I use two simple tools to stay on top of everything: Google Calendar and my bullet journal. These
two tools, and the organization system I’ve developed to go with them, help me manage
my time, stay focused, never miss a deadline, and stick to a study schedule. If you’re
new to my channel, my name is Ioana, and I’m going into my third year at Queen’s University
studying Commerce. And by way of letting you know this system works, I have a 4.2 GPA (we
use a 4.3 scale), and will be beginning my first semester of third year after a summer
working in audit at Ernst & Young. This semester, I will be studying with a focus on marketing,
working as an undergraduate teaching assistant for a business fundamentals course, working
for a startup on an internship project based in business strategy, while also continuing
to create content over here on Mistral Spirit. It’s really important to me that I maintain
a balance between personal time, relationships, my studies, and career projects, and this
system let’s me do that.
Let’s do this together. I’m going to walk you through an example first week of school.
This is based on my schedule and syllabi from one year ago - September 2019 - but I’m
setting it in September 2020 so I can show it to you on Google Calendar as well.
And before we begin, I’d like to thank The Washi Tape Shop for sponsoring today’s video.
I’ll chat more about their awesome stationery and washi tape later, but just know that I
have a discount code in the description for you to get 10% off any order from their shop!
So it’s the Sunday before the first week back at school, and I like to take half an
hour to look ahead at the week. The first thing that happens is I’ll plan out
where I need to be in my Google Calendar, which I use religiously! For a complete video
on how my different calendars work, check out my video on that linked in the description.
Now that my courses are confirmed, I can add those with the instructor, room number, and
course code. Last year - I’m demonstrating using last year’s schedule - I took 2 economics
courses, an HR course, Intro to Finance, International business and Business Decision Models. I set
those as repeating events and put them under my “School” calendar, which is a dark
reddish purple.
There are other things that factor in, and in general my order of priorities goes: mandatory
commitments, personal time, social time, and school work. I generally consider my personal
time to be the hour I spend most days doing a workout or some kind of movement.
So let’s add in the club events I have to go to. I also have a Big Four Accounting and
a CPA industry night which are part of On-Campus recruiting. Those are commitments - fixed
elements of my schedule I know ahead of time.
Next, I’ll add in time to go to the gym. This week I can only realistically go twice,
and I like to tie it in after being in class or straight after waking up, because that’s
when I’m most likely to follow through!
Then, I’ve got several social events and a couple dates with my boyfriend that I’ll
add in.
The calendar’s looking pretty full, but it’s the first week of school so the course
load will be fairly light and I’m really excited and pumped to be back.
Now we move on to what I call my “deadlines calendar” in my bullet journal. I draw this
in every month, and it’s always fun to decorate with doodles, washi tape, and stickers. Washi
tape is my definite go-to when I’m in school and want my bullet journal planner to feel
put-together, but don’t want to spend hours decorating, and I’d say about 90% of all
the washi tape I own is from The Washi Tape Shop. I’ve got a few simple tricks. This
thick banded cursive-looking tape is great just to make the page look a bit busier and
classy. I also like filling in the unused boxes in the calendar, and then using an Xacto
knife to cut off the excess.
So I’ve got 6 courses this semester, and once I’ve set up my calendar each month,
I go back through the syllabus of each course to fill in any due dates and any readings
or prep work. For larger projects, I’ll also set “ghost” due dates for myself.
Here’s how it works.
It’s the first week, so mostly all I’ve got are readings. I have my International
Business class every Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. So all the readings that I’ll
need to have done to feel prepared in class on Tuesday get written in on Monday. That’s
the last day for me to finish up those tasks. Same thing for Friday. Let’s say I had an
introduction post to write as well - and that has a deadline of Monday by midnight. I’ll
add that in on Friday. Then I’ll go through all my other courses as well and do the same.
Note that all of these tasks aren’t just “study international business”. They are
clear tasks that I can check off when they’re complete. I also use a task box for readings
without deadlines, and a coloured dot to stand out for anything with a deadline. I memorize
my course codes so I can use them to identify which work is for which course.
Now that that’s all set up, I’ve got one final triageop system before I start planning
what I’ll be up to tomorrow, on Monday.
