Dedicating time to a little planning and organizing during your time at college can truly have a significant impact on your academic success. Not only that, being able to manage your time efficiently will make your college experience more enjoyable. From classes to clubs, calendars help you keep perspective of the larger picture, and can help balance your responsibilities with your hobbies.

Benefits of Having a Calendar

One of the most challenging parts of doing well in college is just knowing when to do what. To those who aren’t generally detail-oriented or organized-minded, the upkeep of a calendar can be off-putting, but I’m here to tell you that a calendar is your best bet at staying on track. It can seem tedious to go through class syllabi and organize assignments, or to do weekly run-throughs of everything you will do the following week, but trust me it pays off… immensely. A consistently updated calendar can:

1. Reduce stress and anxiety, which is priceless. We all know the feeling of not being on top of things, and the discomfort that comes along with feeling behind can often be debilitating. Calendars give you assurance and a game-plan, which will not only give you confidence necessary to do well in classes, but will also make your classes more enjoyable and worth the tuition you pay.
2. Spark motivation to begin more difficult projects and review for exams. By being able to look and plan weeks ahead for exams and presentations, you can give yourself more time to be better prepared and more creative with your work. The good thing about being at a liberal arts college with small class sizes is that professors will definitely be reading your work. They notice students who are actually engaged with the material. If you want good letters of recommendation for summer internships or graduate school applications, doing good work in a professor’s class is vital, and a planner can help with that.
3. Keep you engaged, making actually showing up to class a lot more comfortable. Having the readings read and the assignments completed before class makes you better prepared for class discussions, labs, quizzes, and exams.

Whether you use calendar software like Google or Apple Calendar, or you prefer to use a physical planner, having and maintaining one can do wonders for your mental health and academic performance.

How to Stay Consistent

Being consistent at something is actually not too difficult; all you need to do is make it part of your routine. Set up a ritual for doing something, and sooner or later, it becomes a habit. Personally, every Sunday morning I go out for coffee and plan out my week. Not only do I look over my syllabi and organize my to-do list for the week, I also check out the campus event calendar to see what events will be going on. By making my planning ritual part of a regular routine, I can reliably keep myself consistent.

Weekly planning doesn’t have to happen on the weekends, but the important thing is being able to stay consistent. By giving yourself time to plan your next week, you can make sure that all your responsibilities are accounted for, and that you will not need to second guess your game-plan mid-week.

Have Perspective

Remember that you are paying for your college experience, and so getting the most out of it is really important. By giving attention to your calendar, you can better enjoy your time at college.  Also remember that college only lasts for about four years, so be sure to make the most of your time there! Of course you can party, and of course you can have a life outside of academics, just know that having a good calendar to return back to will only set you up for success.