I have been a straight-A student nearly my entire academic career, which often leads people to assume that I have everything figured out. In their minds, I’m the epitome of a “perfect student” – one who has plans, never procrastinates, and is always one step ahead of everyone. Though my parents may disagree, that is far from the truth.
You see, being a student, a staff writer, a founder, an intern, and so much more all at once can lend itself to a lot of overwhelm. I must keep up with emails, manage deadlines, complete assignments and still manage to find time for myself. I often feel myself sitting in that overwhelm, unsure of how I can even begin to tackle my responsibilities.
Something I’ve learned is that you sometimes have to dedicate time simply to getting things in order and making sure you have what you need to be successful. It involves breaking down and separating things to ensure a balance. Whether it means dumping your entire brain’s contents onto a page every morning or messing about on Google Calendar for a few minutes, preparing yourself to focus on one thing at a time can do you wonders.
I’m here to share with you some of the ways in which I organize my life as a student. If you find something helpful, great! If not, that’s okay too! I, as your peer, want you to do what works for you.
Todoist for Task Management
This app is by far my favorite on this list. While I don’t necessarily dislike writing down my to-do lists with the traditional pen and paper, it feels less efficient and accessible when much of what I do is digital.
What I love about Todoist is that you can organize your tasks into projects based on sectors of your life or things you’re currently working on. I generally go with Work, Academic, and Personal, with more specific things nested underneath. Granted, I do pay for the Todoist Pro subscription (which is about $5 a month), but I think most students could get by with the free version. You can also organize by priority and add tags, perhaps related to the type of task it is.
I also take advantage of the Google Calendar integration so I can see which tasks need to be completed when. In fact, I like putting my assignments for The Clarion in the app!
If you’re curious about Todoist, I highly recommend checking out their website. They have a ton of information about how the app works, as well as other tips on time management and organization. Carl Pullein has an entire YouTube series on Todoist as well!
If you want to learn more about how I use Todoist – more specifically in an academic context – keep an eye on The Clarion website…
Spark for Email and Communications
I’ve been using Spark for about two years now and can say it’s made checking my inbox so much easier. Or should I say inboxes… because you can have multiple in one place.
You read that right! Spark allows you to see all the emails you’re getting to all your email addresses. I have a personal one, one for my nonprofit, one for school, and one for business. The first two are Gmail accounts, and the other two are Outlook accounts. And as you can probably guess, switching from the Gmail app to the Outlook app and back again can be a bit of a hassle. What if I want to cross-reference, for example?
With Spark, I can worry less about that. I can color code and title each of my inboxes, so I know exactly from where everything is coming and going.
There are a couple of downsides you should be aware of, though: one is that you have to pay pretty close attention to the email address you have selected. If you’re currently clicked into your school email, the client will most likely send the message you’re typing from that address. Just make sure it’s the one you want!
The other con to Spark is that things may not always sync with the ‘original’ email provider. For example, if I set a specific signature in Spark, I may not see that same signature automatically placed into my Outlook email drafts. It will show up in any emails sent through Spark in the past, but I will have to manually check that it is in all the spots I need it to be.
Unlike Todoist, the free version of Spark does what I need it to do, however I don’t know fully what its limitations are.
Pocket for Bookmarking
Pocket is something I use a bit more passively but am so glad I have! It is an app (and Chrome extension) that allows you to save web pages for later viewing.
Have an article you want to save for a research project? Pocket can help in one click!
The thing that I think makes Pocket stand out over something like Chrome’s built-in reading list is its tags and list features. While tagging it or adding it to a list does not remove it from the main Saves page (which irks me a bit, not going to lie), it does allow you to have some sense of where everything is – especially when you have a lot of items.
GoodNotes for Notetaking
As you can tell by the title, this article is focused on all things digital. And again – I have nothing against a good old notebook and pencil! But as a disabled student who prefers to carry one laptop or iPad over multiple notebooks, folders, and textbooks, I have just found GoodNotes to be an asset to me.
GoodNotes is great because you can create notebooks and documents within the app, but you can also, for example, import PDFs and images that you have outside of it. This was extremely useful in my BIO1121 and BIO1222 classes when I needed to annotate the lecture slides (shoutout to Professor Muehl, who also spoke very highly of this app).
The app is always improving – the developers just released its sixth iteration, and it’s wonderful. Though I haven’t gotten the chance to delve into all the new features, I’m already loving how I can place colors and icons on my folders!
I hope that you’ve learned something new from this! Even if what I’ve recommended doesn’t suit your needs, maybe this article will help you come up with your own organizational systems.
Remember that nothing is perfect the first time, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t find your groove right away.
Stay tuned for more tips for staying organized as a student!
Carly Webster
Staff Writer