Staying on Track with Organisation

2 Nov 2023

My name is Alison, and I’m a Master’s student in Applied Psychology in UCC. Reflecting back on my first year of college (and technically, I’ve been in first year twice, since I changed course!) I know now that I wasted a lot of time in first year on organisation and note-taking, simply because I didn’t know about the tools which would help me streamline this process. After 4 years of college, I now have a handy bank of knowledge about tools you can use to keep yourself and your notes organised – and you can implement these from the start! 

Here are some simple tips and tools available to all students to keep yourself and your notes and assignments on track: 

1. Use Notion or OneNote: These are both online note-storing/organisation systems which you can use to take notes and organise them. Notion is incredibly customisable – you can set up task lists, your own personal homepage, student homepage, and input all of your assignment deadlines, notes and course info. It’s downloadable online and the student account is free! There are ready-made templates for college which you can use, and there are lots of videos and guides about how to set it up as suits you. I only recently started using it, and it’s incredible to be able to store all of your notes in one place. OneNote is also a great online note-taking programme, available through your Office 365 student suite. It isn’t as aesthetic or customisable as Notion but it’s straight to the point and works great. 

1. Find out which Databases to use and learn their features: Different courses often rely on different databases (online stores of Journals, books, and Journal articles etc). Familiarise yourself with them, find which ones are relevant, and use these to find your sources! You can access plenty of databases online for free through the UCC Library website. Google Scholar is a very useful generic online search system for academic articles and books. It also has a useful referencing feature, and the ability to add articles to sections in ‘your library.’ If you have an assignment, you can add a section to your library and add all the relevant articles you see to create a little reading list for yourself (which saves even if you close your browser). 

1. Planning Ahead: Although I generally prefer having my week scheduled into a paper diary, it can also be really helpful to have your day time-blocked into Google Calendar. You can add reminders, and access it from your phone or laptop, making it really easy to keep track of your schedule on the go. Another tip I have is to have a monthly/year planner somewhere visible with just your deadlines/exams on it. Having a visual representation of how far away/near these dates are helps with knowing where you should factor in extra prep, and how to plan so that you’re not swimming in deadlines later in the year. Finally, Gmail’s ‘schedule send’ feature is so useful. Most of the time I’m planning or writing emails outside of office hours, and it’s brilliant to be able to schedule for them to send the next morning when it’s more likely that the lecturer (or whoever you need to contact) will see them. 

I hope that these tips help you! Best of luck!