There are many things that you can do to stay organized once you arrive at school for your freshman year, but many of them are overlooked because it is hard to look past classes and grades. When you are living the life of a college freshman, you need to know where you are going, what you are doing, have a system that helps you stay on top of your studies, and, of course, have fun with your friends. There are five tips below that will make it much easier for you to stay organized and deploying each of these tactics will make your freshman year much easier.

1. You Need A Marker Board

You actually need more than one dry erase board so that you can communicate, plan, and manage your life. Someone who is working very hard at school has more than just classes to attend. You have friends that you need to see, you have an extensive social calendar, and you might even travel on the weekends. You may even have to work while going to school. You need a marker board that will allow you to stay on top of your to-do list and keep your busy life organized. You can use a marker board to plan projects and even for games in your room. Do not be afraid to buy more than one board as you use your organizational tactics throughout the year. 

2. The Door Board

The door board is often the most important board that you have because you can write inspirational messages on it, leave notes for your roommate, or even write a do not disturb message on the board. A modern whiteboard is very easy to erase and use over and over. Plus, the board itself works with markers of all colors. You can keep the markers in the room and you in your bag so that you can scribble messages on the board before leaving.

3. The Project Board

You could put a project board on your wall that will give all the information for major projects that you are working on. Yes, you need a board that will hold your full calendar, but you also need a board for project information. You might have a lot of things to do just to complete one project and it is best to put those items in full view. The board can be adjusted at any time, and you can even check off the things that you have completed. If you want to be even more organized, you could list every paper, test, and project on this board along with the requirements. You never need to flip through the syllabus to find this information again.

4. The Calendar

Using a calendar board helps you keep all your appointments. People often need to see their calendar items in full color every day so that they do not forget, and you could even share the calendar board with your roommate. The calendar board could be color-coded so that you can see which appointments line up with which person, or you could use color-coding to differentiate between school and personal appointments. You can scratch out anything that you have already completed, and you can draw a line through every week that you are out of school. Write down all the holidays when you do not have class, and include the parties, sporting events, and concerts you would like to attend. 

5. The Art Board

There are many students who go to school without any outlet for their art. It is often too hard for you to sit down with a sketch pad, but you can draw on your artboard to have a bit of a creative outlet. If you are an art major, you can actually test a lot of your ideas on the artboard. You do not need to pile up dozens of sketches when you can do a couple of tests on the artboard to see what works.

Start Planning Immediately

You can turn your whiteboard into a monthly planner so that you only see your monthly tasks instead of the items for the whole semester. If you have built a monthly planning calendar, you can check off a lot of your work before the month ends. You will be more productive throughout the month, and you do not need to worry about missing deadlines. In fact, you may purchase two boards. Buy one board for the current month and pre-load another board with the work for the next month. When you are done with your current month, you can move on to the next one so that you will be even farther ahead than you already were.

You should start your organizational plan as soon as possible so that you are in an early routine. You want to use the routine from your freshman year for the rest of your time in college, and you will get much more work done because you are on a plan that is very easy to maintain. Someone who does not start out their college career with an organizational plan will have a hard time staying organized and on top of everything. This will add to the stress of going to college, which no one wants. Anyone who is not sure where to start can always use a whiteboard to keep track of something they need to accomplish.

The organizational strategies that you use when you are starting college will determine your success for the future, and you will notice that using a whiteboard makes it easy for you to send messages to your classmates, plan all your projects, and get your work done faster. You can get more than one board because they all serve different purposes, and they will allow you to color-code your calendar, write up an entire syllabus, and test out your latest artwork all in the same place.