By Annie ’23
School, at least for me, is so important but, at the same time, can be so easily disorganized, and it has not gotten any easier during this period of virtual learning. With all of the studying we have to do, homework assignments, and the stress that develops during those couple of nights before a big test, there’s a lot we have to manage throughout the school weeks. So, because I know so many people are enduring this same disorganized struggle, I’m going to share with you all how I keep all of my work organized as well as how I schedule my work time so I can be as productive as possible!
1) Google Drive Jamboards
I cannot stress enough how helpful this tool has been for me this year. A google jamboard is basically a blank whiteboard that you can put sticky notes on, draw on, take notes with, etc… you can use it to your heart’s desire and then some! Personally, I have taken a blank schedule template from google and placed it in one of these documents. Once I have that done, I make sticky notes for each of my classes that I can slide to whatever day they are assigned and I can delete them once I am finished with that assignment.
Though this tactic may not work for everyone, I am personally a visual learner, so this is extremely helpful for me as it is important for my brain to see what homework I have to do in front of me, and physically crossing them off of my list is both rewarding and engaging.
Steps for creating a jamboard:
- Sign in to your google drive and click on “New” in the top left-hand corner.
- Hover your mouse over the option “More”
- Slide your cursor down to “Google Jamboard”
- You’re done! Enjoy your new, free, limitless whiteboard!
2) “Cheat Sheets”
DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE NAME! There’s no cheating to be found here. This is one of my personal favorite ways to study because it takes focus, determination, and a full review of all the material you have learned.
With every subject there are units, and with every unit, there’s a test. We all know it’s coming, but how do we study? Well, for me, one of the most time-efficient and productive ways I use to study for every subject is a “cheat sheet”. The way I do this is I grab a blank sheet of printer paper and I flip all the way back to the beginning of my notes for the current unit. On every page, I find all the important general information I need to know and I scribble it down on that piece of paper. My reasoning for not just rewriting everything I have in my notes is because that doesn’t involve much brainpower. If you remember back to 4th grade when we learned not to plagiarize sources, it became much harder to write because it forced our brains to think of things in our own way; that is precisely what this method does. And, during your test, you will have studied all of those little, general reminders that you wrote down on that cheat sheet and your brain will quickly be able to recognize what piece you need to answer the final question on that test you just aced.
3) Give yourself a break!
You deserve a break every once in a while. I know it can be hard to get up out of that chair when you’re on a roll, but you, your brain, and your eyes need a breather. My favorite thing to do when I get up and take a break is to stretch my body, maybe take my dog for a walk, and just overall reset my brain for a fresh study session. You can find relaxing stretch and meditation methods anywhere online and I promise you that after a full-body reset, you’ll be fully refueled and ready to finish that next homework assignment.
I really would like to emphasize that these methods are ones that I have developed over my four years at Harvard-Westlake, but, again, they are methods I have developed for my own personal learning experience and they are definitely not perfect. Since everyone is different, these tricks may not all help you out the way that they help me, but I do hope that you can take the bits and pieces of each one that interests you and develop them into your own personal methods that may help you engage and learn better along the way.