I’ve already got places to be in my Google Calendar, and studying to do in my deadlines
calendar. But for the week ahead, I find it important to sort out my priorities so I’m
clear about what I’ll be flexible about and what I won’t. In my daily spreads, I
use a white pen to section off 5 boxes along the left and 5 along the right. In the left
margin, I start by writing out my top three priorities of the week. Some weeks, the focus
will be on studying, fitness training, and career. Others it will be social events, relationships
or relaxing and personal time. Putting this down on paper keeps me happy and focused about
how I choose to spend my time that week. I won’t get down about prioritizing relaxation
when that was my focus for the week, and likewise if my focus is on career projects or studying
and an opportunity comes along with Mistral Spirit, I’ll put it off to another week.
I never really put off social events in favour of working, but if school or a job was an
important priority for me that week, I’d simply reschedule what isn’t a priority
to another week.
Next is prioritizing my actual tasks, which I’ll demonstrate with a prioritization matrix.
You’ve probably seen it around - it’s got four quadrants for urgent, not urgent,
and important, not important. I’ve got different things competing for
my attention - some come up randomly, and some are studying tasks I’ve added to my
deadlines calendar. When I decide where to fit it in, I do this:
If it’s urgent (like 24 hours urgent) and really important - say completing that introductory
post on our course forum, that goes straight to my Monday to-do list.
If it’s urgent but really not that important or won’t require a lot of focus - like “make
list of jobs to apply to” - that goes in my left side bar under “low priority”.
If it’s not urgent, but important - these are projects that I’ve got throughout the
week and might be due in a few days - like “prep for professor office hour” - I’ll
write that up in the left side bar under “ongoing”.
Finally, if it’s neither - that is clearly not a task I need to deal with right now,
so I’ll start a bullet journal list or collection for it. These can range from “making a new
running playlist” to “getting a new pair of jeans”. That goes in my someday soon
list.
Now that we’ve triaged, we’ve got a working plan for the day.
On Monday morning I wake up and take a look at my calendar schedule. That determines where
I need to be. In the time in between I’ll often visit the library or sit down at my
desk to chuck away at the tasks I’ve got written down for the day.
These will be items that I’ve triaged as being urgent and important. I’ll also write
in a summary task per course for the work I plan to get done that day, from my deadlines
calendar. Finally, if I’ve got any administrative tasks I’ll squeeze those in, too.
If my day really is quite empty, I like to use that - depending on what my priority focus
is for that week - to get ahead. If my focus is to relax, then I’ll sit back and read
a good book. If my focus is school or career, I’ll look ahead in my deadlines calendar
or in my “ongoing” list and chunk off some of that work.
Finally, if I’m particularly busy or overwhelmed that day, chunking even some of these simple
blocks of time in my Google Calendar allows me to forget about when I’m doing things
and just let my calendar take care of that. So in the morning, I’ll also think about
how long each chunk might take me. Whatever pops up into my head, I’ll add 20% to that
original estimate. It’s really important to be realistic here - with both how much
energy you think you’ll have at various points in the day, how much time it takes
to transfer between tasks, and how many things you can accomplish.
Then, I’ll block this as my “personal schedule” calendar, which is a light pink.
We’ll add some chunks of time to work on school. Then I’ll include a couple chunks
for lunch and just taking it easy.
A game changer here is to STOP working even if you haven’t finished something. If you’re
in the groove you could work for hours without taking a break, and if you’re not, you can
just sit there letting the task fill up the time you’ve given it and beyond because
you want to still get it done. Neither of those are good! If you’ve set aside time
for a lunch break, take it. You’re not superhuman, you just overestimated.
Another game changer is to sleep. That’s what your energy depends on - so don’t let
your schedule seep into your sleeping time.
Finally, focus on what matters, not what you’ve planned. If something new comes up, be flexible
and keep that priority list in mind. Your work and projects can always fill the space
in the cracks, but in my opinion nothing is more important than the memories and the personal
growth you experience with the people that are important in your life.
And there you have it! My complete system using Google calendar and a bullet journal,
that keeps me focused, organized, and feeling on top of things. I find that feeling put-together
comes down to putting some time into my appearance, having a system that guides me so I can focus
on the now, and putting time into my environment. That includes the notebooks and the tools
I surround myself with, which I love to personalize in my style. In this video I showed you my
bullet journal, which I always step up with washi tape from the Washi Tape Shop - so don’t
forget to check out their beautiful designs and the discount code in the description.
All the best and see you next week!