Tips for Staying Organized During the School Year

person touching white spiral notebook

By: Cassidy Freedman

Do you struggle with keeping up with schoolwork? Do you need better tips and tricks to help you get through the year? This is the perfect guide for you to stay organized!

Why is Staying Organized Important?

MacBook Air beside gold-colored study lamp and spiral books

Staying organized during the school year is very important in many different ways. This will keep you on top of your schoolwork, keep your head out of a jumble, and make your school year go by smoothly. Without staying organized, things will be a mess! Not knowing when assignments are due, feeling stressed most of the time, not having time for fun or daily activities that you need to keep up with. Although, this can easily be avoided by following these steps to becoming organized for the school year. 

How to Stay Organized

1. Plan Ahead

The beginning of the school week can definitely be hard to stay clear minded, especially while all of your assignments are posted all at once for each one of your classes. When you have a few minutes of free time, planning ahead in the beginning of your week is your best option to stay organized! 

To do this, you could either 

  1. Buy a planner 
  2. Write a numbered list on a blank page. 
  3. Or think of another creative way to jot down your plan!

Go through each one of your classes and write down each assignment along with their due dates. You could even spice things up and color coordinate, a different color for each different class.

scissors and two paper clips beside opened spiral notebook

Another way to use your planner to plan ahead is to make a schedule of your week. Think about what you have going on each day of the week and figure out what days and times each of your classes are and what days and times you can dedicate to completing homework. Time management is a huge factor when it comes to staying organized for school. You never want to procrastinate and end up having to complete a one-thousand-page essay in one day. Making a schedule will help you clear your mind of what and when you need to get your work done and will take away the chance of forgetting or putting off assignments until the very last second.

2. Write Notes

person writing on white paper

Step two for staying organized during a school year is to take notes! Taking notes for each of your classes are essential. This will help you in the moment to further understand what your professor wants you to take away from the lesson and on the other hand will help you in the long run to study for exams. 

Along with color coding while writing your schedule down, you could color code your notes too. 

This will make a boring page of notes become brighter and more fun, making it less terrible to look at or study from. Another tip for notes is to write them before class. This will make it easy to listen in class and follow along with your professor instead of writing everything in class. While writing in class, you are focused on writing everything down and not on what your professor is saying. You may even feel rushed if the professor is going through the notes quickly and you may miss some important things. Overall, notes are very helpful to stay organized and to do well in your classes.

3. Make Sections

Making sections for each of your classes is a great tip for staying organized during the school year. A notebook and a folder for each class is the best way to split things up. This makes things neat and organized, this way you know exactly where to go for what you need. Another trick is to get post it notes or little tab stickers to label your notebooks for each section within that certain class. This makes it easy to flip exactly to the right page! Instead of flipping through pages and pages to find what you’re looking for.

4. Go to Class


There won’t be any production if you do not go to class! I know everyone says it, but I will say it again, go to class. Going to class has so many benefits to it such as setting you up for success to get good grades. This step is crucial for staying organized during the school year. Without going to class, you will have so much to catch up on. This could turn into a snowball effect creating piles and loads of work that need to be completed. If you just simply get up and go to class, this will not happen! You will always be on top of things and haver everything together neatly. 

Another way going to class will keep you organized is because you will always know what is going on and you will be prepared for exams and assignments. Another benefit to going to class is meeting new people who you will be able to reach out to if you have any questions. I know it can be easy to skip class, but if you put your mind to it, you can do it!

5. Stay Positive!

The number one rule for staying organized during the school year is staying positive throughout the year! This will keep things easy and stress free which then leads to staying organized. Some ways to stay positive are to take a break when you start to feel stressed while doing schoolwork. Talk to your roommates, take a walk, get a snack. Once your mind is cleared get back to work and stay determined and focused! 

The Key to a Successful Year is Staying Organized

After reading this guide,

  • Plan ahead
  • Write notes
  • Make sections
  • Go to class
  • Stay positive…

and you are set for a fun and organized school year! Being organized is so beneficial for a successful year in many ways. This will help you become successful so much easier, will allow you more time for outside of school activities, and overall, things will simply go smoothly! I hope this guide leads you into the right direction as we go into this new school year.