How to Get Organized for Graduate School

Graduate school can be overwhelming. You'll have a lot of papers to work on, meetings with professors, as well as other things you'll need to keep organized. This article will provide some tips for getting organized for graduate school, so you can make the most of the time you spend studying.

• Set up a filing system to organize your academic and personal life - Make sure you have plenty of file folders. Now that you're in graduate school you'll have things you need to keep organized for your courses, as well as your personal life. You'll want to have graduate school files such as:

  
  
  
  • Research/thesis ideas
  
  
  • Thesis references (possibly divided further into files for each topic).
  
  
  • Exam materials - You'll want to keep track of things such as old exams and study materials to prepare for final exams.
  
  
  • Professional credentials - These include things such as vitae, sample cover letters, and research statements.
  
  
  • Reprints and professional articles - these should be organized by topic.
  
  
  • Life - This is for things not having to do with graduate school, such as bills, taxes and other things you need to take care of outside of graduate school.
  
  
  • Teaching materials - These should be organized by topic.
    
    



• Purchase all necessary office supplies - Make sure you have office supplies such as a good stapler, paper clips, binder clips, sticky notes in different sizes and stick-on flags. To save money, you may want to go to an office supply store and buy supplies in bulk.




• Organize your study space - Make sure it's well-lit and that you have all previously-mentioned supplies on hand.




• Create a schedule for household tasks - Since you'll have more demands on your time, you might want to break down household tasks by room. For example, you might clean the bathroom one day and the kitchen on another day. You might also want to enlist the help of friends and family, if possible.




• Make a to-do list every day - Because you'll have more demands on your time on a daily basis, be sure to make a daily to-do list of both the school and non-school related things you need to accomplish that day.