The Day Planner - Helping us Stay Punctual and Organized Since they Haven't Invented Teleporters

I wake up, take a shower, get dressed and head to my 10am Philosophy course - a seemingly normal day. I sit in Philosophy, laptop open, checking my fantasy football roster - I drop a few players, add a few - continually a normal day. I decide to open up Myumd and check to see if I have anything to pay for - I do, it has been due for over a month (that means a late charge). And even worse... I was supposed to register five days ago! SHIT! So I look at the walk in hour for English, perfect, after my last class. Then I look again for extra measure and of course... I have to check in with Arts and Humanities too, again, SHIT! So I look up their walk in hours, they end at 11.. it is 10:35. I stand up in the middle of lecture, grab my things and book it the hell out of there. I make it, perfect. There is no line, superb. I get everything taken care of and head to my next class without being late (it was at 11am). I finish class and make it to English advising. I look up the one class that I really want to take - yes it is still open! I sign in, wait for walk ins to start, finish up advising (Pointless of course). Everything lined up so perfect, why would I ever do things on time again?? I walk into the hall boot up my laptop, it takes about 17 minutes to boot because it sucks. I open up Testudo shoot into the drop/add section, AND!! My class is full, FML.

Then I go to class the next day and I sit down, pop quiz - perfect I did the reading. Except actually, I forgot to write down the changes to the reading - I bombed the quiz. Perfect, glad I did the reading for once.

This all could have easily been prevented by one of two things, a calendar or a daily planner. I never write things down, I never make it to advising before I am scheduled to register, and I am always late for important things. I am terrible at doing assignments on time, I am always pulling allnighters (much like other students are doing as well). I can also say that I am not the only person doing this, my room mate is also pretty similar and so are many of my friends. I hear tons of kids talking about how tired they are from being up all night writing a paper or studying for the exam. If only all of us had a day planner to check at night and in the morning, all of this could be solved. Procrastination is a huge part of College life, but it can be fixed with little effort. If I had a bold "PAPER DUE IN THREE DAYS YOU ASSHOLE" glaring at me when I woke up, I would probably be much more inclined to do it. Instead it goes something more like, I think I have a paper in the next few days. Better check the syllabus, Oh yup, that's the one - it's due tomorrow. Then I head to 7-11 for sixteen Red Bulls, four Five Hour Energies and some Taquitos and Gatorade - lining up a very healthy evening.

So go out to Target, pick up a five dollar planner and write down everything that is due, every appointment you have, etc. Also pick up a big calendar (you can usually find them for free at random campus events and such). Having it written in two places makes sure that you will actually see it. Put the calendar up where you can easily see it and write down the most important stuff since you have less room there. Also as a side tip - write down when you want to go to sleep. You wouldn't believe how helpful it is to see that written down telling you to not be an idiot and go to bed on time. It isn't very difficult and you will thank me later when you almost forgot something and your planner fixes it. So just write down your life - you won't regret it.