Get Organized: Tips for High School Students

I work with many teens who struggle with organization, particularly when it comes to schoolwork. Poor organization, in my experience, tends to have a two-fold effect. First, it negatively impacts a student’s academic performance, as he/she is more prone to losing assignments, forgetting homework, and not turning in completed work. Secondly, the chaos that is the student’s binder, backpack, desk, etc, can translate to a general feeling of disarray when it comes to school. I have seen this add enormous stress to students’ lives, and impact them in myriad negative ways.

Why, then, do these habits persist? Bad habits are hard to break, and it’s not easy to shift from years of doing things a certain way. Moreover, many students aren’t aware that they’re disorganized until the academic rigor ratchets up in high school (or college). Many students have the natural intellect to be able to maintain bad organizational habits, and still record excellent grades. The bottom line is this: the earlier new methods are implemented, the sooner they become habits. Good organizational habits pay massive dividends in high school and beyond, both for a student’s academic performance, and his/her mental health. Here are some easy to implement organization strategies that can go a long way toward improving organization and academic performance, while decreasing school-related stress.

1) Use a planner:

Planners can be an invaluable tool for young students. They provide a space to record major due dates, extracurricular activities, and other obligations. This can be a big memory aid for students, in that assignments and activities get “out of their head” and recorded into the planner. We all know how taxing it can be to mentally track a day’s worth of activities and obligations. Finally, many successful college students and professionals utilize planners, so using a planner at a young age builds a skill that can pay dividends down the road.

2) Organize your binder by class:

There are many ways to do this effectively, and it depends on what works best for you. Some students may choose to color code their binder, designating a color for each class, while others may choose to use a labeling system. Some students may prefer one large binder where classes are separated by dividers, while others may prefer a seperate folder for each class. Also consider keeping a piece of paper in each course folder/space to log upcoming assignments. What’s ultimately most important is that students have a system for keeping class-specific work in a designated space.

3) Keep a “completed assignments” folder for each course:

Every student has gone through the unpleasant experience of having a teacher forget to record an assignment that was, in fact, turned in. Keeping graded assignments in a folder until the end of each semester can ensure that when this happens, the student will receive credit for the work completed.

4) Plan ahead for big assignments:

Utilizing a planner is a good first step for planning ahead, but more can be done in this regard. Students can also implement timelines for big essays/projects that are likely to be time-consuming. Breaking down a bigger assignment into smaller pieces is a great way to avoid procrastination, and ease stress. For instance, if a student has a 10-page paper due in two weeks, a useful strategy would be setting deadlines for each two page increment of the paper.

5) Designate an area at home for backpack, folders, etc:

Whether it’s in a student’s bedroom, or in a common area, there should be designated space for everything that needs to go to school each day. Nothing can hamper a student’s academic performance like forgetting essential class materials.

6) Keep your backpack clean:

Loose papers can be disastrous for a student. Commit to going through your backpack at the end of each day, and filing away loose papers. Loose papers can become overwhelming for students, and can lead to misplacing important documents. There should be a routine around this. Which leads me to my final tip..

7) Stick to a routine:

Commit yourself to doing your work at the same time/place as often as is possible. Of course, extracurriculars and other obligations can disrupt a student’s schedule, but consistency and continuity breed good habits, and the study habits developed in high school can last young students the rest of their academic lives.

Many students are able to get away with bad organizational habits, due to sheer intellect. But for college-bound students, that sets a dangerous precedent. Successful college students must be effective managers of time, and need to be self-directed. If you can begin utilizing good organizational habits now, you’ll likely see improvement in your academic performance, and a decrease in your amount of school-related stress.