How to Stay Organized in High School: Tips for Freshmen

How to Stay Organized in High School: Tips for Freshmen

Entering high school marks the beginning of a long, four-year journey. It is exciting and full of opportunities, however, it can also be stressful if you don’t know how to manage large workloads. One of the biggest challenges that incoming freshmen face is creating and maintaining a system to manage their greater workload, countless extracurriculars, new responsibilities, and complex schedules. In high school and the years beyond it, organization is crucial.

Being organized provides smoother days and less stress due to knowing where everything is and what you are supposed to be doing. If you’re aiming for academic success, or any form of success for that matter, being organized and proactive at doing so, sets a solid foundation. Additionally, organization reduces the chance of being late for anything or forgetting anything important. It also gives you a peace of mind knowing that you have time scheduled for every activity. Now, without further ado, here are some practical but powerful tips to help you prepare for high school:

Use a Planner or Digital Calendar Consistently

First, you must determine if you prefer digital or physical planners more. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Digital planners offer customization, integration with other apps and devices, save time, and are affordable and reusable. However, they could cause screen fatigue, have an overreliance on technology, and have the risk of privacy concerns and technical issues surrounding them. On the other hand, physical planners have increased memory retention due to hand writing lists, have reduces distractions, and creates a greater sense of accomplishment when crossing a task off, however, can be inconvenient to carry, you will have update them manually, there’s no easy backup if you misplace it, and collaboration and editing isn’t as simple. But whether you decide on a physical or digital planner, be sure to get used to jotting down tasks and deadlines such as: 

- Club meetings

- Test dates

- Assignment due dates

- Sports/Music practices

- Additional classes

- Family events

-Homework assignments

Tips: 

- Break down large tasks into smaller ones and assign a due date for each small task

- Take a look at your planner throughout the day, or at least every morning and night to stay on track with your tasks

- Color code different classes or types of activities (family events, club meetings, sports/music practices, etc) so you know which task is associated with which broader type of activity

- List your tasks based on priority so you know which ones are of greater importance

Organize Your Backpack and Locker Weekly

Once a week, be sure to clean out your backpack and locker to get rid of trash and old handouts. Backpacks and lockers are tools to organize your material, but when they are messy, it is easy to lose track of important papers and forget important tasks. Additionally, restocking school supplies and hygiene products is also a good habit to practice. Make sure to also file scattered paper during this time.

Tips:

- Using folders/binders to organize materials for each class can be useful

- Label everything

- Having an “emergency stash” of pens/pencils, snacks, hygiene products, and a charger is incredibly helpful

Have a Homework Routine or Plan

Try doing your homework or important academic tasks at a specific time each day. This will help rewire your brain so it becomes a habit. The environment that you do your homework in is also crucial. It must be quiet, well-lit, and distraction free. 

Tips:

- Create a study playlist (or multiple playlists) of songs that can help you focus if you like to listen to music while you study 

- Experiment with different session and break timings to see which one works the best for you. For example, there’s the Pomodoro Method, 52-17 method, the 112/26 method, etc.

- If you want you can write a list of what you need to get done before a specific session and then order them from highest to lowest priority to see what you need to get done first.

Use To-Do Lists 

To-Do lists are a great way to visualize the different tasks you need to complete. I recommend writing down a list of 3-5 activities that you need to finish each day. This gives you a sense of direction and a path or structure to follow.

Tips: 

- There are many ways to organize/structure your list. For example, you can order them from highest to lowest priority, what takes the least to most amount of time, etc.

- Group similar tasks together to increase productivity and efficiency

Declutter/Reorganize Your Digital Space Often

In our modern world, everyone has a certain aspect of themself or part of their life that is online. With so many tools and resources on our computers, ipads, and phones, it is crucial to organize this aspect of our lives as well. Remember that clutter isn’t just physical. Clutter is anything that comes in between you and having optimum organization. Also, another important thing to remember is that no amount of organization will be perfect and there is no one specific way to organize things. 

Here are steps you can take to organize your digital space: 

- Start with your desktop. Create folders for necessary files and delete anything that you don’t need.

- Clean up your email. Unsubscribe from any email lists or newsletters that don’t interest you and only keep the ones that you enjoy reading. Send any emails that you’ve been avoiding to send. Archive or delete old messages.

- Let’s move on to your phone. Delete any apps that don’t serve a purpose. Organize your social media accounts. Check who you're subscribed to or follow and unsubscribe/unfollow anyone that you want to. 

- Organize your digital notes. If you use multiple apps/websites for notetaking be sure to do a bit of research to find one place to transfer all your notes to and keep them all organized there.

- Have a weekly routine to organize your digital life. Creating a habit early on and spending 10-20 minutes each week organizing this aspect of your life will be useful.

Use Digital Tools Wisely

There are many tools online to help you stay organized, but remember that organizational tools can become a distraction, so don’t let them become one. This is a list of 10 apps/websites that can help you manage your time and stay organized:

1. Notion- this is an app/website that you can customize to your own needs and you can even create your own workspaces 

2. Finch- this app uses various methods, such as habit trackers, mood trackers, and to-do lists, to help you get tasks done, take care of yourself, and help you (and your birb) grow.

3. Habitica- this is an app that also has a website, and it serves as a to-do list as well as a habit tracker 

4. Flocus- this website enables you to set full screen timers and plays background music to help you study

5. Remember The Milk- this is a fun app/website that allows you to set due dates for tasks to make sure that you don’t forget anything

6. Any.do- this app/website creates minimalistic to-do lists and it’s even helpful for team collaboration 

7. Forest- this is a super aesthetic app that uses timers to help you stay focused 

8. Study Bunny- this is a cute app that motivates you to study by using timers and prizes 

9. Microsoft To Do- this app/website can make great to do lists and helps you manage your tasks by breaking them down into multiple small steps

10. Brain Focus Productivity Timer- this app helps you set times for work (schoolwork, extracurriculars, etc.) and breaks which helps in staying focused

Reflect and Adjust 

If something in your plans/routines isn’t working, don’t just keep doing the same thing and let that problem sort itself out. When trying to find a plan/routine that works for you, it is important to take the initiative and be proactive about change and adjusting to match your lifestyle. Every month, I suggest you take a moment to reflect about what went well, what didn’t go well or what you struggled on, and what is one new thing that you can try next month. This method adjusts and fine-tunes your system to stay in control.

**all the images have been created by Microsoft Copilot**