The sound of paper wrinkling reverberates throughout the classroom as students hurriedly attempt to clean up their desk space after the bell rings. While in a rush to get to their next class, they cram assignments and notes into the open space of their backpack. When the school day is over, they spend most of their time trying to recall their homework assignments and struggle to keep track of them.

The new school year has just begun and students face the conflict of how to stay organized. Students and teachers share their tips on how they set effective organizational goals and accomplish them.

For senior Elysia Wu, the most important tool she uses to stay organized is her planner. She updates her planner before each six weeks with major assignments and references it many times throughout the day. Making a plan for her day and not deviating from it is one way Wu stays organized.

“It does not matter if you have a rigorous course load or not because if you start forgetting to do assignments because you don’t have their due dates organized, you will fall behind really fast. If I was not organized, I would find it very easy to get lost about what I am supposed to do,” said Wu.

Junior Susanne Lang is another student who writes in her planner everyday so that she can have all of her homework in one place. Additionally, she color codes her homework by class and organizes her homework list by the order of her classes. This year, Lang is in three AP classes so being organized is a skill she prioritizes.

“I think it is very important to stay organized especially since I am a student athlete as well. I have to balance homework with my after school activities so being disorganized is not an option for me,” said Lang.

AP Psychology teacher Amanda Sandlin uses multiple planners to stay organized. One of her planners is her personal planner while the other is her work planner. She tries to keep her work planner at work and personal planner at home so that she can find a balance between her work and personal life. Additionally, she plans ahead so she can prepare for the worst case scenarios and be aware of deadlines and due dates ahead of time. Sandlin enjoys having everything prepared so she can create a better learning environment for her students.

“Some of my tips to stay organized are to document the work you have to accomplish each day, prepare in advance in order to set up for efficiency and not hesitate to ask for help if it is necessary,” said Sandlin.