Staying Organized: School Schedules

Happy September! To those in school: welcome back to school, everyone, I hope your first weeks have been wonderful! To those who aren't in school: I hope that your month has found you filled with many blessings and much gratitude. ♥

Courses began nearly three weeks ago for me, but many of my friends started weeks before. (My university is a bit slow on the roll. ;) But I don't mind - more summer!) These past weeks have been a struggle. Running tally:  4 or 5+ break downs, a notebook's worth of paper, a stack of printer paper, a cartridge of ink, all of my free time, and, quite possibly, my sanity. Senior year is proving to be my most trying year yet. It's hard. I'd be lying if I said I staying 100% optimistic, but defeat isn't in my nature. Perhaps I am a bit stubborn. Believe me: defeat has been contemplated. I fancied the idea of dropping courses, of changing my career direction, of tossing in the towel and throwing up a white flag. But, let me be honest now, these frustrated, self-confidence lacking thoughts, they aren't my truth. They're the vain grumbles of an overwhelmed college senior. I mean, look at me!

Playing tourist!
In the week prior to school,
a dear friend of mine accompanied me on errands -
including stopping by my campus to pick up
my semester's books.
So, naturally, we took pictures in my school's
skywalk!

Finding gratitude in the darkest of situations is my specialty. Learning energizes me. (I could do without the homework, though. ;) ) I love my college. I have been entirely blessed with the ability to pursue an education. My professors are consistently amazing. Every hour spent buried in books, assignments, and studying has been entirely worth it. My grades thus-far have been stellar and, more importantly, the knowledge I have procured is pertinent to my everyday life and to my future practice. And no matter how much I might grumble about the studying or the homework or the group projects, healthcare is my passion. My soul is filled with many passions, but there are few I'd do for a career: being a doctor is one of them. Spreading happiness and good health - which is the key to all our dreams in life - is important to me. I love to inspire people to their best selves.

In moments of grumbles and breakdowns, I remind myself of this.

In moments of clarity, I whisper: "I am doing this to be a doctor. I am doing this to be a doctor. This, too, shall pass. The end goal is worth it." And you know what? It totally is.

When you're in college and the going gets rough, you need to focus on what is giving you the drive to get through. Remind yourself of all that is good. Find something in the struggle to be grateful for - there is always something, if you dig hard enough.

Still, to help ease my anxiety and stay on-task, I have a few tricks up my sleeves.

I am energetic, a bit bounce-around-like-a-ping-pong-ball, and simultaneously introverted. I prefer to brainstorm than outline. To-do lists are more suggestions than requirements. Drafting an essay on the first paragraph and ending at the conclusion, rather than wherever inspiration hits, brings anxiety. When I'm overwhelmed, productivity stops. I have to backtrack, find something else to do and regroup when I feel more able. In my personal life, this has served me well. In college, not so much. I have learned to adapt to survive; albeit, not always well. Sometimes it is an up-hill bicycle ride. But a girl has got to do what she's got to do! Make like nature and evolve! ;) (Biology humor for your day ;) ).

Trick #1: Organize your life.
If organizing can be your best friend, your life is made.

Meet my desk view:

I have two white boards, an academic planner, a personal planner, and a to-do list organized by academic and recreational factions. Leave no stone unturned! This is my monthly calendar. Here I can see the big picture, everything that is due in the entire month. When I took this picture, it was before a lot of my assignments were posted. None of my personal appointments or important recreational events, such as Rush, were posted, either. The space is pretty bare as a result - it never stays this way.  All major assignments, weekly assignments, appointments, events, and examinations go here. I color code the days of the week by courses and the weekends are left without color. The color coding helps me memorize my schedule.

Additionally, every course is associated with a specific color. My human nutrition course (online) is in green. My wellness education, blue. So on and so forth. If an assignment for that class were due, I'd write it in with the associated color. Black and Brown are my not-organized category. They fill in whatever my other categories don't cover, such as appointments.

This whiteboard I love because it also has space for additional notes, magnetic information holding, and a cork-board that can be used productively (you know, for things) or for holding mementos.

Add caption

Up close and personal! It was about this time that I forgot to mark down birthdays. I put mine down (shown below) and then began adding in others' - I wasn't able to get a shot of that, though.

