Calendars and College

For many of us, we think of a new year as the beginning of a new school year. The new school year is around the corner. Learning to use a calendar an important skill for life. How a calendar is used as a student can be different from how a working person may use a calendar.

I work with many college students so I am going to focus on tips for using a calendar while in college.

• Pick one calendar system. You have one life so one calendar. It doesn’t matter if it is paper or digital.  Your system needs to be portable, and trusted by you. Pick a system that you will use.
• Collect schedules and syllabuses – Gather together all work, classes, clubs, practices, and volunteer schedules. Also, grab your syllabuses for all classes.
• Enter all the dates when you need to be somewhere whether it is class, work or a club meeting. You should include study time. These are important appointments with yourself.
• Enter all the dates when your have exams, or assignments due.
• If you are using a digital calendar and notifications help you, use them selectively. If you tend to ignore them then turn them off. If you are highly visual and color-coding helps you then use it. If it doesn’t help you, don’t bother with the extra time it takes to add it to your calendar.
• When a new event comes up, put it in your calendar right away so you don’t forget.
• Look at your calendar- Develop a new habit to look at your calendar. I like to look at mine on Sunday night to look at the coming up week and also in each evening to see what the next day has planned. You could also look at it every morning.  
• Keep a separate task list but add them to your calendar. Once you are in the habit of looking at your calendar, you can add tasks to your calendar as the week goes. For example, I look at my task list nightly when I look at my calendar to determine which tasks I will do the next day. I also add them to my calendar in the time slot in which I want to accomplish them.
• What is a task for students? So you have a reading to do for one class, a lab report to do for another and a presentation to work on for another. You also need to register for classes for the next semester, find new housing and sign some paperwork in the financial aid office. Which of these goes on the task list? You are a student. I would not include any of the assignments for classes as tasks. They are appointments. Remember above study times are appointments with yourself. I strongly suggest students have regular study times that are dedicated to just that. Commit to these by going somewhere where you work well, joining a study group or having a study partner who will help you be accountable. Time between classes isn’t actually free time in college. The other tasks are tasks. If they have a deadline add that to the calendar as an all-day event if using a digital system or write it at the top if using paper.   

Best of Luck for the coming school year!