Ways to Stay Organized During Online Schooling

Virtual classrooms have come upon us by surprise. Zoom and Google Meet have replaced the normal classrooms we are used to, and they have made us organize our classes by ourselves. To some, completing assignments at their own pace can be refreshing, but to others it is difficult to manage their time. Here are some helpful ways to maintain organization while navigating online classes:

1. Create a schedule.

You don’t need an expensive planner to create a schedule. You can make a table on a Google Doc that contains an hourly agenda that helps guide you throughout the day. By doing this, it can help you be productive for the school week.

2. Link Zoom and Google Meet codes on one doc.

Make a list of your classes and paste the link of the Google Meet or Zoom code provided by your teachers on one Google Doc. Doing this will help keep all the different links for your virtual classrooms accessible easily. You won’t have to retype the long codes or search through Google Classroom or emails for the link from your teachers.

3. Learn how to work with folders on a Google Drive.

Managing essays and powerpoints from different classes can be hard when they are everywhere instead of one place. Make one folder with different folders of each class within that folder and move your assignments into the folder for your class.

4. Pretend it is a regular school day.

You don’t have to wake up extremely early as you would for school but dedicating several hours to school work can help you stay on track. Doing a little something every day can decrease overload on the day the assignment is due. 

5. Work in the same journals from school.

If you have any notebooks or folders from your classes, keep them. Even if you aren’t getting paperwork from them, it is helpful to keep all your notes in one area to help study for tests and quizzes. Use the same journals from your classes at school to jot down notes in them if you have to.

6. Create study guides.

Learning on your own can be a bit difficult but most teachers are trying to help because this is new to everyone. However, being away from the classroom takes a lot of time away from learning and makes it harder for students to learn on their own if they have never done it by themselves. Creating Quizlets can help memorize important vocabulary and practice test questions. Khan Academy can also help you learn math and science concepts easier with a video tutorial.

7. Make time for entertainment.

Even if we can’t go outside to meet up with friends, there are alternative ways to have fun. You can complete 1000 piece puzzles, binge watch movies, and read books among other things. Don’t overload yourself with classwork and stress yourself out. Take breaks throughout assignments and do something entertaining when you are done for the day. 

Online learning won’t be easy at the beginning, but it will get easier after a while.