I hope this year has been treating you well so far! If you are looking to organize your student life this school year and stay on top of your schoolwork, this post is for you! I’m introducing 3 popular types of organization and time management tools for students in 2024. You may also check out the free planners (printable and digital) in this blog post. Let’s dive in!
1. Digital Planners
Pros and Cons of Digital Planners
2. Paper Planners and Printable Planners
Pros and Cons of Printable Planners
3. Planning Apps
Pros and Cons of Planning Apps
4. Which type of organization tool works best for you?
Digital Planners
Digital Planners are just like paper planners, but they’re digital. They are usually PDF files with hyperlinks, so as long as you have an app that can open PDFs on your devices, you can view them. However, if you want to type, write or add stickers to it, you will need a note-taking app. There are many free and paid apps in the market, such as Goodnotes, Notability, Xodo. Goodnotes is a popular choice among college and university students. You can take lecture notes, annotate your readings, write your essays, create a vision board, and even plan your days with it!
Pros of Digital Planners
- Customize your layout, schedule hours, or change only part of the layout of the planner page to suit your daily/weekly needs.
- Plan efficiently and save time by copying and pasting your texts, moving them around quickly.
- Extremely tidy- Make changes without pen marks, tidy handwriting by converting handwriting to text with Ipad and Apple pencil*.
- Your schedule has been backed up- When you use Goodnotes or Notability, your files are saved in the app. You don’t have to worry about losing your schedule.
- Goodnotes has a lasso tool function where you can select the words you have written or highlighted and change them to another color easily.
- View or type on your planner on your phone if you have a sync app.
- Reuse it year after year without buying a new one!
- Have unlimited stickers- You can add as many stickers as you like to your planner by duplicating it. You can save money and space from storing your physical sticker sheets.
- Add, rearrange, and delete pages.
- Retain information like paper planners-Writing down things can help you retain information better. Digital planners are designed to be used with a stylus like an Apple pencil, it feels just like writing on your physical planner.
- Change your cover page anytime .
Cons of Digital Planner
- The planner may look small on your phone, as most planners have been designed to be used on an iPad/Tablet with an Apple Pencil/stylus.
- You need to learn how to use the note-taking app.
- It takes up storage on your tablet/ phone.
- Some planners have a lot of pages and look overwhelming.
The point of planning is to stay organized and manage your time better. But planners with thousand of pages can be overwhelming and confusing. It is therefore important to look for one that has an index and is hyperlinked so that you can access different pages easily. Alternatively, you may look for planners with the necessary pages only. They are easier to use and have a smaller file size!
This 2024 Digital Student Planner has all necessary pages that a student would need only and has the flexibility to change your daily schedule layout with stickers . If you are minimalist, definitely check it out!
Paper Planners and Printables
Paper planners are the schedule books or inserts you can find in stationery stores. Printable planners are files that you can download instantly and print yourself to create your own planner.
Pros of Printable Planners
- You can print multiple copies of planners anytime once you bought them, depending on your license. That means if the planner is undated, you may use it year after year and save cost buying new ones.
- You can use it anywhere anytime. If your school doesn’t allow an Ipad or tablet to be used in class, then you might need a paper planner.
- Avoid distractions like notifications on your device.
- Writing down things can help you retain information better.
- View 2 pages side by side.
Cons of Printable Planners
- Printing colored pages can be costly.
- There is no backup.
- Making changes to your schedule marked with pen or highlighters is difficult. It may make your page look messy and disorganized.
- You cannot find information easily. There are no control + F keys on your planner.
Planning Apps
There are a lot of scheduling apps and organization tools in recent years. From your phone’s built-in calendars to Google Calendar to Notion, time management apps are popular organization tools among students.
Pros of Planning and Time Management Apps
- You can set reminders and alarms if you always forget to check your planner.
- Search items in your schedule easily.
- Create recurring tasks and reminders.
- Organize your time by categories and have multiple views of your schedule using the filter function e.g. I only want to see my part-time work schedule.
Cons of Planning and Time Management Apps
- Have a learning curve.
- You need to have internet access anytime.
- Less freedom to design your planner e.g. color code, stickers etc.
Notion is an amazing organization tool that students love. It has calendars, to-do lists, and you have a lot of freedom to customize the pages to your own needs. Notion is also a great tool to manage your assignment and projects as it can help you track progress easily. Some students even create flashcards, and notebooks in it and make it a revision tool!
However, Notion can be confusing and difficult to use. There is a learning curve and you will need time to set up your own planner. But many people organize their life with Notion once they get used to using it.
Setting up an account on Notion is FREE. You can try using a template and edit it according to your needs. This will help you save a lot of time from creating one.
Which type of organization tool works best for you?
The best way to find out which planner suits you best is to try it. Try our FREE PLANNERS and see which type of planner suits your needs before purchasing one!
I hope this post helps you understand the type of the student time management & organization tools you can consider. I will see you in the next blog post.
*Depends on Ipad and Apple Pencil Model
# Playlist shown on the photo will not be embedded in the template, but a step by step guide on how to embed your own playlist will be provided. Please check out the listing for information. Photos in the template are chosen from “image” on Notion and have a licence for commercial use. You are free to change them to your own photos according to the guide after purchase.
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