ASK THE ODYSSEY: Navigating an Already Hectic New Year
Advice for staying organized in 2022.
Dear Odyssey,
How do I avoid letting everything pile up like last semester? Between school, work, the pandemic, and family responsibilities, I feel like I’m always behind. Help!
Sincerely,
Swamped With Responsibilities
Dear Swamped,
Coming back to school after an extended break is difficult. After two weeks of freedom, you find yourself immediately back amid strict schedules and hard deadlines. A large way I keep up with everything is time-management. For different people, different things will work, and while you should evaluate your decisions to make the best choices for you, the following suggestions can help to get you in the swing of the new year.
Calendar
For busy people, it can be easier to manage responsibilities visually, preferably in something compact and always at your fingertips. Keeping all your appointments, due dates, and fun activities clearly labelled in a calendar can be incredibly helpful, but there are several changes you can make to increase your tool’s productivity.
When you begin to make entries to plan your upcoming days, color code them. Have a different color for school, work, appointments, hobbies, and anything else in your schedule like family time or volunteering. This keeps them separate in your mind as well as your calendar, so when you start on specific sections, you can focus more easily.
An important part of making sure to stay on top of work is to make sure you’re keeping your happiness and wellbeing a priority. When you’re unhappy, you’re less likely to get things done, so while scheduling work is important, also schedule hobbies and fun activities to give yourself breaks.
An important part of making sure to stay on top of work is to make sure you’re keeping your happiness and wellbeing a priority.
Calendars can be incredibly helpful, but only if consistently used and updated. When starting off, set up a time everyday to update your calendar each day, even if it’s five minutes when you get home or while you’re waiting for your dinner to cook. You can set up an alarm for this, but if a calendar is too much work or too difficult, there are other ways you can avoid letting things pile up.
Sticky Notes
If a full calendar seems daunting, there is another tried and true way to remind yourself — sticky notes. For some people, the only way to remember things is to see them. Leaving sticky notes around your house and workplace can be a simple, easy way to remember important scheduled things.
Leave your notes in memorable places. If you don’t see the notes, they can’t help you. The back of your door, or in your mirror — anywhere you can think of, as long as you know you will see it before you need to. I would not recommend placing reminder notes near where you sleep. You don’t want to overthink everything you have to do while trying to get some rest.
The organization of notes can be entirely up to you, but once again, it can be helpful to have different colors for different types of activities planned. Another important tip is write when the activity needs to happen and how long you think it will take. This gives you a better gauge of when you’ll have free time to look forward to.
Leave your notes in memorable places — if you can’t seem them, they can’t help you.
When you plan something, make sure to immediately write it down so you don’t forget. The point of these is to help you remember what you have to do, and that doesn’t work if you never write them down.
After you’ve completed a task, make sure to remove its corresponding note from wherever it is stuck, to free up room for more notes and give you a better idea of what you have left to accomplish.
Notebook
This is a two-step kind of plan. One, carry some form of notebook, notepad, or notes app with you at all times and write everything you need to do down as soon as you get it. Two, when you return home or start to work, write a new list of everything you need to do before separating it into three categories: work that needs to be done today, work that you would like to get done today but isn’t critical, and work that can wait.
This will not only help you remember clearly what you need to do, but also help you prioritize your tasks and appointments. It may also be helpful to budget time for your tasks, so you know when one is taking longer than it should.
These methods will not work equally well for everyone (a combination of methods might be best for certain people as well), but they can generally help if you adjust the different ideas to fit your schedule. You know your work habits better than anyone else. Color coding, for instance, does not help everyone, but it can work miracles for others. If you’ve recently made a resolution to not allow yourself to fall behind and let tasks and responsibilities pile up on you again, hopefully there’s something here that will unlock your productivity for 2022.
If you’re looking for advice on a particular topic or question, let us know and we’ll respond! Notify us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or email using #AskTheOdyssey.
If you wish to remain anonymous, just let us know. Read our replies to your questions on our featured page.
Savannah Blair is a senior and member of the Class of 2022. She is interested in writing, reading, history, and music.
