(Caption: Notebook with article title and permanent marker. Photo credit: Garish (Luci) Kugathasan, 2025)
The mid-year is a great time to pause, breathe, and refresh your organisational systems. It’s the sweet spot to set yourself up for a Spring Semester that’s as stress-free as possible.
These are the tips and tricks I use to bring order to an otherwise chaotic life!
1. Digital Calendar
One of the most memorable tips I’ve heard is that the brain creates ideas and doesn’t just store them. So, you shouldn’t clutter it up with mundane tasks like remembering where you’re supposed to be and when.
While I use a print calendar for ‘fun’ events like birthdays, celebrations, and other more memorable dates, a digital calendar keeps track of day-to-day happenings. It’s more adaptable to changes in timing and minor details.
And be sure to note when your assessments are due!
(Caption: Example of a digital calendar with notes for important events. Photo credit: Lidya Rivai, 2025)
Fun fact: You can export your class timetables by logging into Allocate+, copying the link under the “Subscribe to your timetable” heading, and pasting it into your browser’s URL. It will download as a calendar file, which you can then import into your Outlook, Google or other calendar of choice. You can even access W’SUP’s free digital calendar here!
(Caption: Allocate+ Home page with ’Subscribe to your timetable’ tool. Photo credit: Garish (Luci) Kugathasan, 2025)
2. File Organisation
Organising your files by each week’s content is extremely helpful in the weeks before you start classes. It’s a quick and easy way to keep track of what content you need to cover and to ensure you can locate everything you need with ease.
You can save the files directly to your computer but because I switch between devices frequently, I prefer cloud-based storage systems. Western provides you with 1TB (terabyte) of storage for your student account, which should be more than enough to support you throughout your degree.
My file tree follows this order:
Year –> Semester –> Classes –> Weeks and Assessments.
(Caption: Example of File Organisation on computer through four images. Photo credit: Lidya Rivai, 2025)
Fun fact: If you’re lucky, your class’s subject outlines may be available on Western’s Library page before your vUWS modules open. This lets you see what content will be covered each week and what your assessments will entail, allowing you to prepare efficiently even before Week 1 begins.
3. Planner & To-Do List
Building on the idea that the brain is a tool for creating ideas rather than storing them, creating a “second brain” can efficiently delegate that function.
To clarify, that means utilising a planner or a to-do list for your tasks and ideas you want to revisit later. This is crucial, as it helps clear your mind of peripheral thoughts. I’m a loyal Microsoft user, so I utilise Microsoft Planner. This allows users to categorise tasks under different “buckets” and set due dates and recurring tasks.
(Caption: Microsoft Planner page with buckets to group tasks together. Photo credit: Lidya Rivai, 2025)
If you’d like a more fun option, you can choose to gamify your tasks using Habitica.
It’s a free browser or mobile app that allows you to earn points and level up your virtual avatar by completing tasks. Additionally, if you want to achieve goals, such as reading a certain number of books a year, you can join guilds. Within guilds, you can find other people who want to achieve the same thing as you, and you can work together!
(Caption: Habitica dashboard. Photo credit: Lidya Rivai, 2025)
4. Daily Checklist
The previous tips are more on the macro scale. However, every day, I complete the Daily Checklist from Productivity Ninja. Starting my day with the same routine helps me enter “work mode” clarifying what I can achieve in 24 hours. The checklist isn’t just about how much you can get done but asks how you’re feeling and helps establish healthy boundaries. For instance, going offline or on ‘do not disturb’ so you can hunker down and focus on big tasks.
We often feel like we need to get everything done right here, right now. But restricting yourself to priorities highlights the impossibility of achieving everything on your never-ending to-do list.
5. Schedule Around Your Motivation & Energy Levels
While many goal-setting and productivity resources focus on scheduling your life around time, a more effective approach is to plan around your motivation and energy levels. This is an interesting concept I encountered while watching Elizabeth Filips’ YouTube video, “How I Can Study 10h a Day: The Perfect Schedule for Chaotic People.”
Filips states that due to her fluctuating motivation and energy levels throughout the day, she schedules tasks based on how much energy and motivation is needed to complete them. She extends this concept to consider variations in her body and mind throughout the week.
For example, she claims she usually has more energy during the evening. However, Sunday night would not be a good time to complete a high-energy task, as she views Sunday as a “rest day.” By scheduling your life around this concept, you can capitalise on your body’s natural inclinations to perform certain tasks at specific times. It can potentially remove the barriers that stop you from starting tasks as you would be more motivated to do them.
(Caption: Screenshot of Elizabeth Filips’s video talking about ’Motivation Mapping’. Photo credit: Lidya Rivai, 2025)
Try Out Different Methods!
Although these tips and tricks have worked for me and are seamlessly integrated into my life; everyone has their preferences.
We all have unique and diverse experiences. Because of this, I highly encourage you to try out various methods and engage with different techniques to determine what fits you best.
Regardless of what you choose to make life work for you, remember this…
You don’t have to live to work. Optimising your time should open up opportunities to spend time with your loved ones and do things that fulfil you, not lead you to sacrifice more precious hours.
