Staying Organized with an Agenda

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:

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

My 2019-2020 Lilly Pulitzer Agenda

If you know me IRL, then you probably know all about my obsession with agendas, specifically the Lilly Pulitzer ones. I’ve been an avid agenda user since third grade, when Frisco ISD gave out free ones to all the students to use. Eventually, Frisco ISD stopped handing out free agendas, but my love for organization remained. I meandered through a few different agenda styles throughout the years before eventually landing on the Lilly Pulitzer ones.

I had been a Lilly fan for a little while, but hadn’t actually owned a Lilly agenda until my senior year of high school. I loved the bright colors and watercolor aesthetic that each agenda page had. I soon took my agenda game to the next level, and started using colored pens to further organize my life. As someone tackling their senior year of high school and about to embark on their freshman year of college, color coding was a game changer.

Lilly agendas have served me extremely well throughout my entire college career. I considered switching to another agenda brand this year for my senior year, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m so used to the Lilly layout and structure and don’t want to risk throwing myself off for my fourth year of college.

Senior year of high school, and freshman/sophomore years of college
Junior and senior years of college

This is my fifth Lilly agenda now, so I’ve accumulated quite a collection! I don’t have them all with me in Austin right now, but luckily I had a picture of the first three still on my phone so you can see the evolution through the years.

I can’t wait to start putting information in and getting my agenda ready for the 2019-2020 school year! For me, getting a new agenda is basically like Christmas and is one of my favorite days of the year.

This year, I chose the large agenda in the print multi flordita.

-K