Schoolwork Chaos? Try These Organization Methods!

Struggling to keep your schoolwork organized? You’re not alone! In this episode of The Sorted Scene, I am joined by my good friend Emma to break down our tried-and-tested methods for keeping assignments, notes, and deadlines organized. From simple class folders to more structured systems, we’ll walk you through different ways to keep your schoolwork in order. Plus, a surprising statistic shows just how many students don’t have a system in place! By the end, it’s up to you to decide which method works best for you. Ready to get sorted? Tune in now!

Transcript

Kayden: Hello, everyone! I’m Kayden, and welcome back to another episode of The Sorted Scene—your go-to podcast for tackling common organization challenges and finding creative solutions to help you take back control of your spaces. 

If this is your first time here, each episode starts with an introduction of an organization challenge, then I’ll share some surprising statistics about it, then I’ll explain my personal method for tackling it, and then I’ll leave you with a call to action to help you get started. So, be sure to stay until the very end so you can take the first step to living a more sorted life. Sound good? Alright then, let’s get sorted! 

Today’s challenge is staying organized with work—specifically, schoolwork. 

For this episode, I have a very special guest and a very good friend of mine: Emma! Everyone say, “Welcome, Emma!” 

I’m just going to imagine you all said that, but Emma, thank you so much for joining me today! 

Emma: Ah, so happy to be here! Thank you for having me. 

Kayden: Ah, yes, absolutely. So, Emma, tell me a little bit about your relationship with schoolwork organization. 

Emma: You know, it’s… it’s not amazing. It’s, uh, usually pretty terrible, honestly, but recently I’ve come up with a method that seems to be working best for me. 

Kayden: And that right there is exactly why I wanted to bring you on today! Because not only do I have a bunch of methods that helped me keep my schoolwork organized, but I know you have your own method too. 

And I think a lot of people could benefit from hearing different approaches so they can find one that actually works for them. 

Emma: Absolutely. It’s very important. 

Kayden: But before we get into that, let me ask you something—something very important. 

Have you ever tried to stay on top of your assignments, only to realize something just slipped past you? 

Emma: Every single semester! 

Kayden: And if you said yes too, then you guys are not alone! 

A national survey by FileMaker found that 50% of students admitted they don’t use a single system to manage their assignments, notes, and deadlines. That means half of students are out there just winging it. 

Emma: And according to FileMaker, 87% of college students said better time management and organizational skills would help them get better grades. 

As a current college student, I can 1000% see how that’s true. 

Kayden: I have to be honest—I went through three different methods in school, constantly experimenting to find the best way to keep my work organized and easy to find. 

And lucky for you, I’m going to walk you through every single one of them. 

Plus, Emma will be sharing her method too! By the end of this episode, it’ll be up to you to determine which method is the best. 

Emma: Bet you it’ll be mine! 

Kayden: Aye, aye, aye. Let’s leave it up to them. 

Alrighty, so here’s how my schoolwork is organized. 

Everything is stored in my OneDrive, first categorized by year—2023 and 2024, since I just graduated college this past August. Then, I have folders for each semester, like Fall 2023 or Spring 2024. And then, inside each semester, I have separate folders for every class I took for that given semester. 

This setup made it super easy to go back and reference work from previous semesters without having to dig through a chaotic mess of files. 

And now that you know how each semester was organized, the first way I organized my classwork—so, the work for each individual class—was pretty simple: everything related to a specific class went into that class’s folder. 

No extra sorting, no extra effort—just a straightforward, drop-everything-in-one-place, uh, type of deal. 

Emma: That’s it, is it? 

Kayden: Yeah. That’s… yeah, that’s all it was… 

Anyway, moving on! My second method was way more detailed—inside each class folder, I had a separate folder for each day I had that class. 

Every time I went to that given class, I would create a folder with the current date and then put whatever we worked on in that day’s folder. 

In theory, this sounded great, but honestly? It was so tedious. 

And I’d constantly forget which day we did a certain assignment, and I’d waste my time clicking in and out of folders just to find one file. 

Emma: That sounds like way too much work for any normal person to do. 

Kayden: Yeah, it was. Trust me. 

So, after realizing that system was not working, I switched things up again. 

My third and final method was organizing everything by category. 

Instead of daily files, I created folders based on assignment types. 

For example, in one of my classes, I had four folders: Cases, Exams, PowerPoints, and Projects. Everything related to a specific category went into its respective folder. 

This was by far my favorite method—it made finding past work so much easier, especially when I needed to review for exams or just pull up past assignments. 

Kayden: Well, that’s enough about my methods—Emma, tell us about yours! 

Emma: Alright! 

So, my method may be a little different because I do all of my classes online. However, I have taken classes in person, and I feel like with just a few minor adjustments from how I specifically did mine, it would work for anyone. 

So, I found a template for a Google spreadsheet from Purdue—shoutout Purdue, it’s amazing. 

Umm, you start off with a master list and you just kinda input all of your classes, and then it becomes color-coded. You can kinda change the colors to be however you want, or if you’re a little lazy, you can just keep it exactly the same as they have it. 

And then the most tedious part, I would say, is inputting each assignment. 

Because you input each assignment, there’s, you know, a, a box to put in what day it’s due, what time it’s due. 

It automatically generates what day of the week it’s due—so for some of you who can’t figure out what day it is, it helps ya out! 

It has a dropdown that you can select which type of assignment is—like if it’s a paper, a quiz, a final, a discussion—and you can always, you know, change each of those things to match your specific class. You know? 

Uh, which is really awesome, cause that kinda lets me know how much time I’m gonna need to put into this assignment. 

It also automatically generates how many days until it’s due, based off of the due date that you’ve put in. 

And when you get real close to the date, the square will light up in red to just, you know, really urge you to do that thing. 

Then there’s also click-downs to show if you’ve submitted it, completed it, started it, not started it. 

And at the top of the spreadsheet, it kinda gives you a little graph of how much has been submitted, how much has not. 

You can put in how many points it’s worth, and it’ll give you your grade based off of how many points you gained. 

And then, it also will show you by a calendar—not even just the spreadsheet, on a calendar—what days what assignments are due and if you’ve submitted it or not. 

Kayden: Wow, what a spreadsheet! 

And guys, I wish you could see it—it looks so good. 

The color scheme—the pink, the purple, and the blue—ah, muah chef’s kiss! 

And now, it is time for this episode’s call to action! 

And, even though these methods were specific to schoolwork, they’re not just limited to students. 

These same organization strategies can be applied to career work, personal projects, or anything else that requires managing files and documents. 

So, I challenge you: For one whole week, try the method you thought was the best and see how it works for you. 

Remember we have organizing just by class, organizing by day of class, organizing by category, and by using a spreadsheet template. Can you, do it? Can you commit to 1 whole week of being more sorted?  

Emma: I don’t know if they can! 

Kayden: Well, I hope they prove you wrong! 

And that wraps up today’s episode of The Sorted Scene! 

Tune in next time and be sure to follow my TikTok @thesortedscene for even more tips and ideas to help you sort the scenes that matter most. 

Thank you so much for listening, and remember—life’s better when it’s sorted. 

Kayden: Well? 

Emma: What are you waiting for? 

Us: Go get sorted! 

Emma: Scene sorted.