Piles upon piles of clothes, paper and other miscellaneous items. A pathway is cleared through a student’s room in order to exit the cluttered room. Much of the student body has suffered from this scenario at some point in time, however, students have found that organization assists them in their thinking and mood throughout everyday life.
“Focus on little things that you have to get done to make your day as a whole better and easier and flow. Otherwise it’ll stress you out, you’ll feel chaotic and you’ll feel unorganized and then that will reflect in your mood, your sleep habits, it’ll reflect in your brain activity, it’ll keep you bogged down during class,” senior Mac Van Tassel said.
Assignment notebooks, iPads, phones, laptops and other devices can be used to a student’s advantage as they execute a plan to accomplish various assignments and mark important dates on the calendar. With notes apps on many electronic devices and the memorization that comes with writing on paper, organization has now been made a more accessible way of life.
“I have a Microsoft Surface which is great because I can physically write on it and take notes, which I love. So that makes it easier for me to remember things. My surface has everything I need on it. It has places for notes using OneNote where I can physically write or I can type,” Van Tassel said.
Van Tassel finds her strategy for organizing school materials to be successful in making for a smooth day, simplifying any chaos that comes with the burden of untidiness. She begins by using a planner to lay out the month, then adds things to it as plans progress. On a daily basis, Van Tassel writes assignments down so she will not forget, and writes them in order of what she hopes to accomplish.
Academics is not the only aspect of life that proves to benefit from organization. Van Tassel has seen organization play a role in her mood and mentality. One of the hardest aspects of order for her is finding a place for everything and avoiding physical clutter, as she feels it reflect in the way she feels.
“If your backpack is physically cluttered, then you’ll feel stressed when you go to look for something, and then it’ll start piling on the amount of stress that you have and it just won’t feel good,” Van Tassel said.
Organization is crucial in college as students must become more independent and rely on themselves to accomplish all that must be done in order to lead a successful college career.
“[Organization] teaches me how to prioritize things. Going to college, I’m going to be bombarded with core classes. So, learning to prioritize classes or homework over certain things teaches me how I can provide incentives for myself.”
