The Best Planner for College Students + How to Use It
School starts Monday for me and I can’t believe it! It feels like I just took my last final and was online shopping for summer sandals. However, I’m the type of person who looks forward to a new school year, a fresh start, and setting new goals.
Today I want to talk about the best way to reach your goals, stay organized, and just overall have a fun time in college without falling behind on assignments and such. That is to plan, plan, plan!
Really the best planner for college students is to have a planner – that’s step 1. Whether you’re a freshman or a grad student, let me preach to you right now and say it’s so important to stay on top of your work. I take my planner to the first days of classes (GO TO SYLLABUS WEEK, YOU WON’T REGRET IT) and I write down every important due date and deadline.
The bottom line is that all planners all helpful if there’s space to write down tests, assignments, and various to-dos, but take it from someone who’s been using a planner since the 2nd grade – some planners can really take it above and beyond.
Erin Condren reached out and asked to send me their LifePlanner and some other planning goodies for this post, and I just about fell out of my chair reading the email. I told them that anytime I see someone with an Erin Condren planner in lecture, I lean over their shoulder and just gawk at it because these babies…are…beautiful! I’ve been using mine for a couple weeks (AKA I practically sleep with it, take it for walks, and tell it it’s beautiful) and I LOVE it.
I want to break the planner down step by step and show you how I use it to stay on track with school and blog work! Grab your planner and follow along, so you can be ready for your first day!
A pretty, personalized planner will help you use it more
I mean, don’t you just want to grab it out of your backpack for all the “OMG-that’s-such-a-cute-planner” stares you’ll get? Um, same. I decided to put the year “2017” on the cover of mine to remind me that I’m pushing towards new goals in a new school year, and that graduation is closer than I think, haha! (Where are my class of 2018 babes at?!)
Extra-fun pages will make the planning process, well….extra fun!
I love how the end covers can be written on with wet erase markers! You could write down your dorm room so someone could return it there if you lost it, or you could just write yourself a little note like, “You got this!”
Inspiring quotes will set you in the right direction
I love that at the beginning of each month, the LifePlanner gives me a motivational quote! I’m always that person that is memorizing quotes in order to repeat them to myself in times of stress (i.e. right before a big test or the finale episode of the Bachelorette) and I just love that this is included! Get you a planner that motivates you!
Calendar views are crucial
No matter what planner you pick up, I would really recommend it have a standard calendar view at the beginning of each month. I use this area to write down blog posts and important tests, so it’s easy to view at a glance when I have something big. I love the Erin Condren LifePlanner because the squares here are a big size and can fit my blog posts, Instagram posts, appointments, AND tests.
My friends at Erin Condren included a set of their “live life in color” rollerball pens and YOU NEED THESE RIGHT NOW. I color coded my planner, and it makes it so much easier (and more fun) to schedule and plan all my things.
Light blue – Blog posts and Instagram campaigns
Blue – Appointments, Meetings, or Events
Purple – goals for the month
Red – BIG events or exams
Have enough space to write down all your to-dos in the weekly view
I love when the weekly view allows me to write down everything I have going on that day. If I don’t write it down, I will forget, and you might, too! During the school year, I have to-do’s for school work and studying, blog to-do’s, general to-do’s (ugh, paying bills) and I even like to write down my workouts. As you can see, I’ve got plenty of space here, and I even have this cool clip-in wet-erase to-do list! Ya’ll know how much I love to-do lists 🙂
Little extra touches will make you fall in love with planning even more
For example, I love this little thankful thought at the bottom of the weekly view pages. Practicing gratitude is so important in my life for staying positive and being appreciative of the grace I’m given in my life, so I love that this is here to remind me!
I got some planner stickers from Erin Condren as well and those are so fun! Seriously, I’ve decided I’m going to set aside a day each week to just sit down, plan out my week, and add these fun stickers, haha. You can put them on anniversaries, remind yourself of a blowout, or even remind yourself to pay bills!
A planner with a “Notes” section will be your best friend in college
Ok picture me, the modern day-Hermione Granger, sitting in class on the first day. I take out my planner and my color coded pens and I flip to the Notes section of my planner. Here, I’ll write down the name of the lecture I’m sitting in and I’ll take down important information about the course for the semester! How many tests will there be? Do we need the textbook? Are there extra credit assignments? What additional materials do we need? When’s the final? It’s so helpful to have this info in there to flip back to because then you don’t have to keep searching for your syllabus online!
Now, don’t forget to use your planner!
I know when things get busy, I tend to forget about the planner I have. (Although I don’t know how I will ever be able to forget Priscilla…..that’s what I named my planner. Yup.) Set aside time each week to go through and plan out what tests you’ll need to study for, bills you need to pay, or coffee dates you need to go on. Having a planner and sticking to it has really helped me as a student and kept me from getting scatterbrained or falling behind!
What tips and tricks do you have for using your planner?
X,
Cristina