SELF-ORGANIZING
Let's get organized!
DECEMBER 2020 ARTICLES
Personal Tips To Balance Acads and Anything Else!
by Jayda Cez Lim
Having college taking up most of my time to actually relax and do things in my leisure time, these are some tips with how I organize everything for you to balance acads and other things you want to do!
1. Get a planner - This is one of the most important things that I need to have before new year’s eve because having a planner since day 1 can help you remember all the short term goals you plan to achieve! You can also write what you have to do every day!
2. Make a checklist - try to remember what you have to do for that day and write it down in your planner as soon as possible so that you won’t forget! Try adding simple things as well, like watching a movie!
3. Add the things you want to do by the end of the day - I personally add what I want to do in my checklist, for example: watching dramas or read books. I think that these stress relievers are needed after a long exhausting day of schoolwork!
4. Try your best not to cram - Though we cannot help the fact that the workload can pile, let’s do our best to do things early so that we won’t have to think of the workload we have to accomplish when we’re finally relaxing!
5. Time your schoolwork and breaks accordingly - I usually time myself when it comes to doing schoolwork! For example, I do 1-2 hours of my schoolwork and then a 30-minute break to do everything I want and eat snacks! Don’t pour yourself into doing all the work all at once because it can be very draining.
These are some basic tips to balance your acads and other things you want to do! I think spending your leisure time doing your hobbies and the things you like can ease your mind from all of the stress from school! Hope these will be helpful!
NOVEMBER 2020 ARTICLES
MY THOUGHTS ON SELF-ORGANIZING
by Yukta Tyagi
What is Self-Organization? How to be organized?
There have been moments where my friends come across me journaling my to-do lists only to further ask me as to how can I be so organized. The truth is I am not perfectly organized all the time. I arrange my tasks to prevent myself from having a nervous breakdown due to an overwhelming load of assignments to be submitted along with other tasks that need to be completed. The following are some different tips and styles of helping one stay organized that the readers may find useful as what may work for me might not work for others.
Journaling
Bullet Journaling is a popular method of relieving both stress and organizing oneself. Everything from designing the journal to simply checking one task off the list gives one an oddly appeasing sense of satisfaction. Thus, bullet journaling therapeutic and a suitable method of tracking the finished and unfinished tasks.
The following are some critical steps to Bullet Journaling:
Firstly, visualize what tasks you have to do in the day and the record them.
Record the tasks in the order of priority.
Prioritizing the tasks will help with completing the more massive tasks and getting them out of the way.
Keep the To-Do Lists realistic and not overwhelming.
Take one step at a time to complete all the tasks.
You have twenty-four hours in a day to complete the tasks. Do not forget to take a break once in a while.
Give your eyes a rest, go out for a short walk for a breath of fresh air or have a piece of chocolate if you are feeling tired.
The Trello Application:
The Trello Application is a software available for both phones and laptops. It is a virtual bullet journal for those who prefer organizing virtually rather than doing it manually.
What makes the application special is that the users can invite other people such as friends, professors and many more to see and edit the user’s schedule. By sharing programs, one can keep up to date regarding the deadlines, due dates, group projects and meetings, organizing events and managing many activities together.
People working simultaneously on the same projects with clashing timetables can quickly know when the other teammate can work along with what work they have to do.
All the core features of the software are free. I have used this software during my high school. I still use it quite often, which is why I recommend it to those who prefer recording or organizing their tasks online.
To-Do Lists
One cannot emphasize the importance of keeping their to-do lists realistic whether the list is written down or typed. Often many find themselves mushing too many tasks together. The excessive charges increase stress and disappoint when left unfinished only due to feeling tired.
Keeping a realistic to-do list helps one feel optimistic and motivated to continue completing their tasks. Once all the tasks are completed, one can do some extra work which will only further increase the flush of endorphins, encouragement and quality work. The less stressful the to-do list is, the better the productivity and the more satisfactory the outcome.
Clean Your Room or Study Table!
Working in a clean environment is an absolute must. An organized environment produces better focus.
A cluttered surrounding is messy and chaotic, which restricts one’s ability to focus on meaningful tasks. The mess also prevents one from processing the information well. Therefore, tidying up one’s room or study table will improve concentration towards the task at hand even if cleaning up the surroundings would take a few minutes off the timetable or schedule.
