MY TOP TIPS FOR STAYING ON TOP OF THINGS

After having endured two rather gruelling years of Sixth Form, the main thing I have lifted from my experience is that staying organised is so, so important. I'm not claiming to be the perfect role model when it comes to this, as throughout my years of education I was notorious for leaving work until the very last minute or sometimes, not doing it at all (very rebellious, I know). However, now that I have finished my studies, I feel that I can sit back and look at all the good things I did to stay on top of my work as opposed to all the things I didn't do and give you some tips that could perhaps help you too, whether this is in your studies, your work or your daily life.





1) WRITE LISTS:

Personally, I think the key to staying on top of things lies in the use of lists. My family and friends have often made fun of me for my listing habits, as write them almost compulsively, whether it's a list of tasks I need to complete around the house, blog posts to write or even a list of my favourite ever scenes from 'The Office US' (yes, this has really happened). However, I used to write lists containing 10+ tasks that I needed to complete, which only lead to feelings of failure and guilt when I inevitably ended the day with only half of the boxes ticked.

When undergoing counselling earlier in the year, staying organised was something I brought up with my therapist, as I was struggling to cope with my college workload. She very wisely suggested trying to write lists only containing 4-5 tasks instead, with each task lasting no longer than an hour. This massively increases the likelihood of you completing all of the things on your daily 'To Do List', as you have a much smaller number of tasks to focus on!

2) HAVE A CLEAR ORGANISATIONAL SYSTEM:

I will admit that, as a naturally messy person, this was something I always struggled with. During my years at Sixth Form, my approach to storing my work basically involved having a pile of paper in my bedroom that eventually resembled a small skyscraper.

However, like I said, now my studies are over, I think I might have FINALLY got the knack of organising my work. Personally, I find that the best way to do this is using ring binders; one for each subject, with a divider between each subtopic. This way, it is much easier to transport all of your work, as well as reducing the time it takes to find a particular document.

If you're looking for nice, colourful binders which won't look to boring when stored, I would really recommend checking out Tesco, W H Smith and Paperchase.

3) CREATE YOUR OWN SCHEDULE:

For me, having a loose schedule to follow is essential when trying to stay on top of your workload. When I say loose schedule, I mean something that basically outlines your plans and goals for the day/week/month without going into too much detail; for example, when revising for my A-Levels, I scheduled revising one Psychology topic every day, which left it up to me to choose which one I would complete. I found that this approach made my workload seem a lot less daunting and that I also didn't feel as bad if I didn't exactly achieve all of my goals for the day, as I could easily move them to another day without too much fuss.

As I preferred to create my schedules on a monthly basis, I simply found a printable calendar whilst browsing Pinterest, printed out the pages I needed and filled them in according to what I would do each day. In order to make it easier to distinguish between tasks, I used one colour for college related tasks and another for any other personal tasks. If you want to see the calendar I used, click here.

4) TAKE A BREAK:

I know that when the great feeling of achieving your goals and completing your tasks for the day, it can sometimes be difficult to stop. However, it is so important that you take a break every once in a while! It has been scientifically proven that the brain can't focus on anything intently for more than about 20 minutes, but personally I found that 25 minutes was more accurate for me. Therefore, I think that it's a really important to stick to this rule, as it's likely that after this amount of time you will lose concentration anyway and won't be able to do anything else until your brain has had a chance to rest and recharge a little.

The best method I found was setting a 25 minute timer on my phone and working without any distractions for this amount of time. When the timer was up, I would set a 5 minute timer and have a small break. In this time, it might be a good idea to go and get yourself a glass of water, as it's necessary to stay hydrated in order to be able to concentrate. I also advise avoiding social media during this break; as difficult as this may be, I know that 5 minutes scrolling on Twitter can easily turn into much longer!