When you go to college you need to plan your new student life. Homework, parties, dates, papers due, exams… Your future awaits and to get there you need to get organized. It sounds like a lot, but in my experience you only need a small weekly planner for college. Don’t fall for one of those even smaller monthly planners: there’s just not enough room in them for everything you need to keep track of, I’m sure.
Here’s my choice of the best planners and date books for college students. Some are cute: for girls, others are more business like and will work for the boys – I should of course call you all men and women, well, forget about being PC for a moment… You’re having too much fun for that I’m sure. And if you’re not: I can tell you my life has gone uphill after college. Growing up agrees with me. But that’s very off topic.
The Tools4Wisdom Planner is one of the most popular planners currently – for students and adults. It has weekly pages, it starts in either June or January (depending on when you order it) and helps you focus, set goals and priorities. Included is access to their online printable planners that are catered to specific planning needs.
Another popular option are the planners by Peter Pauper Press. They are cute, they start in either September or January and cover 16 or 12 months respectively.
A great option for the college student is Fashion Agenda Organizers. These are one of this year’s most popular offerings of cute daily and weekly planners for women students. They include monthly overview pages, which you may have more use for than I ever did. However it does have the weekly overviews I recommend in a planner. Most will cover the time span of August of the current year through August of the following year. They are available in various designs to suit the varied personalities of women.
There are so many great and stylish Moleskine Planners about, the only thing you need to look at is size: How large or small do you need your planner to be? In each case you’ll have at least a page per week. I love the setup with all days of the week to one side and a page for notes on the other. These planners are great for women and men.
One week is spread over two pages. That is: you get a week on one page, and a page for notes on the other. Personally I think that works really well: lots of room to expand on homework assignments or the address for that party. Includes a monthly planning section along with a three year reference calendar. The dates are in the Julian calendar year and shows how many days are remaining in the year. It is a wire bound planner with a blue cover with numbers featured.
Included are stickers for special dates and reminders. Fun and useful!
Keeping Your College Life Organized
I don’t think anyone will deny just how busy the collegiate life can be. That is why having a planner for college students is such a good idea. There are specific planners that take into account the active lives they live. I think the most difficult aspect of going off to college or university is that there is suddenly no parent there to remind you of what time a certain class is, no one wakes you up to get to those early classes and no one reminds you that there is a paper due tomorrow. Then there are the social activities that every student wants to participate in and a lot of students also have to balance class time, social time and having a job.
So, having a planner designed especially for the college student is a useful tool to help them keep it all organized in a way that will make sense to them. If organization has not been one of their strong suits in the past, a planner may help them learn the advantages of time management that will help them when they join the workforce in their chosen field and with life in general.
We all can gain from having calendars and planners to keep our busy lives organized. Planners for college students are even more important, I think. The calendar industry has come with some really good planners geared to helping students in general keep their classes and assignments in one book so that they can keep on task. There are some that are specifically designed to aide the college student because they have different needs than a Middle School or High School student does. A college student is on their own for keeping everything running smoothly…Mom isn’t there to remind them.
The college student will need to keep their scheduling of classes, long term and short term assignments where they can keep track of them but there is more for them to keep organized. They may have some study groups that they will want to note the time the group is getting together. They may be planning a special campus event. Some of them might even want to plan visits home while others need to keep track of both classes and a work schedule. These academic planners fit all of their organizational needs quite nicely.
Bloom Daily Planners A Day Planner With A Feminine Touch
August through December the upcoming year
This calendar planner is a 12 month calendar covering the academic year: August through July. Time management is made easy with weekly calendar pages and monthly views. An asset for both school and work to keep important dates available at a glance.
The covers are made from recycled materials and are plastic coated to keep them from getting soiled if they get wet. The planner is bound with a wire-o binding.
Available with several cute covers – so you can always find YOUR style.
This College Student’s Semester Undated Calendar is Perfect For The Dorm Room Wall
Undated Calendar
A college student can hang this calendar on their dorm room wall and keep track of one semester at a time. They mark the assignments, class times and other dates with an erasable marker. Once the semester is complete they can clean it off with dry erase cleaner and start the process for the next semester. There are even sections for special notes and phone numbers. Now you know the local pizza place’s phone number can go there for those late night study sessions!
With a size of 9.7 by 6 by .7 inches the New York Public Library Planner is rather a large planner. Too big for me, but don’t let that stop you. It does include all the features you need in a planner. Organized in columns each day has room for scheduling and homework in different sections. That may help in keeping track of things.
Brownline Academic Planner
July through July the next year
This 11 by 8.5 inch planner is perfect to note assignments and class schedules. The student can note when an exam is due along with other appointments that they have. The outer cover is laminated to keep it protected from dampness or easy tearing.
The unique thing about this planner (which justifies the size too) is that you can schedule by 15 minute intervals.
The House of Doolittle Academic Planners are an option for either gender of students. This is one of those planners I don’t think fashionable female students will buy. However, perhaps you simply want something in basic black? Although there are some options of colors that can be chosen if she does not want something too girly yet has some color. I WOULD expect the male student to go for something like this.
Again, it offers everything you need, weekly overview pages, place enough for notes and even those weird monthly pages.
What is time management?
Well, the simple answer would be a process of managing the time we have in any given day, week, month or year. It is a process that some find easy to follow while others struggle with the concept. It is a conscious attempt at keeping some control over the time we spend to accomplish different tasks, basically. We can get really involved with the entire process or we can do a simple plan that just reminds us of tasks that need to be accomplished.
Those tasks for a college student can involve a lot of different activities. A planner helps them see at a glance what their class schedule is but it can do so much more. They can record deadlines for papers, announced exams and study dates. Girls may make a date for shopping while guys may want to remember that there is a big game that they want to go to with his buddies.
If they are helping to pay for their college tuition, a student may also need to keep track of when they are scheduled to work. A planner is also going to be helpful to let their employer know that they can not be scheduled at certain times because they have a class.
Time management is a skill that most students can use and should use to keep everything on task because they are on their own for the first time in their lives and for some it can all become overwhelming.
What Can A Student Record In A Planner?
Well, that is the thing! They can record just about anything they deem necessary in their planner or agenda book. Things like:
- class schedules
- assignments and when they are due
- exams
- work schedules
- shopping dates
- collegiate games like football, basketball, baseball and others
- sorority and fraternity events
- study dates
- vacation times
- birthdays and anniversaries of family and friends
- and so much more
Sometimes technology is not enough
With tablets and smartphones a student may feel that they do not need a planner for college. I would disagree. There is nothing like a good old fashioned pen and paper to keep a schedule in order and readily available. Sure, a student can use one of the digital style calendars with the bells and whistles that ring to let them know about an event. But what if they are in an area that does not have wi-fi? What if their battery runs down and it is going to be a while before they can get back to their dorm room or apartment to re-charge it? How do they check on what is coming next on that schedule if these things happen?
Besides a college student, especially freshmen, are experiencing life without Mom or Dad to be around to remind them of what is coming up for them to remember. That is kind of difficult for many young adults. For the first time in their lives (for the most part) they are on their own and have to pay attention to class times, work shifts and events that they want to attend. Having that jotted down in a planner that does not require a battery or electricity is a smart thing for them to have. They can pay better attention to their own new workload whether it involves the education part of their lives or the social and work parts of their lives.
These student planners make wonderful gifts for students but are also items that the student can purchase for themselves. They are pretty inexpensive and very easy to use.
If you DO go with an online planner, like Google Calendar, I would suggest using the bullet journal system for keeping track of everything ELSE. Sure, appointments can by synchronized digitally. Pen on paper still works best for todo’s, quick notes, homework etc.