OCTOBER 2020 ARTICLES
ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE IN 7 STEPS
By Amina Baimuldinova
There are many books, articles, and YouTube videos that try to answer one well-known question. How to become more organized? It is often considered that organization is one of the key elements of success. Therefore finding a practical and straightforward answer is important. Although it might sound cliché, first, one has to define what the organization is. An organization is order and anti-chaos. If you want to abandon the chaotic mind, work, and life and become organized, here are my 7 steps.
-1-
Don’t rely on your brain. Whatever you want to remember, write it down. If you prefer apps, numerous apps can help you (Notion, Bear, Notability, Things 3, Timepage by Moleskine Studio, etc.). Try to write down everything that you have to do. Not only will this help you to remember, but also to avoid a chaotic mindset which causes unneeded stress.
-2-
Divide and rule. Organizing is the process of division into categories. Just as you can have one drawer for sweatshirts and another drawer for jeans, you can have one diary for everyday thoughts and another one to keep track of your deadlines. You can categorize your interests, hobbies, and responsibilities of different aspects of your life as well.
-3-
Think strategically; act tactically (and not vice versa). A strategy is significant as it will allow you to look ahead of your present. Try to forecast your dependencies and needs to eliminate any unpreparedness. To do so, you need to know yourself. Take a piece of paper and figure out what you often need, what you depend on, and hence determine your further steps following your needs and wants.
-4-
Have a backup plan. Although we can try to be a few steps ahead of the circumstances, we are never sure of externalities that may disrupt our plans. Therefore, plan B is never a bad idea!
-5-
Organize by experience. Your experience. Modern culture forces us to constantly look at successful people and their habits. This can be a double-edged sword. Being inspired by those who succeeded is beneficial, but, at the same time, you need to keep in mind that you have to rely on your own past experiences, not on others’ expectations, assumptions, and dogmas.
-6-
There is a lot to learn from professional chefs. Just as the respectable chef will never allow a chaotic kitchen, you cannot allow a messy workplace or bedroom. Everything should have its own place. Be deliberate about your stuff.
-7-
Last but not least, be naturally organized. What does that mean? An organization should not be burdensome. It should not take all your energy and time. On the contrary, the organizational skills need to bestow you with a little bit more time and a greater amount of needed energy.
SELF-ORGANIZING MY LIFE
By Do Yeon Lee
What’s your MBTI type? Mine is INFJ - the third letter being F. This means that between feeling and thinking, I’m more predisposed to act based on feeling. There are pretty good examples of showing the difference between T(Thinking) types and F(Feeling) types. For example, when your friend got in a car accident, T-people tend to ask questions that deal with the situation itself rather than the situation of his/her friend. So he/she might ask “Do you have car insurance?”, “How much was it?”, and so on. However, F-people tend to care for the feelings of others, so he/she asks are you ok? Didn’t you get hurt? , etc. Although I wasn’t sure how I would act in such a situation even though I’m an F-type, this helped me understand well the clear difference between T and F.
Well, maybe because I was an F-type, or maybe I was a sensitive person since I was young, or for whatever reasons, it was hard for me to get rid of thoughts when something bad happened. I couldn’t focus on what I had to do, and I had to lie down in bed until my anger vanished. Then as this repeats over and over, I learned to deal with my feelings by being honest to my feelings, listening to music, and walking thoughtlessly until I become okay. This is what I think was the most similar to self-organizing I ever did in my life.
Besides this, I’ve never thought of the idea of organizing myself. However, coming to college, I began to compare myself with others and felt falling behind. Therefore, I decided to keep an everyday habit that could help me become a better person. I thought that I’ve never done something steadily, and that is the most important thing in self-organizing. And once I felt the necessity, it was easy to just act it out.
So these are my two habits that I came to practice everyday: keeping a diary and reading at least one news article a day. You can read as many articles as you want, but be sure to do it everyday. With these little efforts, I turned what could have been a meaningless month into a month that I spent time developing myself. Thanks to those habits, I came to be more knowledgeable in politics, as well as keeping track of what I have to do and what I can do to do my work and assignments better. Moreover I’m trying to do exercise everyday, hoping that I can make it a daily habit. Remember, the most important thing is your mind. With determination, you can do anything.