∘ The Girls Guide 🌸 | Lifestyle Advice ∘

∘ Organizational Hacks - Sydney ∘

hello! i'm sydney. today i'm here to talk about organization, focusing primarily on organization at school. here are some tips that i personally use, or that i've found online on pinterest or tumblr. please feel free to drop your favorite hacks in the comment section, and i will add them to my list.

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planner:
my first organizational tool i'm listing is a planner. it may seem obvious that this is super helpful, but i've noticed many students do not use one. i personally found getting into the habit of writing a play-by-play of my school day a bit difficult! i write down every class period in order, followed by a colon, and whatever i learned about in that class. if there was an assignment in a textbook i write down the page number. it usually comes out something like, "civics: declaration of independence / pg. 51 - 55."

as soon as you learn of a test date or due date, write it in your planner! you're very much less likely to forget the date and see your reminder to study.
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bullet journal:

bullet journals and i have an interesting relationship; let me explain. i love the concept of bullet journals, but i can't get myself to continuously work on mine for more than a handful of days at a time. if you know anything about billet journals, you know that it doesn't work, as you have to consistently input data. let's just pretend i'm an expert bullet journaller and proceed.

a bullet journal is a planner, plus whatever else you make it out to be! there's an official bullet journal, but it's very expensive, and most people just buy a blank sketchbook from the store, so that's how i will be describing the bullet journal. in your blank sketchbook, make the first page a table of contents. update it every time you add a page to your journal. you typically make a weekly or monthly spread. a weekly spread looks like the inside of a planner (but customized to fit your schedule perfectly, and homemade by you!) and a monthly spread looks like a calendar. you should update your weekly or monthly spread with every event, deadline, appointment, etc. you are met with. after you do that, you can make whatever page you want! a lot of people make trackers: menstruation trackers, calorie trackers, step trackers, sleep trackers, and more. there's no limit to what you can fill your journal pages with. pinterest will be your best friend when you're working on your bullet journal.

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note-taking:

when you're reading out of a textbook, listening to a lecture, or anything in between, note-taking is insanely helpful, especially when you find a style that works perfectly for you.

i'm going to be selfish for a moment and talk about my dilemma. i prefer the outline format of note-taking. i think it's the most organized way. my civics teacher also prefers the outline format. but my algebra teacher insists on the cornell style, which i have come to absolutely despise. meanwhile, my english teacher and health teacher both just have us jot facts down. like i said earlier, note-taking is most helpful when you find your favorite style. so what i do is i write all my notes down twice: in class with everyone else and then in my preferred method at home later. it also counts as studying, which i'll get into now.

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final note:

hi! i hope these were somewhat useful. if you have any more tips, please leave a comment & i'll add it in this part for future readers.

— sydney