Weekends and light homework weeknights offer great opportunities to reset your materials! By keeping an organized backpack, you can save yourself time and avoid stress throughout the week. Once you’ve neatly ordered your bag, materials become easier to find, assignments are less likely to get lost in a pit of crumpled papers, notes can be retrieved smoothly, and all your utensils and tools can be snatched up at a moment’s notice. For busy students navigating the chaos of a new semester, it can be hard to know where to begin. To provide some clarity, we’ve posted our backpack organization guide below:
1. Identify a weekly time to organize
The first step toward a neat backpack is to commit yourself to 10–15 minutes per week dedicated to arranging your materials. Use a paper planner to schedule organizational time. This can be for a weekend afternoon or another patch of free time during the week. Set a timer and make backpack organization a weekly habit!
Tip: Be ruthless but not reckless when getting rid of old papers. At the beginning of your organizational block of time, dump all of your backpack’s contents on the table and remove anything you won’t need, such as outdated handouts, accumulated brochures, broken pencils, etc. Be careful not to toss any important study resources!
2. Organize binders
Not only should you have separate binders for each important class, but your binders should
each be divided into 5 sections: notes, homework, handouts, tests/quizzes, and binder paper. If you or your teacher has a preferred system, feel free to modify these categories, but it’s important to keep distinct sections within each binder. While you organize your binders, recycle or remove any outdated papers that you won’t need in the coming weeks.
Tip: Include a portable hole puncher in your backpack to ensure papers are placed into their proper binder promptly!
3. Paper Planner
Always make sure your paper planner has a comfortable spot toward the front of your backpack. It’s important to be able to pull out your planner at a moment’s notice both during class and at home while you’re checking your daily homework.
Tip: Use a sticky note to mark the current week. It makes it easier to flip to the date and update your planner quickly!
The first time you organize your backpack, it might take up to an hour to work through all of the above steps. However, once you’ve established a steady habit of organization, backpack orderliness should take up only 10–15 minutes of your time on weekends. Use and repeat these regrouping tips to save yourself time and avoid stress throughout the school year or contact us for morehelp!