Useful Tips for an Organised Academic Year: A Student's Handbook

College is a hectic experience brimming with changes and challenges you've likely not faced yet. Staying sane while juggling courses, work, and your social life might seem impossible, but it all comes down to organisation.

This article brings several proven strategies to help you survive the academic year. Put them into practice, and you’ll discover that foresight and a proactive approach go a long way in college and the world that awaits.

Develop a routine and stick with it

Being prepared is the best thing you can do to ensure success in your classes, and you develop preparedness by creating a routine. You'll get syllabi for all your courses when the semester starts. Use them, along with your work schedule, knowledge of study habits, and other goals for the semester, to sketch out a routine.

Start studying from the get-go and do so regularly! That way, you'll be much less stressed during exam season. More importantly, you'll have a firm grasp of the material since you’ve been regularly reviewing instead of trying to cram knowledge into your brain at the last minute. Expect more sleep, better retention, and better grades as a result.

Plan on a smaller scale 

Once you have a rough idea of your responsibilities and free time, you can plan your days and weeks in advance. Buy a physical planner if you’re the hands-on type, or get one of the many calendar and planning apps for your laptop or phone. These are useful since they let you create virtual calendars, add notes, and make to-do lists. They’re not as satisfying as striking a task through once you’re done, though.

Have a dedicated, clutter-free study zone

Studying comes easier in a clean environment with as few distractions as possible. Your desk should only hold bare essentials like your laptop, binders, notebooks, and pens. Organising your written materials by class will help you jump straight into studying without wasting time searching for that sheet you swear was there a moment ago.

You'll want to make your study area at home bright and comfortable. More importantly, you should always study in the same place. This creates a connection in your brain, making it easier to get in the zone once you sit down to learn. You'll also fall asleep faster since that's what your brain will associate your bed with if you don't study or use the phone on it. 

Create a tidy digital environment

A clean study area won't help much if dozens of icons blot out your desktop background. You'll want to keep separate profiles for studying and entertainment/gaming to minimise digital distractions.

Create folders for each semester and subject. Fill the latter with extra ones for homework, assignments, etc., as needed. Use a naming scheme that makes sense and lets you quickly find any file.

College comes with new accounts for email, your university’s website, forums, video conferencing, and more. You should start using a password manager rather than have a variant of the same password for each login.

They can set up a long and complex password for any account, making guessing impossible. The manager also works across devices, so you can access any account even if you left your laptop at home.

Take notetaking to the next level

Notes keep you focused on a lecture and help you filter out the important stuff for more effective studying later. Some students still prefer good old pens and notebooks since you process more information as you write. Conversely, a laptop is easier to carry than five different notebooks for each class and lets you format your notes more easily.

Once you're done taking notes, you can organise them through colour coding, commenting on crucial or unclear bits, or drawing on the margins if visualising helps you understand concepts better. 

Play to your strengths

Not everyone studies the same way. You wouldn't want to work on an assignment right after lunch if you’re a night owl, would you? Also, some students thrive in group settings where they can get help with tricky subjects or quiz each other. Experiment with different study styles and stick with the one you find works best.

Don’t neglect your online safety

Some of us are most productive while sipping a latte in a busy coffee shop. The free Wi-Fi might be convenient, but hackers can also easily use it to see everything you're doing. That includes passwords, private messages, and even credit card info if you buy something while connected to the vulnerable network.

You don't need to give your favourite spot up, provided you protect your connection with a VPN. However, when selecting a VPN, make sure to avoid free VPNs. Check out the VPN comparison table on Reddit to know what features every provider offers. 

Overall, these virtual private networks use state-of-the-art encryption to make any connection untraceable and as secure as can be. Plus, they keep your online activity private from everyone, whether you go online via your smartphone or laptop.

Practice self-care

You’re not a robot, and your time in college is about more than just soaking up knowledge. Leave room in your schedule for hobbies, friends and family, relationships, and anything else that makes you happy and fulfilled.