How to Become More Organised and Productive as A Student | 5 Tips That Will Make Your Life Easier

I would definitely describe myself as an organised person. In fact, I’m maybe too organised. I am by no means a tidy person or an ‘on time’ person so I’m definitely not organised in every sense of the word but when it comes to work, which in my case is university work, I like to have everything organised down to a tee.

This is a good thing in many ways, as it usually means I’m on top of my work, which prevents a lot of stress. But it also means that I become ridiculously stressed if I do fall behind my own schedule, which doesn’t even generally mean falling behind my university work, just my own made-up schedule.

So, personally I’m actually working on being more laid-back and trying to go with the flow a little bit more. But I know a lot of people do struggle with getting organised when it comes to work, and specifically university work. And because I have really perfected my methods of organisation over the years, I thought I should share them for those of you who are looking to become more organised and, at the end of the day, make your life easier.

Although putting all of these things into place will take a little bit of time, once you have done so, I can guarantee your life will be easier. They’ll make you less stressed by ensuring you don’t leave anything to the night before and, hey, they might even make you enjoy studying a little bit more, god forbid! Hopefully they will also ensure you spend less time procrastinating so you have more time do whatever you want with.

1. Get Prepared and Invest in All The Stationery

I’m hoping this tip will be music to some of your ears! I’m giving you free reign to spend lots of money on stationary! But if this doesn’t sound particularly exciting to you, stay with me, there is method in my (stationery obsessed) madness.

You couldn’t run a marathon without a good pair of trainers (I couldn’t run one with them, but you get my point) and you can’t get organised without all the materials you need to do so. You don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on the stationery you need either. Head to WHSmith if you’re happy for that do the job!

However, I personally find that investing in nice stationery that is also practical makes me excited to get organised. For example, since investing in a new desk planner, I love planning my week and don’t feel overwhelmed by it at all, because of the all the different sections to it which allow me to see my week in a balanced way. But like I said, whatever floats your boat is fine. This tip is more about making sure you’ve got the supplies you need to get organised.

Here’s a list of the things you need to up your organisation game as well as some shoppable links to the stationary I own or recommend, whether you’re after something a lil bit fancy or want to keep it simple…

• A Diary/Planner for important dates, to-do lists and so you generally know what day of the week it is.

• A Desk Planner so you can plan your days and weeks in advance and feel less overwhelmed by everything you need to do. I’m more of a weekly planner person but some people prefer daily planners or both.

• Flash cards because they are essential for exam revision and having them on hand means you don’t have to run round the shops a few days before your exam, wasting valuable revision time.

• Highlighters and coloured pens because colour coordination will change your life!

• A notepad and/or desk pad so you always have somewhere to jot down random and important notes and thoughts plus a place to make to-do lists.

• Post it notes because they always come in useful especially for revision and for making notes in books, very useful for an English student.

2. Plan, Plan, Plan and Write Everything Down

Obviously, a key part of being organised is planning but I’d also recommend that, in your planning processes you write everything down. Personally, as soon as I am given all my deadlines (whether they’re for essays, exams or just week-to-week reading deadlines) at the beginning of the semester, I write them all down in my diary on the dates when they are due, right up until the end of the semester.

I also write any other plans I have down, such as trips away, nights out etc. I use a paper planner for uni stuff but I tend to use an online Google Calendar and other online resources for blog organisation and any extra-curriculars as these things tend to change around a lot more than my university work does, so it’s just easier to do it online.

It takes about half an hour to write all of this down but it will make your life so much easier because every time you want to check when you need to read a certain book by, or when an essay is due, rather than logging in to your student account, you can just flick through your diary and see when it is. This also gives you more of a feel as to how long you have left to complete your tasks i.e. 5 flicks (assuming your diary has a week on a 2 page spread) don’t worry about it, 3 flicks maybe start thinking about it, 1 or 2 flicks, you really need to get started!

I’d also recommend colour coding everything, using your lovely pens and highlighters you’ve just bought! I’ve taken three modules this semester so I use a different coloured pen for each module and write all the reading, deadlines and whatever else I need to complete for that module using that colour. Again, when looking through your diary, this just makes it easier to see what’s going on that week and the module you might need to focus on a little bit more. See below for an example of a week’s spread in my diary:

3. Do Everything A Week Ahead

This one is a biggie for me in terms of how I keep up to date with my university work. After planning out all your deadlines in your planner, you can easily see when work is due, so you don’t really have any excuses to do things last minute! With this, it’s best to get everything done a week ahead.

