Use a planner to have your best school year yet!

Dear Sister,

There’s something about a fresh planner that thrills me, crisp stationery, a feminine cover, endless possibilities, and the promise of a more organized life. Not everyone feels this way. I certainly didn’t when I was young Mallary. I wish I had known how to use a planner when I was in high school and early years in college. 

Plan. Do. Conquer.

It’s probably because I went from student to teacher, but for me a new calendar starts in July. First thing I do is put birthdays and other personal dates in my new planner. Then I go through and add all of the school district dates: holidays, breaks, end-of-quarter, grades due, etc. Starting off with all of these entries makes the calendar mine. 

Find a planner that fits your needs for the year. Maybe it’s the free planner that the school hands out, or maybe you splurge on something pretty like The Happy Planner, or find a planner app, but make sure the layout fits what you need. If you’re a student you’ll probably want a separate space for each class.

Check your planner. If you only write in your planner, but you never check your planner, it’s probably going to be a waste of time. Check each day what you should be doing to review or prepare for upcoming assignments and tests.

Embrace backward mapping. If you’ve never heard of this, this could be life changing. Write down your assignment’s due date. Break the assignment into tasks. Moving backwards from the due date, place the tasks in available study times on your calendar. If you follow the schedule you’ve created, you’ll never miss a deadline and won’t have to cram to get big assignments turned in on time. You may have to move things around if another class assigns something, but at least you’re thinking through when you’re getting stuff done. Strangely big projects don’t just happen. 

And you know what else I love about planners? That feeling when you check something off your list. Yes, yes I did get that paperwork turned-in BEFORE it was due. Some people find writing to-do lists on each day helps. If you don’t want to or don’t have space to do this, you can add sticky notes with to-do lists on the week. But keep it together so you can easily see what needs to be done each day. 

Be unstoppable when you use a planner.

I hope you’ll discover how keeping track of it all will help prevent a few zeros in the grade book. Or as I like to call them “grade killers.” It will also help reduce stress because you’ll know when you should be studying and when you’re free.

Will you us a planner this year? I hope it helps you shine and takes some pressure off of your schedule.

Your big sister,

Mallary

XOXO

This is the second post in a series of posts to thrive in school. You can see the first post on morning routines here.