School Days, Rule Days (Shout Out to my Daddy!)

One of the most challenging things in college so far has for sure been organization.

With Shoebox (click here to see pictures if you haven't yet!), any amount of clutter shrinks it all the more, so keeping that clean is imperative.

School is a whole other battle.

At the Academy, they helped us organize everything. Teachers told us that we need this binder, this notebook, etc. Here, my teachers most certainly do not. They let us do all of the choosing ourselves. Which is nice, because I definitely feel like a big kid, but difficult too.

Here are my top 3 wonderful things that I use to keep myself together:

 1. Planner- Definitely my number one organization tool. This keeps my schedule, hw assignments, to do lists, and a plethora of other information handy. It goes with me everywhere. Seriously. I forgot it in crew Tuesday and I felt like I lost an arm. I have had to change my format of planner pages recently. See, at the Academy, I knew exactly where I would be 8 hours of the day Mon-Fri. So an hour by hour plan would have just been a waste. I used weekly pages then with a month by month calendar and lined pages at the back. Here, my schedule is different everyday! I found that when using the weekly pages, I lost valuable time and wasn't getting everything done.  So I switched to hour by hour pages. Ohmygoodness it has helped so much. Now I can see where those little hour pockets are and I am being productive during those times! Which equals more sleeping time. Yay :)  

2. Jon Hart Backpack- It is the perfect size, its cute, and it's monogrammed. What more could I ask for? Usually it has my binder for the day, my iPad, my planner, and my pencil case. All of it fits perfectly with ample room if I need anything else. 

The screen saver is my church from back home... I miss it so much!!!

3. iPad- This is so handy when used properly! I have a keyboard that I use to type so I don't look like I am texting on a giant's cell phone. It speeds up note taking by a whole lot. I have access to the internet, it weighs 1/4th of my laptop, (it's adorable... is that a valid reason?), & I can read books on it. But by far the coolest feature is it's synching capabilities. Basically, I type something on my ipad (or iphone or laptop for that matter) and it shows up on my other stuff. Am I the only one who thinks that is the COOLEST THING EVER???? My secret nerd is coming out y'all. I have two apps that I am trying to decide between (Pages & Evernote) for note taking during class. Evernote lets me record the lectures right on the app where Pages won't. I think what I will end up doing is using Evernote for note taking and Pages for papers and such. We shall see! 

Any organization tools you can't live without?? Please share!!