Lessons Learned with College-Level Organization
Today's guest post was written by Keith Gillogly from DormCo!
Learning the importance of staying organized is one of the most valuable lessons that college can teach. Anyone who’s gone to school and lived in a dorm has realized just how much stuff you’ll need for school. You’ll have to efficiently pack, organize, and keep track of all those things, from school supplies to clothes to everyday bathroom supplies. While properly storing all that stuff—especially if you use a storage unit!—requires organization too, your day-to-day management of all those college supplies and of college life itself provides a great lesson in organization.
If you live in a dorm room, it won’t be the first time you’ll have your own living space, as you probably had or perhaps shared a room back home. Yet even if you lived in a small apartment, that little dorm room will likely be the smallest living space you’ve yet inhabited. Let’s be honest, this is probably the result of your school maximizing on space by minimizing room size, but either way, it’s a great first test of organization. Any student who lets his or her clothes, folders, books, and other school and college supplies pile up all over the place quickly learns just how inefficient it is to live in such clutter. You’ll be late for class due to lost time looking for missing items! Plus, even if you shared a room with an equally sloppy sibling, your new roommate probably won’t appreciate the mess. Therefore, organization becomes an indicator of responsibility.
Yet organization in college extends beyond the walls of your dorm room. Managing your class schedule is itself an exercise in organization. Merely scheduling your classes takes some rather extensive planning. You’ll have to try and squeeze in all sorts of required classes and take them at all different times throughout the day. Taken as a whole, your everyday schedule can feel like a chaotic conundrum at first. Yet it teaches another great lesson on organization: with a little practice, it’s not so bad! You’ll be checking a printout of your schedule daily, and next thing you’ll know, you’ll have it memorized. It also shows that even such mundane tasks as following a set schedule can seem intimidating at first, but aren’t so bad after taking some time to learn.
The examples of how college life teaches and calls for organization are infinite. Remember, even when organization feels unattainable, sometimes it’s best to take a step back and appreciate the Zen-like quality that organization provides. With a little work, planning, and practice, organization results in more convenience and peacefulness later on. This idea, of course, can be applied to all that end-of-the-school-year dorm stuff. Keep it all safely and neatly stored, and you’ll save future hassle and headache by keeping organization at the forefront.
