Photo by Cydney McCall-Francois

One of the things students often hear from their teachers starting in elementary school is that organization is key.

There was an easy way to tell which students were organized and which weren’t: look inside their desks. Some students kept them neater than others – their handwriting was orderly, and their binders were immaculate enough to look like they were for display only.

On the other hand, some kids stored old food at the back of their desks and their binders were… well, let’s just say there was no hope of finding their homework.

For many, these habits have persisted all the way into college, and there are still so many students struggling with organization.

The workflow method is one of many ways for students to get organized so they can better focus on their daily tasks.  Workflow is a task management process that helps you stay on top of your work and gradually ”flow” from one task to the other. The workflow process can be used whether you prefer typing or writing out your schedule.

Pen & Paper

For paper lovers, get your favourite notepad, heavyweight loose-leaf paper, or even a whiteboard and follow these steps:

• Write down all of the tasks you have to do on a particular day.
• Grab your three most favourite highlighter colours and make a legend at the top of your page, designating each colour as: Urgent, Later and Tomorrow.
• Start highlighting! Prioritize items according to the legend you’ve created to sort tasks from what is most important to least important.

Now you have a clear, more manageable to-do list and know what you need to do right now versus what could be moved to tomorrow. It’s important to understand that trying to tackle too many assignments in one day could degrade the quality of your work. Make sure to spread things out and give yourself ample time to do your assignments rather than overwhelming yourself.

Digital

For the digitally-inclined, there are plenty of options for you to stay organized.  Your phones, whether they are Android or Apple, come with a standard notes app. This can be a great tool to set up a workflow in the palm of your hand, allowing you to conveniently make edits on the go. The most important part of this workflow is you can access this on all of your devices through iCloud for Apple or your Google account for Android users.

Here is how to set up the workflow on your phone’s notes app:

• Make four headings at the top of your document. Label two headings for each day of the weekend. Next, create a heading for the days in the week you have no class as well as a Next Week heading.
• Below this, write out all of the weeks of the semester and include a check box or bullet point of everything due that week (this can be updated throughout the semester).
• Duplicate tasks under the current week of the semester you are on and sort them by the headings at the top of the note. If there is a bigger project in the following week include the task on multiple days to make sure you are giving yourself ample time to complete it.
• As the semester progresses, delete past weeks, and continue re-distributing tasks by priority under each day.

This phone workflow can be used as an ongoing spread of everything that is due for the whole semester. It will help keep track of what is coming up and how to spread out the work. The list format, unlike a calendar, can help you see tasks more clearly than spread out over a month or week view, which can make them look like less work than it really is.

Kanban Boards

Ever heard of Kanban Board?  A Kanban Board is the style most team/task management apps use to do a workflow for the projects they are working on. If you have heard of Asana, Monday.com, or Notion,  they all use this style of workflow. This can be extremely helpful way to see all of your tasks at a glance.

Students can use this method too. By making your own simple chart in Microsoft Word or Excel, you can fill it out the same way you would use the task manager, but in a way that befits you as a student. You can see all of the weeks of the semester for each class on one chart instead of managing and keeping track of multiple syllabi for all your classes.

Here are the steps to follow:

• When you start a new semester, input columns for each class and include their course codes.
• Under each column, add in the week number and the topics being covered that week as well as any evaluations such as tests or assignments.
• Once you’re done filling out the whole chart, you can print this and put it by your desk or make it your desktop wallpaper for your computer. It is a nice visual spread of your entire semester which you can use to cross out the weeks as you go through the semester.

Here is a template you can use to fill out your own “Semester at a Glance.“

Feel free to make it your own, and be sure to tag us on Instagram if this was helpful for you!