Ask any good-standing, well-rounded college student if they keep a day planner, and they'll probably whip theirs out so fast you'll wonder where they were keeping it for such quick access.

Quick access is one component of using a day planner right, and if used right, a planner can make college life so much easier to manage. Keeping your day planner close at hand at all times allows you to quickly write in appointments with professors, club meetings, assignments, deadlines, birthdays, and even social plans as soon as you become aware of them. You can look at all of your syllabi for the semester and write in important due dates and test dates ahead of time. All of this is easy to do and doesn't take much time, and it allows you to put all of the aspects of your life onto one timeline for quick reference and easy management.

Let's face it: balancing school, work, and social life while in college is no easy task. Set your priorities (say, school first, work second, social life third?) and a planner can help you sort through messy weeks where exams, parties, and employee evaluations collide. Don't just go by due dates; if you want to go to a party Thursday night but have a paper due Friday morning, write a note to yourself to have that paper done before Thursday night! If you see that you have a job interview Friday morning, though, you may need to pass on that party while still getting that paper done ahead of time. Having all of your responsibilities laid out and seeing where they seem clustered together can help you step back and decide what can get done early and what might have to get pushed back.

Day planners also serve as great reminder tools for personal needs. Using different colored pens and drawing stars, underlining, or capitalizing words can highlight the little but important things that you need to get done, like laundry, getting the car serviced, or remembering to call Mom. Set days or times aside for these things, and write accentuated reminders in your day planner. Your roommate will thank you later.

One last benefit planners provide is a sense of progression: you can see how far you've come and the things you've gotten done, and how far you have to go. This is especially efficient if you cross- or check-off completed tasks as you go and circle uncompleted ones. As you move through the semeser you will have a running record of all that you've accomplished so far and just how close you are to those (eek!) final exams. So if you don't have a planner yet, get one, and start reaping the benefits NOW!

Learn more about this author, Shannon Burton.
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