My rule is, generally, everything for the following week must be done by the Sunday of this week. So if I have two books to read and an essay to write, for example, for the week starting Monday the 11th February, I would have ideally got started on all of them on Monday 4th February, or the weekend of the 2nd February, if my workload for that week is really heavy.

I know this sounds overwhelming but if most of your work is set in advance, like mine is, it just makes life so much easier to get it done in advance and it means you never get that overwhelming feeling of ‘I have so much work to do for tomorrow and the seminar tutor is going to ask me a question on the book I haven’t read’ because even if you do fall behind your schedule by a few days, you’ll still be on top of the current week!

4. Find Out How & Where You Like To Work

This one is essential in order to actually enjoy (as much as is possible) the time you spend working and, also, in order to get the most work done. Do you prefer working in the library or at home? I’m more of a working at home typa gal but a couple of hours spent in the library can sometimes be super productive for me, depending on my mood.

Do you work better during a ‘normal’ 9-5 working day or would you rather have your morning to yourself and do more of an 11-7 day? Personally, I think I work best during the hours of 10-6, so I tend to stick to that.

Do you work really well by turning your phone off for 3 hours and smashing out work, followed by a long break, or are you better with short bursts of productivity with short breaks (e.g. the Pomodoro Method?) I’m somewhere in the middle but I’ve learnt that putting a timer on anything makes me hate what I’m doing, so I just leave my phone in the other room and work for as long as possible till I feel like I need a break; sometimes I can go for a couple of hours, sometimes I struggle to do a couple of minutes.

What I’m trying to say is that to be organised and to get your work done in time, you need to be working in a way that suits you. Because if you’re not, firstly, you won’t enjoy it at all and, secondly, you won’t get half as much done as you could. So trial and error all of these different methods and find a way of working that is perfect for you.

Also, don’t just do things because they work for other people! Sure, some people are really productive when they do an all-nighter in the library but personally, I know my brain wouldn’t function at all in that environment. So really make it personal and don’t worry about other people’s judgement.

5. Allocate Time Off

And finally, a tip that seems kind of counter-productive right? How is taking time off going to make you more organised? Well, let me tell you! This is one that I’ve only started doing recently as I mentioned in my New Years Resolutions styled blog post. But taking time off has made the time I do spend doing work so much more bearable and has actually helped me reach my goals, because rather than just putting it off till tomorrow, I know that if I don't do it today, my day off will be spent feeling stressed.

So I personally take a day off every Sunday. When I say off, I mean off university work. I still work on my blog and all of my other extracurriculars but I do not allow myself to do university work, no matter what. It’s currently Sunday whilst I’m writing this post and I don’t feel stressed at all, as yesterday I pushed myself to finish the work I needed to for the week so I could enjoy today. That was my only motivation to get the work done though and before giving myself an official day off, I would always feel hopeless about my workload and view it as never-ending, because it essentially did feel like it could go on forever.

And here’s the thing, if you don’t give yourself time off, your work will go on forever! Not because you have so much work that you can’t fit into 5 or 6 days of the week but because you’re probably not using your time efficiently enough, maybe because you haven’t planned everything out, maybe because you’re not working in a way that’s optimised for you or maybe it’s just because you know you can always finish it tomorrow.

But if you don’t give yourself that final option, or any of the others, you’ll stop procrastinating as much, which means you can spend more time doing things you really enjoy, providing more motivation to get your work done; it’s a bit of a productivity cycle really! It’s revolutionised my productivity levels and made me feel more happy generally.

I’m very aware that this blog post is extremely long (who knew I had so much to say about organisation hey?) but I really wanted to provide comprehensive instructions on how to get organised as a student, and I hope I have!

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The Monthly Media Catchup: Everything I've Read, Watched & Listened To | January 2019

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I’ve decided to start a new series on my blog! It’s called ‘The Monthly Media Catchup’ and, in these blog posts, I’m going to take you through everything I’ve read, watched and listened to each month. It’s kind of similar in format to a monthly favourites but the difference is, I’m going to be talking about everything, not just my favourites. So some things I will 100% recommend, some things I will advise you to stay away from (see: the books category in this post) and others I’ll be fairly ambivalent about.

I’m going to be sharing everything, so that includes things I’ve read and watched for university as well as for fun! The main categories are going to be books, TV, films and podcasts, as if I was to include things I’ve read online the list would be extensive. I’ll only mention new things I’ve consumed, or things I’ve returned to (e.g. if I re-read a book or return to a podcast I haven’t mentioned before). I’m also going to be rating everything so you can easily see the media you should and shouldn’t consume, although obviously my word isn’t law! I’m going to try and keep my reviews short and sweet as some months the sections might pile up, i.e. when I have a lot of reading for university or when I have time off university and watch a lot of Netflix.

