LPT: How to increase your chances of successful studying/organisation.

(Note: user powertheqwerty recommended I post this so, here I am!) This is a mish-mash of various posts that I've made in the past few weeks, that seemed to receive a good response, so I thought I'd write a post and share it all here. Life Pro Tips to help make studying easier.

For those that are struggling to decide on what to study, or when

• I make a schedule on excel like this of all my uni lectures, all my weekly commitments, and I schedule in time to study for each class that I have. Each week, I then do the same work on every day. You can use this method for exercising too, as you can schedule in your gym time or running or whatever.

• If life is more complicated than that, then I have another more-complicated method: I print out an excel schedule with only the things that are set in stone - so, generally classes and any sort of weekly appointment that will stay the same. I then put this into a plastic wallet and hang it up. (This is where I get my nerd on) - I cut out little squares and rectangles, that are the same size as the hour blocks on my schedule and use these for my study times; so, if I want to study in 2-hour blocks, the cut-outs will be 1x2 'hours' of size - I hope that makes sense. I then write on them or colour them in, and then blu tak them to the front of the plastic wallet, on top of my schedule. That way, each week looks like a full schedule, but if other commitments arise, I am able to change my study times without almost ripping the paper each week. Alternatively you could laminate your schedule but I'm not that fancy. This is just what I do, as I am a visual learner and like to be able to see my schedule in front of me. It really helps to see how much time I have each day between my commitments.

• After that, it is just a case of knowing what needs studying each week, which will depend on your course or whatever it is that you are studying at the moment. For me, it is work that the tutors give us each week, so I'll have a record of that written down, too.

Make your study area different to your chill-out area: For some of you, you may have the opportunity to actually sit in a different room or area to study, and devote that area entirely to your study corner, possibly making it easier to study. For some of us, that isn't a luxury and we must sit and study where we sit and relax, so it all blurs into one and nothing gets done. This is my set-up:

• Separate user account on my laptop called 'Uni' with a password of 'do your work' to remind me to get working.

• No games installed, really strict internet settings thanks to StayFocused

• I keep all my uni files on a dropbox account so that I can access them on my normal account, computers at uni, and as a safety back-up in case my laptop explodes.

• Get out all the books that I need and put them in my uni backpack and place that on my desk, and put everything else within arm's reach, so that you can't get up to go looking for a pen and accidentally find yourself in the kitchen making a sandwich.

• (LPT from powertheqwerty) dress as if you were going out to work; dress in full clothes - that means no pyjamas! - and put on shoes. If you dress differently to how you would do when at home, you may be able to trick yourself into thinking that it's 'working time', and not 'chill out and browse reddit' time.

• Use white noise with headphones if you live in a house with others, and/or need peace and quiet to concentrate.

• Try the pomodoro technique. It works wonders. First, decide what you're going to do for the next 25 mins, and write it down, then start the timer! Get on with working (tell yourself that you only have to do one set of 25 mins if you really don't feel like it - you may end up feeling like you want to do more) and don't stop, until the timer beeps. Then enjoy your 5 min break - walk around, get a drink, check your phone, check reddit, whatever. Then, rinse and repeat if you so desire.

So that's about it for my study tips, now for organising.

To get more organised and less stressed: write things down! Seriously, just because you have an amazing brain, don't fill it with naff appointments. Write down the little things so that you can devote your energy to remembering the important study things. Here's my method:

• When out and about, write notes on your phone, hand, or paper, or whatever is available. As soon as you remember something you need to do, write it down. I use the notes section on my phone, and have a 2012/13 diary that I picked up for £1, that fits into whatever bag I have. Always write stuff down.

• The important bit: transfer your scraps of paper to some form of system. I used toodledo to manage all things that would go on my to-do list. These are things like exam dates, doctors appointments, large in-the-future tasks, and small I-should-probably-sort-this-out tasks. All sorts of tasks.

• For daily tasks, such as remembering to take medication, or to exercise, or do your washing up, I use Joe's Goals. This is mainly used for things that are either habits, or tasks that you have to do daily. My biggest weakness is leaving the washing up (because it's the most boring thing ever). That's on my one, to remind me to do the damn washing up every day. It's similar to chains which everybody has been raving about, and is a great alternative.

• For the week, I use Week Plan. At the start of each week, I look on my toodledo account, and see if there are any tasks that are urgent/important, or have a deadline coming up very soon. Then I write them into my Week Plan along with everything else - so, I will 'schedule in' which day to do my laundry, and my work shifts, and what uni work I will do on each day. This is where that excel schedule comes in, as I know which days I need to study on. The great thing about this site is that you can drag and drop tasks to organise the week, which just makes it easier when organising what you have to do.

• Sometimes, I will then copy my Week Plan day onto paper and carry it around with me, or write it on my phone, so that I have easy access to that day's tasks, and have no excuses for forgetting things ever again.

And that my friends, is about all the wisdom I can offer. To be honest, my good routine has developed through an act of procrastination, because I didn't want to study, but still wanted to feel like I was being productive, so I refined my organising skills to a tee.

I hope this advice can help someone, and apologies that it is so long, but I have tried to keep the paragraphs short. And no, there is no TL;DR. Go read it again.

(On a random note, I just realised today that you can drag the size of the text box when submitting a text post. Hm. Handy that.)