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Staying Organized at School and in Everyday Life

Being organized is not difficult, but it's staying organized that is the difficult part, and I am here to help.

By Evie GalvinPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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To some, the thought of staying organised is pretty simple and even a little fun if we really admitted it, but, for many, staying organised is a chore that requires effort that leaves them with a heart rate over 200 as they run frantically around their house looking for their keys and phone to find them in their bag. I mean, we've all been there. BELIEVE ME!

In today's post, I will be focusing on staying organized at school given that I am still at school, but anyone can apply some of the techniques discussed today in their everyday life, be it for school or work.

I will begin by advising you on some things you may need in your organization kit. That's right! I am going to ensure you are fully equipped to get your s**t completely together. Being organized can begin at any age. I am only 16, but I feel it's never too late to start becoming organized, and, rest assured, we will never be perfectly one hundred percent of the time, and that is OK, too. It's important not to beat yourself up about it! Right. Now I'm going to stop running my mouth and get down to it.

I will begin by telling you that a diary or organizer of some form is a brilliant place to start. Me being me, I have both a diary and an organizer. Paperchase does loads of diaries in different sizes and colours to fit everyone, which I love. My diary is a plain "kraft A5" from Paperchase, and I love how spacious it is and how it contains areas for notes, addresses, websites you need to remember, and, not to mention, all that room for writing down what needs to be done on what date. It really is essential. My organiser, however, poses a different job, given that it has a huge to-do section for the nitty gritty parts of my day as well as a "notes" section and a timetable. It's from Ohh Deer, by the way. You should definitely check out their range of daily journals. They're so gorgeous.

So, now you have a diary; next is obviously sticky notes, and, let me tell you, I'm a bit of a sticky note collector. I have many different sizes, shapes, colours, and some with lines and some without. These are great for writing down quick reminders and little jobs that need to be done, or you can leave a loved one a really kind note because kind gestures go a very long way. They also come in handy when studying for remembering little bits of information for exams and when analysing literature; for example, they can be used to stick in books/poems to analyse certain quotations. So, they are extremely versatile! Now, along the sticky note road, you also may want to invest in sticky tabs/page markers to mark pages in textbooks that you need to read, study, or highlight or even to keep your place in a reading book. They can also mark where you are in your diary. Do you see how all these things interact? You can get as creative as you want with them.

You now have all your paper down, but how are we going to use it without pens? You're aren't, silly! For me, I would recommend investing in a pack of "finelines" with a range of colours not only because they're pretty, but also for COLOUR COORDINATION (organisation trigger word). I will come to that later. Many brands offer finelines... Staedtler, Stabilo, Tesco, Asda, etc. So the floor is yours when it comes to choosing which ones you buy. May the force be with you! Also, invest in some plain black biros, too, because we always need these and they always get lost. BIC crystal ones are great. They're cheap but write really nicely for me.

So, now you've got pens, what will make your writing pop even more? HIGHLIGHTERS of course! I would recommend the zebra mildliners because they come in an extensive range of colours. I mean pastels, brights, and darks. Like, the whole shebang. If you thought that was it, you were very wrong. They are also double-ended, meaning it has an end for highlighting and a much thinner end for drawing and highlighting very small texts. So they are perfect. They are pricey, though, given that I have to buy them via Amazon because they aren't sold in UK shops, but they are worth the expense. However, if you can't spare the expense, Stabilo do a fantastic range of highlighters with both bright and pastel colours with amazing colour pay off!

So that's the basic kit! A diary, sticky notes, page markers, fineliners, black biros, and highlighters.

But what's colour coordination? Well, it's a really important foundation for staying organized! So, I will use the example of studying because I feel it's something I can relate to the most. When in an exam, it has been found that, when using a particular colour for a particular topic, that topic is easier to remember because we relate that topic to that colour. So, we may make notes on digestion, for example, in biology, in green and highlight them in yellow. When sitting in an exam, and a question appears on digestion, we can visualise the notes because we made them in a colour different to all the other notes so they stand out in our mind. Similarly, when I have a tonne of homework to do, I will highlight tasks using a colour-coordination method. So, I usually have three highlighters on hand for my planner. I will use one colour for today's task, another for tomorrow, and another for the days after that. That way, I can visualize exactly what I need to complete, and we can adapt this in everyday life with housework or chores and when they need to be done and by whom they need to be done by. It's just a visual way of keeping everything tidy, and that is the foundation of being organized.

This has been a very long one so props to you for sticking with it and reading this far and thanks very much! Keep your eyes peeled for more from me.

Evie X

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About the Creator

Evie Galvin

Hello.

My posts will be lifestyle based - makeup, fitness, fashion, school and that kinda stuff. Stay tuned and I hope you enjoy reading ❤️

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