Anyway, without further adieu, lets get started!

Books

Heartburn by Nora Ephron | ★★★★

I started reading Heartburn at the end of 2018 and finished it at the beginning of 2019. I read it based on Dolly Alderton’s raving reviews and I did enjoy it, but I didn’t love it. It’s a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the protagonist’s life after finding out that her husband has cheated on her, depicting the ways in which she deals with this life-changing event, much of which is through food, which means the book is dotted with recipes. It’s an easy read and I enjoyed it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it! Four stars is quite generous and 3.5 stars would be more accurate.

The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst | ★

I’m not even slightly joking when I tell you not to get me started on this book. I hated it so much! I had to read it for university (I was supposed to have it finished in November but I couldn’t bring myself to do so until mid-January when I had to for an exam). It’s about a privileged gay man in his mid-20s named Will and the novel follows his life, and that of an older, very similar, man whose biography Will is writing, in 1980s London. The prospect of this novel excited me but its content was truly disappointing. There are many books that are worth your time so much more than this one because honestly no one needs to read this account of an upper-class man discussing his sexual encounters, the descriptions of which are sprinkled (*read drowned) in classism and racism. Hollinghurst's pleasing writing style does almost nothing to counteract how painfully infuriating this book is and I struggle to believe anyone who says otherwise! So yeah, do yourself a favour and avoid this book!

TV

You (Netflix) | ★★★★

I ate up this Netflix series in a matter of days. It’s really addictive and although it didn’t change my life, I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something to binge-watch. It’s basically about a man (Gossip Girl’s Dan Humphrey) who stalks a women who he meets in his book-store, learning about her life and managing to get her to fall in love with him. Honestly the premise sounds very strange but to me, it was interesting in the way that Lolita is interesting in that it shows how an audience can accidentally end up rooting for the bad guy if he is given the opportunity to present himself in a positive light.

Sex Education (Netflix) | ★★★★★

This show is just brilliant! It’s addictive as it is empowering as it is educational and I wish it existed when I was 15. It’s based in a British high school (although it’s probably the most Americanized British high school ever) and the plot really starts when the show’s protagonist, Otis, teams up with cool-girl Maeve to provide sex therapy to their fellow students. It’s funny at times and emotional at others but it always presents growing up and feeling clueless about the way your body and relationships work in such an honest way.

Films

Mary Queen of Scots (Cinema) | ★★★★

I went to see this film for my birthday and I had high hopes because it features both Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, who have starred in some of my favourite films of the last couple of years. And it didn’t disappoint! As the title suggests, the film is about the life of Mary Queen of Scots, played by Saoirse Ronan, and her rise and fall from power. If you’re going to this film for historical accuracy, you’re probably not going to be best pleased but I personally wasn’t and I really enjoyed it. It’s great to see two women starring in a historical narrative and, not only was it engaging, but it did teach me a little bit more about a period of history I don’t know much about, so it’s a win-win really!

Bandersnatch (Netflix) | ★★

I was quite excited to watch this film that’s part of the Black Mirror series but it was really disappointing. It’s an interactive film so you get to make decisions on the character’s actions and decisions… but you don’t really. If you make the wrong decision, you watch about 10 minutes of what would happen if the character made this decision, then you are taken back to the point where you make the decision again and have to pick the ‘right’ answer in order to reach the end of the film. It was a loong watch and the storyline wasn’t particularly interesting either so I generally just found it quite boring. It’s an interesting idea but it needs more work.

Private Life (Netflix) | ★★★★

This film made for the perfect lazy Sunday watch. It’s about a middle-aged couple living in New York who are struggling to conceive. I don’t want to say anymore as I don’t want to ruin anything but it’s beautifully filmed and is surprisingly funny considering its subject matter.

Podcasts

Literary Friction with Sally Rooney | ★★★★★

I don’t have too much to mention on the podcast front this month as I’ve kind of just been listening to the same old stuff (take a look at this blog post if you’re interested to know some of my top podcast recommendations). But I loved this episode of the Literary Friction podcast with Sally Rooney, author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. She talks a lot about her writing process, especially for Normal People, which was super insightful, especially if you’re a fan of her work!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! I know the photo isn’t brilliant but if I’m going to do this monthly I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself to create incredible imagery to go with it- I hope that’s ok. Let me know if you’ve read/watched/listened to anything I’ve mentioned in this post, or if you do based on my recommendation!

