As the semester is coming to an end and with finals coming up, I thought now more than ever would be the perfect time for a little organization 101 refresher. If you're new here, my name is Clarice and I am a full-time student in university currently studying filmmaking and I'm also posting videos weekly here on YouTube, so I thought I would share a little bit of the wisdom that I've gained over the years about time management. And yeah, the goal is essentially just to finish this semester strong so that we can be academic weapons and not academic victims.
So let's go ahead grab yourself a snack maybe some water and let's get right into it So first things first, I wanted to talk about different organizational tools that I use And the first one being my trusty planner that I bring with me everywhere Good morning, everyone. So on top of giving you advice in this video I wanted to bring you along to show you what being organized actually looks like realistically within a week for me So it is currently 9am and I've just pretty much done my morning routine So the first thing that I do before getting to work is just looking at my planner And getting organized and making sure I know what's coming up This is my current daily planner and I usually check it first thing every morning So I thought we could kind of look at the layout together as you can see on the left I have kind of like a weekly layout and right now it's pretty empty because I need to write down my assignments and due dates but that is on the left and then on the right i have all of this room where i usually write down kind of like my daily to-do lists or whatever notes i have so i thought we could kind of write down what's coming up together right now you'll see it's looking pretty bare because i like to keep my weekly spread very simple and then if i want to dive into more detail On a day-to-day basis, I'll write down a to-do list over here. So I'm going to take a little bit of time actually to look at the upcoming weeks as well and write down any like upcoming deadlines for finals because I think there might be some stuff missing.
But yeah, I'm going to take a few minutes to do that right now. I'll have the actual like model and brand that I used linked down below if you're interested, but I think the important point to take away from this is really to find a planner that works for you. Some days I actually really prefer like checking things off of a physical to-do list, which is why I gravitate towards this, but I also did want to mention digital organization and how important that can also be.
If you've been watching my videos for a little while, you know how much I swear by Notion. I use it every day and I show it all the time in my videos. I have different sections for YouTube and also for university as well as like more of a personal goal setting section and it is just a really versatile tool that I love to use. The main page to actually use is just this weekly plan where I have like a gallery view of my week and again it's kind of similar.
to what i have in my physical planner but because there isn't that much room in here i like to really dive into more detail on my weekly plan on notion. first thing you'll notice when you go on my weekly plan page is this little mood board that i try to update every month or so just with my current goals or some inspiration for the time being and then when you scroll down you'll see my gallery view of the week ahead and what i really like about this layout is that i can click on whatever day i want to focus on and then it'll open up a new page with whatever priorities i have for that day so that way instead of always making a separate notion page for my daily to-do list i can just have it ready here and at the end of the week i can just delete every block so that i can start fresh and then another digital tool that i use all the time to stay organized is Google Calendar. If you know, you know.
Like once you start using Google Calendar, I feel like it is just so easy and straightforward from that point on. I just put in my due dates there. Again, I have like reminders scheduled and I get notified on my phone when I have something due. And I would say I use like Notion more for breaking down my daily tasks, whereas Google Calendar is really for more big... picture stuff like again if I have appointments or office hours or anything of the sort I think I'll use like google calendar more for that and I've also created like different actual calendars within the app so that I can really categorize different like events and due dates similarly I think also it's worth noting how digital tools can also facilitate your studying especially during busier periods I think it's super important to make sure that you're utilizing the right tools to really facilitate you're studying, and make the most out of your resources, which brings me to talk about today's sponsor, which is Rev. If you're not already familiar with Rev, they are a speech-to-text service that allows you to access transcripts of your video and audio files.
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Moving on to my next tip which is all about setting up a good study space. I think for me what's most important is really combining cute and practical so that I actually look forward to working at my workspace and I'm not like dreading it because it's super messy or it's super like boring and ugly. First things first, I think it's important before you sit down and do work to take a few minutes just to make sure everything is in order and everything is nice and clean.
I definitely believe in the statement a clean space equals a clear mind and I always notice that my workspace gets more messy as I start to get really deep into studying or editing, so just making sure that I clean it up at the end or as I go ensures that I'm not getting overwhelmed or distracted by the space around me. I also think in terms of motivation it can be really helpful to try to romanticize your study space, so just like taking some inspiration from Pinterest, maybe lighting a candle and setting the vibe for when you're studying. so that you feel a little bit more motivated and inspired to do some work. Now I'm going to be diving into more specifically different time management techniques that you can use while you're sitting down and studying and those are like different techniques that in my experience have helped me stay focused for longer because I think as much as you can like do all of the work of planning and setting up your study space if you're actually getting distracted when it's time to work that's not really beneficial so you need to make sure you're putting work there too.
Okay, so the next thing I want to talk about are different like time management tools and resources that I like to use and the first one being the Flora app which I show in my videos all of the time. This is what it looks like and as you can see it is very simple and minimal but basically the concept is that you just select a plant that you want to plant for your study session and then you can set a timer for how long you want to study for. I usually have it just at a default like one hour because I think I like to time block that way that's about as as long as I can go working on a task without getting distracted. And sometimes I actually make it shorter because I just know ahead of time, I'm not gonna be able to stay focused for that long.
Let's say right now, just for this example, we'll do five minutes. You just press start, and then I'll just start the timer and quote unquote plant your seed. As you can see, if I like go on another app, let's say, I'll get notified saying, go back immediately to save your tree. And not that I even care that much about planting the tree itself, but it's just good to have that like notification and like. kind of timer to remind you that you're getting to work.
