Organisation!

Organisation during school time can be very hard for people. I know this, as all through school I have been very disorganised. I have had to learn in the last year and a half how to be organised. I will now put how I organise myself in terms of storing school work, then I will talk about how I go about keeping track of homework. Lastly, I will go through how I organise my notes.

So to store schoolwork, I have gone through several types of organisation. I have tried to use several organisation techniques that have not worked for me. These are:

1. The "1 Big Lever-Arch File Technique" - This is a TERRIBLE idea, especially in high school. While having everything in one place is convenient at first, it soon starts to get very messy, with all your papers dog eared and ripping at the punch holes. You will get lazy with your filing and begin to lose things everywhere. After only a few weeks at school you will have too much stuff in your file to manage. So my advice is to not go for this type of organisation.
2. The "1 Concertina File Technique" - While being better than the level arch file technique, you will be unable to see at a glance what you have in your file, so when you start getting loads of paper in each section, you will begin to spend a lot of time looking for different worksheets.
3. The "Keep everything at home and have a very small file for what I need at school technique" - While this can be effective, towards exam times and when you start getting a lot of homework to do, you will start forgetting things and will start to lose track of where you have put different documents. My advice - stay away from this method unless you want to spend a lot of time organising.
4. The "Level arch file for each subject technique" - This is the best one that I have found. Being able to see everything in your file is a massive help, and being able to page through it quickly is very helpful. You also cut down on the amount of papers in each of the file. This will keep everything very organise and you can carry around only the stuff you need to each class - and you will have all of the work that you need at every class.

Keeping track of homework can be pretty tough sometimes. Having a lot of homework to do, as well as tests to study for and even after school things that you need to keep track of. This is how I do it.

1. School homework diary. Ugh, I know this is horrible. All the way through Primary and Middle School you would have been forced to use these stupid books and even be put in detention if you didn't. So don't worry, this won't be a big section. I use the homework diary just to note things down at school. But I do not rely on my diary. For me, I just don't check it when I get home. Instead, I just use it for a reminder, maybe for when something is due.
2. Remember it! Now, I am not saying you should only keep track of things in your head, but it is a very good way to it until you get home. While being hard at first, you always have your diary as a backup and you WILL get better at it. 
3. White board in your work area. I use a whiteboard above my desk. This is the most important part of keeping track of your stuff. I have Monday - Friday written down on the board for 2 weeks. Underneath I write what I have due on each day and take 2 minutes after each week to copy over the next weeks stuff into the current week. I also have a list of tests and assignments and a to-do list. Lastly, I have a section to write down dates I am going flying, since I am a pilot and those days rule out homework.

Note taking is very important, but being able to study from them is even more important. I have come up with a system that has never failed me, so I will share it with you now. 

I have two exercise books for each subject. One is for notes, the other for other class work. This keeps your notes all together, concise and easy to find. All of you other stuff is in another place. The best part about doing it this way, is you don't have to rewrite your notes for exams - you have it all, organised and ready to go. You keep both of these books in each of your files for these subjects, and I have a third for tear out paper for homework, although this can be easily fixed by having books with easily torn out pages in the first place.

I hope you have found this post interesting, and maybe has even helped you get yourself organised. If you have any organisation tips, please put them down below in the comments :)