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Organizing and Planning Your Future, Maximizing Your Success

As you’ve probably seen in my last few posts, there are so many different parts of your life that you can organize to help you increase productivity and achieve your daily goals. Even still, as college students, there’s an element of our lives that might seem far too confusing and uncertain to organize: our futures. Some people know exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it, while others have no idea where to even begin. My ideas and plans for my own future are still pretty vague, which I’m sure is a common occurrence for college students, so I want to use this opportunity to talk about the best ways to start planning for your post-college life.

One of the most important things to remember if you’re going to start setting a plan for your future is that it’s okay if it ends up going off course. Your future might not go the way you plan, and that’s 100% okay! Sometimes the best things in life are the ones we don’t plan for or expect, and although it’s great to have some kind of idea of how you want your future to go, it’s okay if you have to change and adjust your plan as time goes on.

When it comes to future-planning, starting is the hardest part. My suggestion here is to start with a simple list. It can be as short or as long as you want, and include a variety of elements for your short or long-term future. Since I’ll be graduating from college in just a few months, I’ll probably start my future list as goals for the upcoming year, and include things that I want to accomplish in my first year after graduating. 

Some goal types that might be helpful to include in your one or two-year future list are:

What you want your living situation to be like

What job you would like to have

Places you want to visit

Some experiences you would like to have

Specific goals you want to achieve (for example: learn a language, master a new skill, overcome a fear, etc.)

For more great shorter-term goal ideas, check out this list

(your own list can be as simple or as fancy as you want)

You can make a list like this at the beginning of every year, and move things to the list for the following year if there’s any goals that you don’t reach right away. In order to make this transition easier, and to keep track of everything you accomplish and achieve, I would suggest starting a future journal! Think of it like a bullet journal (you can check out my post about bullet journaling here) but just for your future goals and plans. Make sure you use a book that’s sturdy and will last you a long time, and dedicate a portion of it to each year. This way, you can track your progress each year and see in writing how far you have come. Visuals are great as well! If you draw out little maps and plans that illustrate what you want to achieve and the order in which you want to achieve it, looking at your journal and tracking your progress will be even more satisfying.

Like I said earlier, its totally fine if you don’t know exactly where you want to be in a year. Either way, it helps to write down some little ideas, because once you have a list of your goals and are able to see them in writing, it will be easier to find the motivation and determination to work towards achieving them. 2018 is a year full of potential, so get started on your own list! You’ll be amazed at how far you go.

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Organization Trends: Bullet Journal Basics

Organization isn’t really like fashion or art, where new trends constantly emerge and evolve. In all the years I’ve been into keeping my life as organized as possible, I’ve never really noticed any new or exciting techniques, but there is one trend that has grown more and more popular in the last couple of years. Around 2012, Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from Brooklyn, NY came up with the idea of the bullet journal. A bullet journal is like a personal logging system, and according to Carroll, its purpose is to “track the past, organize the present, and plan for the future.” Carroll’s method of bullet journaling has very specific steps and layouts, but you can organize yours however works best for you! In this article, I will talk about the traditional bullet journal layout, as well as ways that you can make your journal your own. This trend is something I have only recently discovered, but I’ve been planning my 2018 journal ever since.

All you need in order to get your bullet journal started is a notebook and a few pens. If you end up enjoying it and want to expand, I would suggest getting a better quality book and pens in a variety of colors, but starting simple is the way to go. Carroll’s system involves something called rapid logging, which is basically just starting each page with the date, and then filling the page with a list of tasks, notes, events, ideas, and whatever else you want to keep track of. This is called the daily log, and this method expands into weekly logs and monthly logs as well. It sounds complicated, but once you start, you’ll realize that its much easier than it seems. To help explain and demonstrate these methods even further, check out this video from Carroll himself.

I found out about bullet journaling a few months ago while browsing Pinterest, and I was immediately interested. I love writing down my tasks and checking them off as I complete them, and this seemed like a great project for me to start in 2018. To be honest, though, the detail and extent of the traditional format seemed a little too overwhelming for me, so I decided that I will set mine up in a slightly different way. I’m still going to keep my school agenda (which I talked about in my last article), but I will use my bullet journal for weekly/monthly/yearly tasks and goals, accomplishments, writing ideas, and anything else I can think of. I plan on using my journal more as a planner and 2018 scrapbook combined, and through browsing Pinterest, here are some of the fun ideas I’ve found that I plan on implementing in my journal:

