Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

This sounds like a post meant for back-to-school season, but honestly, it’s probably better off later in the year. When school (or work for some of you) starts back after a long summer break, the majority of people, myself included, are motivated and ready to work hard for those good grades. As the year goes on and the fall semester comes to a close, motivation starts to get lost little by little. We’d rather be hanging out with friends, working on blog posts, or doing things that actually interest us like sports and clubs rather than working on schoolwork.

The loss of interest in school/work can lead to a downfall of organization, which is not what anyone wants (we’ve all been there: forgetting the paper we had to write and walking into the class the day its due and realizing, oh yeah, we did have homework!). That’s why in this post, I’m sharing a few of the ways I stay organized from the first to the very last day of school. 🙂

TRELLO

I’ve tried countless times to keep up a planner, but no matter how cute and simple-to-use the design was, I slowly lost interest and relied on my memory to remember school assignments. Yet, that never turns out too well either. Throughout the years I’ve jotted my homework on index cards and various scraps of paper, but a little while ago I discovered an app that changed the way I kept up with my schoolwork. It’s called Trello, and it’s the perfect organizer for anything and everything in your life (I use it for my blog and Instagram, too!). You can color code sections and a click on one of them opens up a nice space with all your to-dos, finished assignments, and ideas for the subject. I figured out how to work it in no time, which makes me positive it will be a breeze for you all to learn how as well. I highly recommend this egenda-like app for those of you who want fast and easy access to all your assignments on your phone or computer, and even if you already use a planner, Trello could still be very helpful to you!

BINDER WITH COLORED DIVIDERS

Keeping track of papers for classes can be a lot harder than it sounds, and I totally understand that struggle. I use a binder with different styled dividers in it for each of my subjects. For history, I have six solid color dividers and behind each are my notes from a certain unit, and I do the same for science and french, yet the dividers look different (for Science they are manila dividers with colored tabs and for French they are dividers with folders on the front). This creates organization without the weight of carrying around separate binders/notebooks for each class. This works for me, and you could always try it out and tweak it to fit what works for you!

TO-DO LISTS

Trello is basically a to-do list app, but for those of you that like to write your tasks for the day down instead of having it on your phone, here’s how I set up my to-do lists. On a blank sheet of paper, write down all the homework/to-dos you have. Then, if a task is multi-step or can be broken down into parts, write a small checklist underneath that task that you can go through and check off as you do it (Side note: the rumors are true, going through and checking/crossing off items on a list is the most satisfying thing!). It’s really helpful to have EVERYTHING you need to do written down because this gives you a clear view of the work ahead of you and you can create the list in order of priority to make things easier and more efficient.

NOTEBOOKS!!

Using notebooks as a way to stay organize is something I have done since Day 1! As I’m writing this, there are 15 notebooks sitting on the shelf in front of me (most are full and from past years, but about 3-4 are in use currently). I have a notebook for my school subjects, one to plan and write out blog posts, one to keep track of the stats and goals I have for Absolutely Olivia, one for to-do lists, and one for journaling. It’s nice having a unique notebook for each section of my life, and for me, this is the key to my organization. Having several notebooks instead of one or two for everything helps me stay organized because I know where to look for certain notes/writings and keeps you focused on one task at a time instead of getting sidetracked by a different topic that is written in the same notebook. Basically having multiple notebooks separates out the subjects and ideas without having them being clustered together. Plus, it gives you an excuse to buy more than one cute notebook. 😉

That’s it for this How to Stay Organized post!  I hope you all learned a new trick or two, and that this post helps you all with your schoolwork, especially during the second semester when the loss of motivation is REAL.  Let me know in the comments how you stay organized, feel free to leave any questions or blog post ideas as well.  Thanks for reading everyone!

💜Love, Olivia

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