear uniforms, which makes things pretty easy to plan outfits, but for the rest of the week, I have more freedom to wear things outside of a more strict dress code. I'd say that the best way to prepare your closet for school is to go through it, and see what you usually wear and don't wear much at all. If you don't wear something, give it away, if you do wear it often, then keep it. If you have a dress code at your school, then make sure you have all the things you need in order to follow it. If you do not, then make sure you have appropriate and necessary clothing in order to get through the school day. Don't forget to make sure you have things like sweaters or school spirit wear so that when the weather gets colder, you'll be comfortable in class, or if you have school spirit wear, you can have it ready for spirit days.

As far as teacher recommended items go, it's important to make sure you have everything that they tell you to have ready. Most schools give out a school newsletter in the summer with information on school supplies, summer homework, and specific materials needed for each class. If possible, figure out what classes you'll be in that semester so that you can get the specific information needed for each individual class. If your school has orientations, try not to miss those either. Orientations are gold mines for important information to help you survive the school year.

4. Make a study area

At my school, I am provided with an online class study area. In other words, my brick-and-mortar school gives me an entire office area complete with a computer, a desk with a chair, a cubicle, and a bookshelf so that I can do online classes during the day, and have a homework study area in between classes as well. I love this privilege, but I lacked an area like this at home. It was great to have an area prepared to do homework at school, but I always went home to study in several different locations around the house. This resulted in several messy rooms in the house and lots of distractions, as I sometimes chose locations to study unwisely. A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would find a specific place to study at home, and stick to that place as my special "study area." Several study skills experts say this is a great thing to invest in for a student because it's consistent and helps them be much more organized. This place can be almost anywhere in the house, as long as it's in a quiet and comfortable place so that the student can focus. Make sure that you have a desk with the materials needed for homework and studying such as pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters, index cards, paper, mathematical instruments, and in some cases, a computer.

5. Organizing & Planning

Once you have everything you need in terms of materials and places to put them, it's time to organize them all. Label all of your school supplies and put them in a place where you'll know to find them when they are needed. Now of course the first day of school isn't here yet, so put the things that you'll need to bring to your locker and new classes in different bags. For example, keep your notebooks, and locker decorations in a bag for your locker stuff, and put your school supplies that you need to carry with you into different classes in your backpack. If your school doesn't provide one, make sure that you get your own student planner. It will help you organize and plan out your homework assignments, tests, and important class events and announcements, and also help you organize after-school activities. It's also a good idea to make sure you have routines planned out so that you will have good habits and get things done on time, whether it's getting to the school bus stop at the right time, getting to class on time, or doing your homework in an organized way.

So that's it! 5 ways to make sure that you are as prepared as possible for the coming school year. Except one more thing: Don't worry. God's in control. :)

Question for the Reader (A round of "Would you rather..."): Would you rather have a monkey do your homework all school year or go without all of your school supplies for the entire school year (no pens, pencils, highlighters, paper, notebooks, binders, index cards, or flash drives, etc.)?

Happy National Simplify Your Life Week!

"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." --Proverbs 2:6