Maximum Efficiency

Only a year ago, I would have said that my organization skills were just fine. I mean, no, I wasn't the kind of person that would plan everything ahead of time on a calendar and be ahead of my work, but things somehow worked out for me. I had a planner. I wrote the homework I needed to finish by tomorrow in it. Most days I didn't even need to look at it! The end. I don't know whether I considered myself lucky that things worked out or if I thought that organizing my time was not important.

It doesn't really make sense because I was in a bazillion clubs and pretty hard classes. Sure, I had some really late nights of frantic work, but I managed it somehow in the end. I thought procrastination could be fun (and it can in certain circumstances). And then I got to college. I laugh at my old self who thought time management wasn't a vital part of daily life.

My first week here was orientation week--a whole, entire week dedicated to fun, games, free food, and meeting new people. Merry times they were. They had balloons, a free trip to the aquarium, a volunteering day with more free food, steak and lobster events, ice cream events, and the list goes on and on.

Bam. 5 classes, 2 jobs, 2 extra-curricular activities, 3 problem sets, an upcoming "midterm" (what, already?!), 0 meal plans (which means actually planning to cook and eat) and only 2 weeks later, I find myself living my day-by-day life absolutely dependent on my daily calendar. A year ago I would have laughed at the thought of ME having an online planner. (I'm more of a paper-pen person.) However, the accessibility of online documents and Google's amazing color-coding selection forced me to change my opinion. Now I walk around nearly bumping into people because of the attention I pay to my ipod in which there is a calendar which looks like:

Ironically, it  took me forever to figure google calendars out,
 but it was worth it!

If there is one thing I wish I had done differently in high school, it probably would have been to be more organized. Sure, I rolled along high school just fine, but maybe if I had learned to manage my time I would have been able to accomplish more with it. Finding a balance between fun spontaneity and hardcore scheduling is difficult, and it just gets harder when you are put in an environment full of events (e.g. college) as well as responsibilities (e.g. cooking, sleeping, and blinking among many).

Good, healthy eggs are basically the only thing you can cook when you have a pan smaller than your face.

I believe I'm getting the hang of it, slowly, anyway. I haven't found a way to completely maximize my time, but at least I haven't starved. I have found the grocery store (~10 min. walk), and apparently, they sell my kind of products:

I HAD to take a picture.

Getting organized is so much more than putting things on a planner and expecting your device to tell you what to do. It's really a mentality that needs to be exercised every single day in order to get used to. It boils down to discipline, and it's hard to figure a routine that works when college is so new and in-your-face real.

I suppose the experience is different for everyone, but no matter what your schedule looks like, it's important to find a balance. I don't know if I have found mine yet, or if I am completely comfortable with it, but I'm in the process of figuring all of this out.

One of the best pieces of advice I have received has been to go to sleep knowing exactly what you need to accomplish the next day. It may seem completely unnecessary, but once you're on your own, little tasks like washing dishes or getting groceries get clumped together with studying for exams or finishing homework. If you tell yourself what the most important things are that you need to do before you go to sleep, you won't have a cloud of tasks floating around in your head the next morning.

For instance, getting curtains was not very high on my priority list.
But they matched my lamp AND were on sale, so the decision was simple.

I'll keep you posted on what I'm up to perhaps in more detail next time! If you have any questions, let me know and I'll include it in my next post!