The best way to get more organised is to spend time organising.

It doesn’t have to be lots of time – just more than you do now. And it’s most effective if you do it regularly.

What I do: Every day when I get home I do Flylady’s “5 minute room rescue“: 5 minutes tidying one room. Unbelievably, such a small thing keeps the house pretty much tidy.

To do this:
1. Choose a regular time – e.g. when you get home or before you go to bed.
2. Set your timer for 5 minutes.
3. Tidy til it beeps. Don’t do anything else, don’t get distracted – just do it.

You’ll be amazed how well it works.

1. Get a good chair that supports your back properly and sits you at the right height for the desk. Guidelines can be found here.

A chair doesn’t have to be expensive to do this. If it’s the right height for you to use the keyboard properly, but your feet don’t touch the floor, get a footrest (a thick book or box will do). If you’re leaning back a bit when you rest on the chair back, will a cushion make you sit up straight?

2. Have enough space to spread out. If you have several books open at once, you need enough room to lay them out. If you have a notepad beside your computer, you need enough room for it beside the keyboard, on the side you write with. Get a desk long enough to let you work how you want.

3. Have only what you need. One pen. One writing pad. One computer. That may be all you need: take everything else away, and see if you use it. If you do – regularly – find a home near your desk for it. If not, throw it out, or find somewhere else to store it. It’ll be easier to find things, easier to keep things tidy, and will feel a whole lot better.

And if you’re storing hundreds of pens because one day the one you’re using will run out, here’s a suggestion: think about how long one pen lasts you. Then think about how many spares you need. 5? OK. Pick out the 6 best pens, bundle the rest up, and give them to your local Red Cross. They’ll be grateful.

4. Add some inspiration by putting a beautiful picture or photo on the wall – one that makes your heart feel glad every time you look at it.

5. Get good light. Invest in a good overhead light, and a lamp if you need it. Make sure that you can see clearly, whatever time you’re at your desk.

6. Keep your desk clear of distractions and clutter. If you can’t see it, you can’t use it. If your desk is currently a disaster zone, start working on clearing it and keeping it clear. Find another place to dump all the junk.

7. Enjoy. Let your desk become a place of inspiration.

1. Vet: If you don’t need it, recycle it straight away. Make sure you don’t need it, though! Write events in your diary, then recycle the  notice. If you know your way around campus, recycle the maps.

2. Keep order: Invest in some lightweight folders – 1 for each course. Put all paperwork and notes straight in the folder for the relevant course.

3. Sort immediately: When you get home, file the stuff from each folder in a course file, folder or box. Leave the paperwork that you need for the next class in the folder. To be really smart, file things chronologically (most recent last): file paper face down – when you turn it over it’ll be in the right order.

4. Grab and go: Repack your bag with the folders for the classes you have the next day. Also pack your diary, the textbooks you’ll need, paper, pens and a water bottle.

Viola. Happy swimming.

1. Go to the first class.

D’oh. Here you learn about what you have to do, what the assignments are, and often you get into study groups. If you’re in a bad group for an assignment, you’re going to have to work a lot harder. If you’re out of the country and/or have a very good reason why you can’t be there, contact your lecturer in advance to apologise and ask what you need to know. They will at least be happier to help than if they think you simply couldn’t be bothered. Besides, if you skip any class you’ll have to live with that awful confused and worried feeling where you don’t know what you have to do and are worried you’ve missed an assignment. You know the one.

2. Then go to every class, even if you think it’s boring (in which case, see hack 3).

You’ll pick up lots of information about how to do the assessments, not to mention about the topic. The lecturer is also more willing to help you if they think you’re putting in the effort.

3. It’s not boring – you’re bored.

“Interesting”is a mindset, often based on how relevant you think the subject is. Make yourself interested. Talk to classmates who wierdly seem to find the subject fascinating or, if you can’t find any, ask the lecturer, especially if they seem to have a passion for their subject. One of the papers I teach was the most boring paper I took at university. When I came back to teach I wished I’d remembered half of it when I was working in that area. If you think the subject is irrelevant, ask someone who works in the area you want to get in to – they might give you a whole new perspective.

4. Your mission in class is to (a) understand and (b) take notes.

(a) Understand – if you are confused, get it sorted as it comes up, so that every time it is repeated it reinforces what you know, helping you remember. If you leave it til the end of semester, you have to do all that work yourself.

(b) Take notes. The lecturer will almost always expand on the topic – if they read from the textbook, complain – and they are covering the other things you should know. Because it’s not in the textbook, you need to write it down.

Also write down the little tips and hints you’re given. A colleague of mine tells his students that during the semester the lecturer will tell them what is going to be in the exam, and even what the answers are, if they listen carefully. No, he doesn’t mean “everything in the course could be in the exam” – he means that as he teaches a subject he’s likely to examine, he tells his students. I do, too. – very few of them actually write it down. I have no idea why.

5. After class, do the readings and homework, and write up your notes.

Highlight the important bits in your notes and *gasp* the textbook. Add to your notes from the readings. Do the homework, because the lecturer didn’t give it to you because she loves marking (trust me on this).

Write in my textbook? Yes – sorry. I hate writing in books, but it makes studying a lot easier. If the book is going to be useful in your career, you should probably keep it, anyway. Highlight the bits the lecturer says is important, or spends lots of time on. Make notes about the additional information they give you. Find the key point in the paragraph and underline it, so you don’t have to read all the “explanation” nex time. If you really can’t bear to write in the textbook, at least use post-it notes to do the same thing.

A little bit of time now makes things a lot easier later.