Below is my weekly calendar. Every Sunday I organize my week based upon this. I write down everything that needs completion throughout the week and when everything is due, recreational and academic. This schedule was from Labor Day week, to show a basic idea of set-up, but the vastness of assignments and responsibilities has easily doubled.

I try to organize this as best as possible so that I have what needs to be done in an order of how I want to do it, or what is most urgent and pressing. Additionally, I try to clump together assignments for courses. That way, if I say "what do I need to do in Chemistry today?" I look for the chemistry group each day to see what I have left to do.

As I said before, to-do lists are often suggestions to me. I still struggle with them. (They are really important and helpful, though!) For example, I had a to-do list for this weekend that wasn't half-way finished by the end of it. Some assignments take longer than others which means you cannot always be Superman or Supergirl!

Starring important tasks the night before helps keep me on task, at least a smidgeon more.

My academic planner! Arguably the most important of them all. I always use the huge At-A-Glance planners. These have tons of space in their calendar sections at the beginning of the month, as well as tons of space for week-by-week use.

All of my assignments, to-dos, course times, and events go here. I write time-frames from 7am-on on the weekly sections. I then color code my classes (i.e. chemistry is orange, statistics is purple) with highlighters. For the first few weeks I block off 2-3 spaces per time period for my classes to make sure I get in my brain my course times. After that I just highlight the course name itself. Following every course name are assignments due and homework to be done for next class. Anything after the highlighted sections is extracurricular (or "recreational").

Here is the calendar portion! In order to remember when I have exams and what classes they are in, I highlight the exam #1 with the associated course number (i.e. orange for chemistry, purple for statistics). All of the major projects are written here, plus project deadlines, exams, and school vacations.

My personal planner. This is a moleskin given to me by a fellow writing buddy, but it needn't be so fancy. (Though, goodness, I adore this one so much I might splurge on myself next year.) This is small and convenient to stick in my purse and keep with me on-the-go. On the Notes side are things to do while I'm out or other to-dos (rarely homework, but sometimes!). The weekly calendar side has events for that week so that I know what to plan appointments around while I'm out. Here I include examinations and study-group sessions, because those are important to plan around.

Finally, my last portion: the to-do list. I always separate academic and recreational so I can prioritize and have clearer vision. As I complete an assignment or "to-do" I check it off or scratch it out. If I have something left to do on it after it is done (say, a question) I write it in color next to the list item. Being in color while everything else is black will assure that I do not forget it!

Update: I haven't been able to take pictures of what my whiteboards and planners look like (honestly, I haven't had the time to); however, I managed to snag a quick picture before Recruitment of what my to-do list looks like now. It shows a good transition between beginning of semester and the heat of it. Plus, it serves as my case for future absences from this blog. I'm in over my head, guys, but I'm still swimming!

As soon as I get the chance, I will take a picture of my current whiteboards and make a new post.

For reference, I thought I'd show how my
to-do list has grown as the weeks continue on.
I've gone from a mini notepad to a large one,
in order to fit it all in. Between all of my classes,
I've easily exceeded 40 items. (For example,
there are 4 courses listed on the front sheet you see.
Another ten items are on the back, for another class.)

Keep in mind, this is weekly assignments, mostly.

And note how tiny my "recreational" list is.

Trick #2: Take everything in small chunks. Do not let yourself stare at a long to-do list and freeze. You will cause an anxiety attack this way. Strip it down bullet-by-bullet. Peel away the layers. You can do this.

Trick #3: Do NOT think too far in advance, too often. Sometimes it is important to think about semester long assignments and it is easier and more beneficial to study a little each day for an exam, than cram the night before. But be weary! It is very easy to get stuck in this future-focused mentality which causes immense anxiety.

Be mindful in the present. Remember, as a professor of mine told us all today: "wherever your buttocks are, so should be your brain."

Trick #4: Take that mountain. Take a page out of another professor's book. Chemistry is absolutely terrifying. Studying for it makes me nearly hyperventilate. Other times I want to take my textbook and throw it across the room.  My professor is not naive to this. The first day of classes, as we were sitting there sweating buckets, she had us write a list. It was a list of great challenges we have overcome in life. Any moment that felt it was going to be impossible to achieve or overcome or get through, but in the end we did. Something that took great work and in the end we succeeded in. Anything. We're more capable than we might think we are. If we can do that, we can do this.

