College planners. Let’s chat about them.
There are so many planners out there. Despite what you may hope, not all planners are created equal. I’ve had a number of planners in my day and in high school, I loved the At-A-Glance planners I could find in an office supply store. They had a simple weekly layout with a section for each day and then a nice big monthly spread. I always went for the large notebook-sized planners because I like having a lot of space to write everything down and see it all without feeling like I need to cram it all into a small area.
I used one of these for my first year of university as well though, having never understood why people used hourly planners. This was a huge mistake for me and by partway through my first semester, I knew I would be needing an hourly planner for my sophomore year. After hours upon hours of research, I found the daily planner that I thought would be the best for me: Emily Ley’s Simplified Planner. The daily academic version, of course.
I loved it, and this will now be my second year using this style of planner from Emily Ley. Last year I waited too long and there weren’t many cover options left when I finally purchased my planner – that’s how I ended up with a white and floral cover that’s very…. not me. However this year, I managed to get my hands on the classic Happy Stripe design. I am absolutely thrilled about this, and can’t wait to pull it out at meetings this year and fill it with plans and due dates as the semester begins!
First things first…
The first thing I do when I start planning is put in my family’s birthdays. I know it isn’t what you’re supposed to do first with the Simplified planners, but old habits die hard and I find it really exciting to know those are in there. Next, I go back into the front of the book and actually follow along as it is intended to be used.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what to expect about the pre-planning in the Simplified planner. As a result, I didn’t do all of the work. I wanted to wait until I arrived at school and learned my new routine to really plan out my routines and such. However, this did not go to plan, of course, and I never really fully completed it. That is a regret I have about last year’s planner.
Now, this is something I’ve grown to appreciate. I’ve even been looking forward to filling mine out this year! I know that if I do it all the way and I do it properly, I’ll have an even better time with it and make even better use of this planner that I already love.
If you’ve been following along, we’re two steps in to setting up my planner.
- Add in Family Birthdays
- Do the Pre-Planning Prep in the Front of the Planner
So, what’s step three?
Putting in any and all doctor’s appointments that I’ve already made for the year. For you, that may not look like much – maybe a dentist appointment or yearly physical. But for me? I had seven appointments to put in just in the first fifteen days of August! Managing my illnesses requires intense organization, which is probably why I’ve been using planners for so long!
After I write in my appointments to the monthly spread, I go into the individual days and write in each timeslot that I have an appointment so I can visually see that I’m busy in that time. This is a huge perk of the daily planner that I really have grown to appreciate and depend on as a busy college student.
Appointments are in, what’s next?
Next, seeing as this is an academic planner, I add in my move-in day. This year I’m moving back on August 16th!
From there I’ll add in my first day of classes, breaks, and lastly, final exams. If you aren’t sure of any of this information, whether, for yourself or your children, academic calendars are usually easy to find on any school district or university’s website. If you’re also a university student, you’ll likely be able to find your final exam schedule for the semester on the university website as well before the semester even begins. I like having an idea of what the end of my fall semester will look like as I really love the holidays and do a lot of planning around then! If I have overlapping exams due to my accommodated testing or anything like that, this also gives me the opportunity to start working it out at the beginning of the semester and alleviates a lot of potential stress for me.
Just a note: for things like final exams I know I may not actually have an exam in some classes, so I don’t bother to write them into the hourly portions. I’d rather have to erase one thing or write one thing than erase twice! I also write everything in pencil. Yes, pens are fun, but my schedule changes so frequently I don’t have space to be crossing things out all the time, I’d rather erase them! It also makes it easier to keep a cohesive look as I like my writing to all be in the same color and all pencils are relatively the same.
Now that I’ve put things on the monthly spreads for the fall semester, it’s time to add in things I know will be more day to day.
This means classes! I’ll put my classes into their designated time spaces on each respective day up until about midterm time. That way, if my schedule changes for any reason, I don’t have to erase the entire semester’s worth of entries, but I also won’t be rushed to fill things out for a while and can do it when the rush of the start of the semester
For the first two weeks of class, I’ll also put in the building and room number for where the class is located so I can check it ahead of time and won’t get lost! Of course, this is also in addition to having the schedule up on a tab on my phone so I can always pull that up as well. Whatever is more convenient!
Almost finished!
From there, I start adding in anything else on the monthly spreads that I know will be happening over the course of the month, or the year overall. I love seeing my calendar come together! It’s a bit sparse right now, but it’ll fill up significantly once I can get my hands on my training schedule, syllabuses, and the semester begins in September. For now, I’m just going to enjoy the emptiness in my schedule and time to relax!
Simplified by Emily Ley also makes weekly planners and teacher planners, as well as fun notepads and stationary. This year I purchased my planner during a sale and decided to get a sticker pack too so we’ll see how much use I get of them and if I’ll be continuing to use stickers in the future. I’ve never been one to decorate my planner, outside of doodling, so this is a first for me! I’m also experimenting with adding bits of washi tape to areas I found being consistently blank last year. All in all, I’m excited to be using my Simplified planner again and will share more next month on how I use my planner on a day to day basis once I get my syllabi and start the fall semester!
If you’re interested in Simplified planners or products, click here to be taken to the site and receive $10 off your purchase!
And that’s how I set up my Simplified Planner for college!
Planning is a really important part of my day, without an effective planner and system I wouldn’t be able to do all that I do at school – or even keep track of my appointments! For me, a planner is always an essential.
Let me know in the comments if you use a planner, what type of planner you use, and if you’re into decorating it or keep things more simple like me! I find it so fascinating how two people can have the same planner and both find it to be incredibly effective, yet use it completely differently!
Happy planning, friends.
