Winter Break is an awesome break from schoolwork and classes. I like to use the time to take some time off for some much-needed and well-deserved relaxation. But another thing I like to do is prepare for the new semester. I keep all my schoolwork organized through my devices so I filmed this video just to show how I do it!

Google Calendar

I love this feature because it keeps all my events in one place and syncs up with the rest of my devices, as well as my Apple Calendar. I start preparations by inserting and color-coordinating my Spring ‘23 class schedule. Once the semester starts, I go in and update the events with the meeting locations as well as office hours and supplemental instruction times, but for now, I insert meeting times and class names.

Google Drive

Google Drive is where I keep all downloadable documents (like my syllabus) that I can view for later. I find this especially useful for downloading all the practice sheets I get for biology and chemistry, which I’ll need later on when studying for the MCAT. I already have a folder made for all my freshman-year classes, so I just organize it further by adding additional folders for my new classes and color-coordinating those as well.

One Note

Similar to Notability, OneNote is a free Microsoft feature where you can create different notebooks and store all your notes. At the beginning of college, I switched over to completely digital notes which I find to be a lot better for me than written notes. I found it great for not only writing my notes but being easily accessible when I was studying later on. To prepare for the Spring semester, I created a new notebook entitled Spring ‘23 and made mini notebooks for each of my classes. Once I get the syllabi for each class, I’ll be able to go into each mini notebook and make subsections for each topic we’re going to learn.

Notion

The last step in my preparation is preparing my Notion for a new semester. I started using Notion a couple of years ago and I absolutely love it, so I continued to use it for college as well. That being said, I already had a previously used design where I have all my courses set up from Fall ‘22, so I duplicated this same section to create my own section for Spring ‘23. For each class section, I updated it so that it has the correct course title, professor name, meeting time, credits, and course objective. I refreshed each page so that once I receive information for the grading scale, office hours, email, textbook, and syllabus, I’ll be able to easily insert it. In my Notion Hub, I have a location where I type all my impending assignments, so I refreshed that task as well, ready for my first assignment of the new year!

I find this online ecosystem helps me a lot in terms of organization, especially in college. I 100 percent recommend using any of these resources if you want to start your new year a little bit more organized.