3 Quick Habits to Improve Your Organization

Developing organizational habits is vital to being more productive and efficient in graduate school. Every minute spent trying to locate something is a minute lost from getting things done. Plus, disorganization can lead you to feel confused, overwhelmed, and not sure where to start.¹ So, here are three quick habits that will instantly improve your organization in graduate school!

Habit 1.

Set your meeting notifications for 5 to 10 minutes more than the time you need to prepare for the meeting. When the notification goes off, wrap up what you’re doing, get ready for the meeting, and then use the remaining time to delete emails and organize your files. Students often loathe getting involved in big tasks before a meeting, so this lets you use that time more efficiently by giving you bite-sized opportunities to organize. The more you do this, the more taking advantage of these little opportunities will become a habit and improve your organization.

Habit 2.

The next habit to improve your organization is to give every project a name and use it in file names and email subject lines. A project can be anything, like a class, a manuscript, an experiment, etc. Decide on a name for a project and use it consistently. For example, if you’re TAing for Psychology 101, you might call that project TAPsy101. Once you decide on the name, make a folder with that project name. Save all of your documents for that project in that folder and save all files with that in the filename (e.g., TAPsy101_GradingRubric_Exam1).

Furthermore, include the project name in the subject line of all emails related to that project. Whenever possible, keep each email focused on one project, even if it means sending separate emails to the same person (within reason). This will improve sorting, filing/tagging, and searching for project-related emails and documents in the future, thereby making it easier to stay organized.

Habit 3.

The final habit to improve your organization is to start thinking about it as a vital project activity instead of an add-on task. Schedule a one-hour recurrent meeting for one Friday_² of each month and respect it as you would a meeting with your advisor. Spend this hour doing file/folder cleanup, including filing the random files that invariably accumulate on your desktop and documents folders, filing or tagging emails, and cleaning up/organizing project subfolders.

Small Bites, Habits, and Improving Organization

By practicing these three organizational habits, you can reduce the time you spend finding documents that you need, reduce the chances of version control issues, and feel more in control as you complete your work. Keeping these activities small and manageable will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed, especially if you have a backlog of organization to do. If you consistently apply these habits, organization will become second nature, and you’ll get caught up in no time.

Footnotes

1. Sillence, E., Dawson, J. A., McKellar, K., & Neave, N. (2023). How do students use digital technology to manage their university-based data: strategies, accumulation difficulties and feelings of overload? Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(14), 2442-2451.
   
2. It doesn’t have to be Friday but Fridays have fewer meetings scheduled overall so they have the fewest conflicts. Plus, organizing is a good activity to do when you’re feeling low-energy, so perfect for the end of the week.