Mountains are not scaled in one leap.

Write yourself a list.

It is easy to get bogged down by what is going on in the now and forget what greatness lies within us. While struggling through problems and concepts, or, heck, any other life difficulty, it is important to look back and remember you've overcome challenges before and you can overcome this one. Even if the mountain feels insurmountable, it can be climbed - one step at a time.

Guest Post: Back To School Goals

It's coming in, it's coming in! My beautiful, wonderful Sky has officially been shipped is en route to my home. You will have bundles of post from me yet! Until then, enjoy this awesome guest post brought to you by my fellow Her Campus Blogger Network blogger, Beth. After reading this post, go to her social media links and show her some love!

You can find Beth...
On facebook: Wandering Forevermore
On Bloglovin: her blog's page and her personal one
On Twitter: here
On Pinterest: here
and on her blog: Wandering Forevermore

Hello everyone! I am so excited to be sharing my back to school goals with you today. To share just a little bit about myself... My name is Beth and I blog at Wandering Forevermore. I am a sophomore transfer student at Georgia Southern University with a double major in biology and psychology. I spend my free time pinning crafts and procrastinating instead of doing them!

I am unsure about you, but for me classes start back in less than a week. It is a scary thought and I have felt all emotions from anxiety to excitement, stress to hopefulness. I did not set goals for myself my freshman year of college which led to me having no expectations to hold myself up to... big fail on my part.

This semester I am setting [reasonable] goals and sticking to them!


Goal 1 - Plan my week out each Sunday
           Sunday's are easy days for me. Last semester, I used Sundays to do absolutely nothing. Even though this was nice, I do not need to allow myself to have non-productive days! So each Sunday, I will be planning out my classwork, blog needs, social life, and anything else that may come up. From this I hope to secure a sense of control of my life!

Goal 2 - Use my agenda daily
           To be honest, I love my agenda! I practically live out of it, but I have noticed if I go a day without using it, I get far behind in my work. This semester I plan to take at least 5 minutes each morning to write down important stuff and see what all I have to get done that day or week.

Goal 3 - Pamper myself weekly
           When life gets stressful, I notice the first thing I begin to neglect is myself. I will not get enough sleep or will begin eating healthy. I will let my nails go unpolished or fall asleep without removing my make-up. To beat this, I am scheduling in a weekly pamper session. Each Sunday, I will take time to give myself a pedicure and manicure as well as a face mask and hair mask. I know if I make this a thing I have to do the benefits will be great. I also plan to schedule one monthly professional massage, facial, or mani/pedi.
         
Goal 4 - Stick to a sleep schedule
           If there is one thing I know about myself, it is that without sleep I am something from the devil. When my classes are done at 10am, I find it so easy to go back to sleep until 1pm. However, this completely messes up my sleep schedule so I will aim to do better this semester. A specific bed time and daily wake up time will help me loads. This goal does not mean I can't take an occasional 30 minute power nap!

Goal 5 - Track daily fitness
           This semester I aim to workout at least 10 minutes each day (this does not count my mile long walk to class!) I also plan to track my daily fitness both on a fitness app and my blog in order to see how far I have come fitness wise from the beginning of the semester to the end!

Goal 6 - Stick to a budget
           This was certainly something I did not do at all my freshman year of college. I blew right through my graduation money within two months of college and struggled for the other eight months. This semester without a meal plan and with living off campus I will have to work extra hard to stick to my budget I create and keep my money in check.

Goal 7 - Have fun!
           I realize that college only lasts a short while and that I need to live it up while it lasts. While I am sticking to my goals, I also have to remember to do fun things with my friends. Spontaneous road trips and football games are things that will create lasting memories during this part of my life. I have to remember that sometimes it is ok to stray from my schedule and have fun!


What are your goals this semester?

Creative, Organized and Expressive with BIC® 4-Color™ Pens!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of BIC 4-Color pen. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was younger I had a magic pen. Wherever I went, I had more than just black ink at my ready. Pink, greens, reds, blues - I had a rainbow of colors in one pen.