Books read, movies watched, recipes made, etc in 2018

Dream log

Language vocabulary (I want to try to learn Italian next year) 

Monthly playlists

Doodle/drawing pages

Favorite memories from each month

(An example of a movie list page by that_journal on Instagram)

These are just a few little ideas, but there’s a million different types of pages that you can have in your journal. The video doesn’t mention it, but most people who’ve adopted this practice don’t only use their journal for planning each day; they include lots of fun and interesting pages and lists to keep track of what goes on each year. For more ideas, I would suggest checking out Pinterest, and simply googling “bullet journal blogs.” There are more than you could possibly imagine, and they’re all full of great ideas. I will definitely make another post once my journal has been started, featuring some of the pages that I’ve created! If you start a bullet journal in 2018, send me a message and I’ll share all of your creations here as well!

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Stress Reduction = Schoolwork Organization: Tips For Organizing and Staying on Top of Your Assignments

One of the quickest paths to extreme stress and the feeling of a lack of control in your life is to get behind on homework and school assignments. It can be very hard to stay on top of all the work that gets piled on us in college, and I know from experience that getting behind on homework just makes it seem even harder and more impossible. In order to be as productive as possible, it is important to keep your schoolwork organized, so you know exactly what you need to do and when it needs to get done. This is something that has always come easy for me, but is something that I know others struggle with, so I will offer some of my best tips for organizing your homework and assignments so that you can tackle them before you get too behind. 

In terms of physical organization, here are some of the ways that I keep track of everything that needs to get done:

Keep an agenda. I truly do not know how I would keep track of everything that I need to do without my agenda. I would suggest color-coding your assignments based on the class that they are for, and writing them down on the day that they are due. Doing so makes it easier to look at the week as a whole and determine what needs to get done first.

Utilize a month-view calendar. I always do this for the last month of the semester, because it’s another effective way of deciding which assignments are of the highest priority.

Keep a separate binder for each class and always keep your notes and papers in date-order. Most assignments will require you to look back on notes or handouts from the past, so the easier it is to find the things you need, the quicker you will be able to finish your current homework assignments.

(pictured above: a past week in my agenda. I use different pen colors {blue, orange, pink, and black} for the assignments for my four classes)

(pictured above: my month-view calendar for December, which reflects everything that is due by the end of the semester)

As well as physical organization of your binders, notes, and assignments, organization of your time is also vital to excelling in school and keeping a grip on all of the work that you need to get done. Procrastination is such an issue for so many students, and can be habit that’s very hard to break. Not waiting until the last minute to do your assignments is a piece of advice that’s easier said than done, but there is another method that I have found to be helpful for productivity and keeping all of my schoolwork sorted and organized. When you sit down to do homework, have that be the only thing you are doing. First, set aside a specific timeframe in which you want to get your assignments done. I like to choose days when I don’t have to work, so that I can break up my day between homework and allowing myself some time to relax. When you reach the time period in which you want to work on your assignments, put your phone out of reach. I know, I know, this is something that sounds near impossible, but when you aren’t distracted and tempted to reach for it, you’ll get a lot more done a lot faster. Another way that I try to reduce distraction while doing homework is to have one internet window filled with tabs for my social media and anything else I’m looking at that’s not related to school, and a separate one for tabs related to any homework assignments or research that I’m working on. This helps me to focus only on my homework (since the internet can be a black hole of distraction when completing your homework on your laptop) and reduces my urge to switch to a new tab and scroll Twitter when I should actually be working. Organizing your time in a way that allows you to focus solely on the work you need to get done will be extremely helpful for your productivity and your ability to tackle all of your assignments without distraction. 

I hope these tips help you to feel a little less overwhelmed when it comes to homework and assignments! Be sure to use the ask box to share the other ways that you keep your school life sorted!

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Phone Organization Tips and Tricks To Make Your Life Easier

College students differ in a number of ways, from the classes and jobs we have to what we do on Saturday nights, but one consistency that I have noticed among my friends and classmates is that we are almost all owners of some type of smartphone. Many of us, myself included, have become very attached to our phones, and use them for a number of purposes throughout the day beyond just texting or Snapchatting. Through my time as a smartphone user, I have found that there are a number of features on a phone that can be used for organization, and endless possibilities when it comes to apps that can serve the same purpose. Keeping your phone itself organized is different than using the features of your phone to organize and plan your daily life, and I come to you with techniques for achieving both of these goals. I like to think that my phone is one of the most organized items that I have, and I will use this opportunity to share some tips about using your phone for purposes you might not have thought of before. Our phones are almost always in our pockets or purses, so they stand out to me as a tool that we can both organize and use to make our daily tasks seem a little less overwhelming. 

