Happy August 1! If you’re like me, then you know that it’s also the first official day for the new Lilly Pulitzer academic agendas, which run August – July!

Since school is right around the corner, I wanted to spend some time talking about how I stay organized using my agenda. As a full-time student/part-time blogger, my time is really important to me. Because of my meticulous agenda skills, I’m able to make the most of it!

MY AGENDA

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s talk about what agenda I choose to use. For the past 4 years, I’ve been a Lilly Pulitzer agenda girl, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

This year, I’m using the Lilly Pulitzer Large Agenda in the print Multi Floridita.

Color-COding

Color coding is essential for me. With one glance, I can see everything on my list for the day, and where my priorities should be. I like to divide my colors up by class during the academic year. This is my color-coding system for fall 2019:

I’ve used the Paper Mate® Inkjoy ballpoint pens since I got to college, and those from the original pack are still going strong despite their heavy use. I don’t use black or brown in my agenda (the design is too bright for bland colors) and I don’t use orange. On principle.

Stickers

Stickers are the fun part! Beyond getting to make my space colorful with ballpoint pens, I also use bright stickers. I use stickers mainly on the monthly spread pages, since they’re able to give me a quick run-down of my most important events for the upcoming month.

I also try to make them related to the activity I’m scheduling- footballs for football games, music notes for band-related events, roses for sorority events, and little cameras for things I had to do as historian. For other important events without a specific set of stickers, I usually used stars!

My favorite sources for stickers are:

• Hobby Lobby
• Staples
• Target

Scheduling

It used to be hard for me to easily distinguish between things that were on my schedule and things just on my to-do list. Now, I use triangles to designate things with a certain time (ex. “Brunch w/ Lexi @ Neighborhood Jam @ 10:30”) vs things I just have to do that day (ex. “Go grocery shopping”). Here’s an example week from September of last year that shows these symbols in action! (Bonus incentive to use symbols: checking them off is so satisfying!)

Extra tips!

• Write it down. Write everything down. I don’t care if you think you’re going to remember something- write it down anyways.
• Make sure your agenda has your name, phone number, and email inside! I’ve never lost mine- knock on wood– but if I did, I would want someone to be able to contact me and get it returned ASAP.
• Use a paper clip at the top of your current week so you can easily flip what to what day it is. No more scrambling to find the correct day when your professor is giving out the homework instructions!

Questions?

Is there anything I didn’t cover? I would love to answer any of your unanswered, burning questions- leave a comment down below or shoot me an email!

-K