My first resolution was to blog more. Haha, that worked out well, didn't it? 5 weeks in and I'm making my first post of the new year. My second was to be healthier. To be completely honest, I could be doing a lot more about that resolution, but I got lazy. My third was to be more on top of things when in comes to school, and surprisingly I have actually managed to keep this resolution for the most part. And my fourth resolution was to be more self-confident, optimistic, and happy in general. This has been kind of hard for me because I've grown up with a generally negative outlook, but I do have some tips that have been working for me. Of course it is a work in progress and it's not going to happen over night, but I've found that these things have been slowly been helping me.
I've decided that this year I'm not going to to let these resolutions slide and I am going to make a conscious effort to keep my resolution. This is going to be a three part blog post because there is a lot to cover. If you haven't guessed by the title, part one is going to be about tips on staying organised in school. This past semester I have managed to stay organised throughout the year and I have been rewarded with better marks. Here are some ways I've managed to do it.
1. Use notebooks instead of loose leaf
I switched to using notebooks this year and it has really helped me organize my notes. By keeping notebooks instead of loose leaf, there is literally no chance of my misplacing my notes. They are all in one place and it is so much more convenient when it comes to studying for tests.
2. Date everything
Seriously, go out with all of your notes. Haha naw I'm kidding, but writing the date on all of your notes helps a ton, whether or not you use a notebook. By putting the date on everything, instead of digging through your notes to find that one sheet that you did that one day, you can just look that the top corner of all your sheets. Also, it helps if you put your notes in chronological order, which is why I prefer notebooks over loose leaf; your notes are automatically in chronological order with notebooks.
3. Plastic sleeves
If you don't know what I am talking about, you can find these plastic sleeves at any school supply store (i.e, staples, walmart, etc.) and you can put sheets inside of them. I have 3 sleeves in my binder at all times. One is for homework, one is for forms and things that need to be handed in, and one is for and sketches or doodles I do throughout the day that I feel like keeping. I find these sleeves help me to prevent loosing important forms and keep me on track with handing in my homework.
4. Make a strict homework schedule
As soon as I get home and finish eating, I always lay out all of my homework in front of my and make myself a little schedule. I look at all of my homework and I organize it in order of priority. For example, if I have 3 assignments to do, one is due tomorrow and is easy, one is due the day after and is moderate, and one is due the day after and is huge, I would do the huge one first, then the easy one, and then the moderate one. I make sure that I finish all of the things that I need to do before I relax. Of course you have to use your own judgment to decide what you think has higher priority over what
5. Keep motivation
Of course it is going to be damn near impossible to do anything if you don't have the motivation for it. I keep myself motivated by rewarding myself after I've achieved a goal. For example, I'll let myself go on tumblr for 20 minutes after finish and assignment, or watch 2 YouTube videos after I'm done collecting a certain amount of research. Once you get in the habit of doing this, if you try to cheat, you will feel disappointed in yourself, it really works.
This is just what I do to keep organised in school, hopefully it will help some of you our who have been slacking on your resolutions just like me.
Part 2, staying healthy, will be up soon :)