Who remembers the all-in-one multiple color pens we had as kids? You know the ones I’m talking about, where all you had to do was click down your favorite color – blue, red, green, or black – and BOOM! Instant color. When you wanted to switch colors? No problem! Just click down one of the other colors and it was there; no need for multiple pens. These were my magic pens. They were my favorite! I never had to carry more than one pen on my person because the pen itself contained 4 Inseparable Colors in 1 Pen. The pen felt as if it were a special secret of mine I cherished daily. Then, one day I couldn’t find it anymore. For years I carried multiple pens around, ignorant to other options. I had no idea 4 Inseparable Colors in 1 Pen still existed in one pen until I saw these commercials for BIC® 4-Color™!





Cue a wide-eyed, heart pounding, edge-of-my-seat watching gasp. They do exist!

In that moment, I knew I’d met my newest investment. My “magic” pens were back.

I am a pen addict. Pens are everywhere in my house. Pens are in my desk, in my backpack, in my purse, in my pencil holders on my desk, in the center console of my car, and in a filing cabinet beside my desk. Sometimes I find them stuck in between cushions or buried in quilts. I’ve got pens coming out of my ears. Why would I still need 4 Inseparable Colors in 1 pen?

Whenever I go to buy a new pen, no matter its purpose, mom looks at me and says: “More pens? You don’t need more!” Then I try to convince her I do indeed need more. This particular persuasion argument was simple: The BIC® 4-Color™ pen isn’t a regular pen. This pen means convenience, less clutter, better organization, a lot of fun, and, most importantly, saved money. (As a college student swimming in loans, money is always a huge issue.)

Here’s why:

As a college student, the most important thing you can do is stay organized.  As a high school student, the most important thing you can do is stay organized. As a (insert your profession here – full-time mom or dad to business person), the most important thing you can do is stay organized. I learned this in high school from hard honors, college prep, and dual enrollment courses. Organization keeps stress at bay. It saves a lot of headaches and hair pulling. This applies for everything from to-do lists to class notes. (All of your note-taking means nothing if you cannot keep your thoughts organized!) The best way to organize is with color!  Color coding is a fun and easy way to organize thoughts or outline; the BIC® 4-Color™ pen makes this even easier.

My usual tool for organizing course notes, formulating outlines, or any other thought collection is to carry around this bag of colored pens, black pens and pencils that is bursting at the seams.



Goodbye bulk, hello convenience.

The majority of my backpack weight is this beast.  I need colored pens for organization all of my black and colored pens are being lugged around with me! Pen weight adds up fast and is awkward and cumbersome. Plus, buying all of those extra packages of colored pens adds up in price! If I run out of one pen color, I have to buy a pack of four or five colors I do not need to get the color. (The excess pen-clutter adds up fast, too.)  Being able to carry only one pen around with me, complete with four fun and expressive colors, lightens my backpack, lightens the load on my wallet, and increases my productivity, no more wasting time hunting through my pen bag for the right color!  Where I had to carry a mass of pens, I will now only have one.

Best of all: BIC® 4-Color™ are refillable!.  No more having to constantly rebuy my pens every time I run out. (As an eco-friendly fanatic, the less “junk” I throw away, the better.)

Here are some ways that the 4 distinct colors (and their unique personalities) of the BIC® 4-Color™ pens can help organize your life:

When creating To-do lists…
- Red: Important & urgent (and for crossing off your completed tasks!)
- Green: Important and semi-urgent
- Blue: Important and not-urgent
- Black: neither important nor urgent.

When organizing my planner…
I organize by color! This helps me coordinate what I have due for classes and for appointments throughout the month.  For example: Red, for all of his Type-A-ness, is for the urgent stuff, like exams and major assignments. Green, who is often left out in favor of the others, tends to be for meetings or appointments. Blue, always in competition with Black, beats him in a race for the lesser important assignments, such as weekly things. Lastly, Black, the “Undisputed Master of the World,” usually lists the courses, any extracurricular activities such as seeing friends, or personal goals for the week – since they seem to rule my world.

Other ways BIC® 4-Color™ pens improve your busy life:

- Organizing notecards. As a busy college student, one of my study methods is creating notecards. This is a valuable study method I learned in high school. Sometimes I create notecards on the run! Separating definitions from examples or emphasizing important words using different colors is only one color-click away with the BIC® 4-Color™ pen.

