Now that classes have started, a little bit of planning will help you keep on track in the coming weeks. To get started, gather up the syllabi from your classes and a calendar:
- Mark your desk calendar with all the deadlines for your classes. When are mid-terms? When are major assignments due? When are finals? If it helps, use a different colored marker for each class.
- Put these deadlines in your electronic calendar, too. Need a week to get that paper written? Set your calendar to ping you with an alert a week before your paper is due.
- Go over your weekly schedule. Put in when all of your classes meet and when you have labs. If you have a part-time job, put in your work hours. How does the rest of your week look? Set aside blocks of time when you can study or work on assignments each week. And stick to them. Consistency will help you develop good study habits.
- Give yourself time for fun. After all, that’s also part of the college experience. Have you looked at joining any clubs? Want to play intramural sports or work out at Dixon? If you know when your club meets or team plays, put those on your schedule. But leave some parts of your week open to do whatever you want.
- Decide how you want to organize your class notes and other paper work, whether it’s in separate notebooks, file folders or whatever works best for you.
- The “computer ate my homework excuse” won’t work, so make sure you have backups for your electronic files. You can buy an external hard drive or use cloud services like Google Docs, Microsoft SkyDrive or Apple iCloud.
For more tips and information, visit the first-year student website. Have a good rest of your week!