One of the biggest struggles of having a smartphone is the endless battle between yourself and your storage space. I would constantly run out of space on my old phone, and when I finally got a new one with more space, I did my best to figure out ways to keep my phone as uncluttered as possible. Here are some of the ways I’ve kept my phone neat and organized that have also helped me in preserving my storage space:

Back up your photos regularly, and delete the ones you don’t need. When I let the pictures in my camera roll build up, I end up with three week’s worth of shopping screenshots and memes that I forgot to show my brother. If you keep up with backing up your photos (I always transfer them to my laptop), you won’t have to deal with a cluttered camera roll.

Organize your app layout. I have all of my social media/productivity apps on one page, and my games on another, and it makes finding things much easier.

Use the “Reading List” feature on Safari. I used to have 15-20 tabs open on Safari at a time, and constantly lose track of things that I had meant to read, but adding articles and pages to your reading list keeps them all in one place.

(pictured above: the social media/productivity page I’ve set up on my phone)

Keeping your phone organized is a great way to preserve your storage space and decrease the stress that comes with having a device that’s full of things that you don’t really need. Beyond this, though, you can utilize the elements of your smartphone to help with organizing and planning your day, and keeping your life in order as much as possible. Two of the most under-utilized and basic elements of a smartphone are the pre-installed notes and reminders apps. I only recently started using them regularly, but I find that they are great for keeping track of my thoughts, ideas, and daily tasks. I love creative writing, so lately, I’ve been using the notes app to organize my writing. I have a folder within my notes just for things that I’ve written, and creating folders will help you to sort through all the useful notes you jot down. The reminders app that comes with every iPhone is also extremely useful. You can create different lists (my current ones are general to-dos, reminders, and things to make) and check off each task as you go! This is something that I find very satisfying because I am big on using lists for organization. You can also label each task by importance, and set the app to send you notification reminders at any time. 

(pictured above: the folders in my notes app)

As well as these two pre-installed apps, here are some other organization-type apps that make life a little easier:

HabitMinder: This app is an effective and visually pleasing way to track your progress with certain habits like exercise, hydration, breathing, and sleep.

24me: Working like a personal assistant, this app holds all of your calendars, tasks, and notes, and sends you reminders for everything from birthdays to the items on your shopping list.

Evernote: Different from other to-do list apps, this app organizes your lists in “notebooks,” and allows you to take notes in sketch, audio, or even video format.

Google Calendar: This app is another way to organize your daily goals and to-do lists, but allows you to view your calendars in different formats and connects to your Apple Health account to track your exercise progress.

These are just a few simple tips that I’ve used to keep my phone clutter-free and to use it to its full potential. I hope you all find them to be helpful, and be sure to use the ask box to submit any other phone organization tips or ideas you might have!

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About this Blog

Hello! My name is Julia, and I am 21 years old and a senior at Ramapo College of New Jersey. I am a Communication Arts major with a concentration in Global Communication and Media, and my main skills and interests in this area are writing and social media management. I hope to use these skills in order to work for a magazine someday, whether it be writing, editing, or doing layouts. I absolutely love New York City, and that is where I hope to work, since I live only 45 minutes away! For now, I work at a babies and kids clothes store, and although retail can be very difficult at times, I think it's definitely something that has helped me improve my people skills and learn about all the types of jobs that are available out there. I'm super interested in movies, soccer, and reading, and keeping my life organized is very important to me.

My passion for organization is what led to this blog, which will be focused on organizing various elements of your life. I will talk about tips and techniques for keeping all of your tasks and assignments sorted, and making sure that you are able to make the most of your time and reduce stress. My main goal for this blog is to provide content that will help my followers to increase their productivity and reduce their stress. I think that stress reduction is an important goal because so many college students are overwhelmed with stress over their assignments and juggling everything they have to do, so it is important to me that I'm able to help students like me in finding new ways to make the things they need to do seem less overwhelming. Helping people to increase productivity is also an important goal because there are so many small changes that people can make in their lives that can lead to this, and many of them are ones that most people would not even think of. I spend a lot of my time thinking of ways to further organize my life, and if I can pass any of those tips on to other people and help them feel less stressed and more capable of getting things done, I will have met my goals for this blog!