I've been using this app since like high school and I put all of my friends on it so now we can do study sessions together and plant trees together so I just think it's helpful to have kind of like an actual timer that's counting down however long you have left to your study session and I think also if you're familiar with Parkinson's law this is a really good tool to help you like prioritize your time because it's basically the concept that a task will fill up however much time you allocate for it and so So if I set an hour for myself to say, do a reading, it'll also motivate me with that visual countdown to get that task done within the hour as much as possible. So earlier in the video, I talked about the importance of having a good office or workspace, and I also want to now touch on how beneficial it can be to actually leave the house and go work elsewhere, particularly in libraries. If I can find some sort of research to back this up, I'll be sure to put it on the screen, but I am convinced that working in libraries helps me be much more motivated because the people around me are also working and so there's this kind of pressure to actually get work done.
Not only that, but if you're also going with some friends, it kind of serves as a way to socialize as well, which we all know during finals can be a little bit more difficult. I also find that personally when I leave the house and particularly when I go to a library, I'm just more motivated to get my work done. in a short amount of time so that i can head back home so there's that added component that forces me to manage my time more effectively another time management tip that will help you manage procrastination is the two minute rule which is essentially where if a task takes you less than two minutes to accomplish it you should do it right away as soon as you think of it and define it this is just to help you eliminate those small tasks that can easily pile up over a couple of days and to get you started on your to-do list i think this technique can actually be a little bit Harder than it sounds especially when you're like being distracted and say you're watching something online or like scrolling And so getting up and actually getting to work for two minutes even just that seems kind of daunting so that's why I also like to combine this with just shutting my phone off which has actually like really changed my productivity.
I don't know why for the longest time I like forgot that you could turn your phone off and that like the world wouldn't end. It's so easy to just like keep going and scroll onto the next video but it's also really easy to just turn your phone off. It literally takes- takes like five seconds and just like that my phone is off and now if I want to turn it back on it's going to take another like minute to start back up so I think combining the two minute rule with just turning your phone off can help you be so much more productive and less distracted because then the next time you'll go to reach your phone it'll already be off and then it'll take a long time to start back up so might as well just keep working so yeah that's my little tip for avoiding distractions and actually staying focused when you're working moving on to another time management technique which i actually didn't really know this was a thing i kind of did it like subconsciously but it is called apparently like eat the frog and it is where you'll start with like the most challenging task early in the morning an easy way to break this down is to do priorities in the morning passive in the afternoon and then passion in the evening and again i found that i was kind of doing this subconsciously because for instance i like to really start my day with like more intense work when i'm energized awake and focused and then usually after lunch i'm like a little bit tired and i'll do like easier tasks and in the evening i usually tend to do most of my editing then and that's something i'm really passionate about and i can do like really easily for hours on end like late at night so again like i found myself kind of doing this subconsciously but maybe next time trying to structure your day around this technique or around this model could help you be more productive now i do want to talk a little bit about note taking and different note-taking strategies that i think are just as important um because because again, you could do all the work, you could be organized and show up to class on time, but if you're actually in class and getting distracted and not paying attention to the lecture, then it's not really worth anything. I've been taking notes by hand this semester, which I actually think I might be changing.
Initially, I thought writing down my notes by hand would help me be more focused and less distracted, but I find that I actually usually can't keep up with what the teacher is saying. So next semester, I'm probably gonna experiment with taking notes on like Google Docs or something, just because again, I wanna be able to able to keep up with the lecture and write down as much information in as little time as possible but again like find the good note-taking strategy that works for you I won't be diving into that much detail about like how I take my notes in this video but let me know if that's something that you would be interested in because i could definitely talk a little bit more about that in the future overall just make sure you're coming to class with the right mindset that you're awake and ready to learn and make sure that you're not getting distracted and taking notes in a way that's efficient for you next i do want to talk a little bit about the importance of maintaining a consistent daily routine because i think this is like the structure that will help you be more productive and more organized on a day-to-day basis obviously it's called a routine for a reason i think especially during like busier times such as finals midterms or any exam period it can be really easy to throw your entire routine out the window but that is not what you should do if you want to be organized because that routine is actually most times what is keeping you like grounded and keeping you sane and it's also just like keeping you more productive because you're maintaining the healthy habits to help you build momentum to be more efficient and productive during your day last but not least i'd like to mention the importance of staying flexible and adaptable because i think there are always going to be unexpected changes that come up and that you can't predict no matter how much you try to plan ahead and it's during those times that it can be easy to lose track and completely like throw everything overboard, but yeah, you can always ask for extensions when it's necessary. I think for a long time, I was like kind of too proud to ask for an extension, but yeah, I think at a certain point, like if you have a lot of things going on and you already know a week ahead of the due date that you're not going to be able to hand in a certain assignment at that time, it's much more beneficial to just email your prof right away and ask for the extension then, because I think professors are generally like much more inclined to give students extensions if they reach out in a timely manner rather than than if they're like super last minute.
Also an important part of staying flexible is making sure that you're avoiding burnout and that you're not putting too much on your plate. I think sometimes I can be very inclined to like put so much on my to-do list and then I get burnt out and then I'm not able to continue doing everything that was on my to-do list so that is also like an unexpected change that I think you could definitely like avoid if you just are aware of your limits and you do those little wellness check-ins with yourself to make sure that you're like treating yourself like a human and not like a machine. That is going to be it for today's video because my camera battery is actually about to die, but I hope that this was helpful and that you learned a thing or two.
Let me know if there's anything that I missed by commenting down below. And if you'd like to, you can go ahead and subscribe for more videos like this. I hope you have a lovely rest of your day or night and I wish you the best of luck on your exams and finals.
Yeah, that being said, I will talk to you in my next video. Bye.