- Organizing note outlines before or after class. Outlines are a great way to stay organized! It is another great study technique as well. Headings, subheadings, definitions, examples, and emphasis are all easily organized with the different colors BIC® 4-Color™ pens offer.

- Organize and outline thoughts, for any project. Whether I am outline a novel, a blog post, an email, or a letter having four colors in one pen conveniently allows for planning what I want to say. (And for having fun while doing it!)

- They are great for fun and expressive proof reading. Red likes when things are correct, so it is great for correcting papers! But if you are in the mood to give jealous Green a little bit of lovin’ give him a shot at the game.

- Lastly, my personal favorite: note taking.
Rather than keeping that bulky pen case on me to organize my notes, I can use one pen! Colored ink is my way to organize notes in the heat of an intense lecture. Definitions, margin notes, concept drawings, side-topics, separation of topic headings – in all of these I alternate colors. Normally, I have to sit with my huge pen case on my lap, digging and scrambling in between colors to search for the next.  But no more! With BIC® 4-Color™ pens, I am just one click away from a new color. I do not have to worry about missing vital lecture material while searching for a new color, or risk losing the color all together: one click and I have my desired color.

BIC® 4-Color™ pens are not only great organizational tools. They also fun & colorful creative expression!

Last week, I was super excited to use my laboratory partner’s BIC® 4-Color™ pen on our creative project.  We labeled, drew, and decorated a model of the digestive system with the use of two BIC® 4-Color™  pens! (Which, I might add, we won 1^st place for our colorful, creative, and accurate depiction.) It was my first time using the new BIC® 4-Color™ pens and without question, I was sold. They wrote smoothly and their color was vibrant.

In my personal life, BIC® 4-Color™ pens are great for organizing story outlines or making side commentaries on what I need to refer back to, change, or add. Without the colors, commentaries become muddled. Most of my writing is on the fly – in bus stops, at doctor’s offices, or while I’m curled up in the corner of a coffee shop. It is also usually spur of the moment and unplanned. When inspiration strikes, I heed her sweet call! Carrying around a pen case to hold my colored and black pens to suffice this is a pain and simply not practical. Carrying around just one or two BIC® 4-Color™  pens, though? That’s music to my ears.

They are also a great way to journal or write letters, in multiple colors for whatever fits your mood! The 4 colors of the BIC® 4-Color™ come with 4 distinct personalities for expressing whatever mood, feeling or thought you may have. Some days when I am journaling, writing letters or brainstorming I feel like writing in red, green, or blue ink – something different than black – dependent upon my mood. Blue and black are more serious colors, for serious business – though they may have to vie for who wins my attention. When I need to make corrections or I am feeling Type A, demanding perfection and correctness, I might want red. Green and I share a common bond; we’re kindred spirits. He is a foodie, I’m a foodie. He’s the quiet one, sometimes overlooked, as am I: he’ll always have a special place in my heart and a constant home in my journal. But without the BIC® 4-Color™ pen, I might not have the color on me I need to express myself in that moment because I didn’t want to lug around my pen case. With the BIC® 4-Color™ pen that problem is solved: 4 colors, one pen, and easy portability.

Confession: I’m a closet doodler. Perhaps not what most people think of as a use of artistic talent, but doodling is an artistic weak-spot of mine. When I cannot take the time to create professional pieces of art, I doodle – in notebook margins, on printer paper, whatever I can get my hands on. I cannot help it! Fun & colorful expression is a huge part of my life. 4 colors with 4 distinct personalities help in expressing different moods and feelings through my doodles. It is how I de-stress and express myself when I have no other means. The color variety in one pen allows me to immerse in my doodles, filling them with color. I can really “get in the zone.” My friends and I have even doodled together, passing around the pen, each using a different color, to create one master doodle together!

I am looking forward to stocking up on these and using them throughout my summer semester.  I am also super excited to find out that there are more BIC® 4-Color™ color options in select stores throughout the country and world. Check out BIC for more information on the 4-Color pen and all its options.  Visit your local stores or shop online in the convenience of your own home at Staples or Amazon to purchase a pen of your own. Experience the awesome!

To get to know the four colors better, you can follow BIC® 4-Color™pen on Facebook and Twitter. Follow their adventures, enjoy their fun daily updates (from selfies to live tweeting and Green’s poetry), and receive more information on BIC® 4-Color™!