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20 Things I've Learnt in 20 Years

Today is my 20th birthday! I feel very weird about it. I’m no longer a teenager which freaks me out but I also feel like I’ve been part of the 20-something generation for some time now. Anyway I’m officially joining the 20-something club today! Who knows if that’s a good or bad thing? I’ll let you know in 10 years. For now, let’s go with good because I’d rather not live my life with a constant sense of impending doom.

On that positive note, here’s all the things I’ve learnt in the 20 years of my life so far, that is other than learning to walk, talk, eat, write, read… you get the idea. Really, this post is more about what I’ve learnt in the last 5-10 years of my life, but I’m sure some of it started to click a little bit earlier and 20 things in 20 years sounds much better so there you have it.

Anyway, let’s start my 20th year off with a little less rambling than normal and get on with the post! Here are the 20 things I’ve learnt in 20 years of being alive…

1. I’m a very hard working person and that’s probably one of my best and worst traits.

2. It’s ok not to enjoy the same things as everyone else.

3. I’m an introvert… definitely.

4. However much I think otherwise, I enjoy exercise and it’s one of the best things for my mental health.

5. Friendship is so, so important.

6. I’m a summer person through and through- the only thing I like about winter is Christmas. Period.

7. I have a sweet tooth.

8. It’s important to be engaged with politics but not at the expense of your mental health. It’s possible to be engaged without it being overwhelming but there’s a fine line.

9.It is actually possible to drink too much water! I am living, breathing evidence! It has affected my sleep and it’s just very inconvenient to need a wee all the time. But then again, nothing beats a refreshing glass of water- I’m an addict!

10. Travel is the best thing to spend your money on, or at least I think so. New clothes are all well and good for a couple of weeks or a month at best, but the anticipation, experience and memories that travel provides is unbeaten in terms of its longevity and how it can make you feel.

11. I’m happiest when engrossed in a book, preferably on a beach, and reading is something that I’ll never get bored of. I am a bookworm, always have been, probably/hopefully always will be.

12. I am a cat person and no one brings me joy like my little (he’s actually huge) cat Harley.

13. Working 24/7 doesn’t make you successful or even productive. Time off from work is so important and you can excel in your work without dedicating every breathing moment to it, probably even more so.

14. It’s ok to admit that you’re not coping with something and to ‘give up’. I’m not the most resilient person in the world and I’m learning to accept that. There’s no point pushing yourself through something you hate just to prove something to yourself or the people around you.

15. There’s nothing more rewarding than a good bargain from the charity shop. I will never stop feeling smug over my £2 favourite ever pair of jeans that I found.

16. Always eat the ice cream, or the chocolate, or the crisps. Restricting your diet is tiring and boring. To quote the great philosopher Drake, you only live once, and I’d like to spend my one life eating as much delicious food as possible.

17. You’ll never regret taking photos on a film camera. Whatever the cost and the hassle, they’re so worth it.

18. Romantic relationships don’t have to be easy to work. The harder times make the good times all the more incredible and they’re both just as important. I’ve learnt never to take advantage of any of my relationships, but particularly romantic ones, as the joy they bring and the things they can teach you are often unmatched.

19. Liverpool is the best city in the world.. I’m not biased okay? Honestly. I’m yet to visit a city with people as friendly as in my home town and that’s always the thing that makes me most homesick when I’m anywhere else. There are many other amazing things about it, but that deserves a blog post to itself.

20. Finally, life has bad moments, life has good moments, life has extremely mundane and in-the-middle moments. All of them are overwhelming. All of them will usually make you feel as though that’s what life is like when you’re in them, which can be as depressing as it is exhilarating. Perspective is key and learning to appreciate these moments, whether they’re minutes, days, weeks, months, or years, will only ever make you develop as a person. And I’ve done a whole ‘lotta developing over the past 20 years, let me tell you! (Very aware that this sounds like something a life-coach would say, but it’s my birthday so just let me get away with it, pleeeeease?)

Anyway, happy birthday to me! I’m off to drink cocktails in a hot tub whilst having a massage. Joking! I have an exam tomorrow and I’m not drinking alcohol at the moment, so I’m probably currently sat at my desk with a glass of water (or cordial, I mean it’s my birthday, I’ve gotta live it up a little!) 20 is a very adult age anyway so I might as well embrace it! Here’s to a great 20th year with more life lessons, more ice cream, more quality time with my cat and the people around me (but most importantly, my cat) and more of doing what makes me happy!

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