I don’t want to freak you out, but midterms are closer than you think. It may only be September, but in a few weeks, you’ll find yourself with three exams to study for, two papers due, four reading assignments, a presentation, and an overwhelming sense of stomach-churning panic.

That’s why now is the time to get your life as organized as possible. Setting up planning and organizing systems before you need them is key. It will pay huge dividends once the craziness of midterms (and later, finals) hits.

To help you kill it once midterms arrive, I’ve compiled three ways to step up your planning and organizing game. Read on to check them out.

Table of Contents

1. Get Yourself an Awesome Planner

If you don’t have a good planner yet, you need to get on that immediately. A daily planner will save you time and again, especially as the semester gets crazy. 

Be sure to see our guide to cute planners for 2021 for a full list of our favorites. Here are some more of my favorite planners right now:

Erin Condren Lifeplanner

Click Here to Buy Full disclosure: Erin Condren sent me one of these planners a few years ago. That said, I receive a LOT of samples, and this is one of the few that I actually ended up using – and loving. I’ve repurchased it with my own money every single year since.

No joke: It’s become a can’t-live-without-it item for me.

I’m not the only one who loves this agenda. Erin Condren’s planners have a cult-like following, with whole Pinterest boards dedicated to the ways people decorate and use them. It is seriously impressive! So far my planner looks sadly basic compared to those Pinterest examples (seriously, look at what people do with these planners), but I have big plans to make my weeks prettier someday. #agendagoals