This week I was reminded how much I benefit from writing everything down. Whether it’s homework I have to do, meetings I have with professors, or meals that I was planning to have with specific people, I always do better when I am organized, and for me, that means that it needs to put in writing for me to remember to do it. On Monday, I had a job application due and I had finished the last parts of it on Sunday night and was ready to turn it in by 5pm the next day. Unfortunately for me, I did not write this down in my planner. I had written down several other things that needed to happen that day, like going to my math professor’s office hours and going to Student Health Services for a TB test. I was locked into my planner and the schedule that I had written down and realized twenty-three minutes after 5 o’clock that my application was already late.

That moment of panic kept me stressed for the next 45 minutes, where I emailed all the pieces of my application to the woman in charge and apologized profusely for being late, but also understanding if she would decide not to consider my application. After thinking about it, I realized that, because it was something so important to me, and something that I had spent so much time on, I assumed that I would remember to turn the application in, regardless of whether or not I wrote it down. To know that, made me even more frustrated, but hoped that the woman in charge would understand my mistake and still accept my application.

Because of this incident, I have drafted a few rules for myself so that I can make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.

1. Always write something down on a piece of paper, or in a planner, even if you don’t think you’ll forget. There is a lot going on for most students, and it is easy to think that you will remember important things, like job applications, but in fact, it is very easy to forget, and writing it down will ensure that what needs to get done is accomplished.               
2. Turn things in early, if you can! Oftentimes, professors would rather you turn assignments in on the day that they’re due because it makes it easier for them to organize all the documents being turned in, but if they’ll allow it, do it! This way, there is no way that it will be late or forgotten.
3. If you remember something that you need to get done, either write it down, or just finish the task while it’s still on your mind. Even though it may be interrupting something else I’m doing, as these thoughts often come to me while I’m in the midst of working on an assignment, I know that if I don’t do whatever it is I’m thinking about in that moment, there is no way I will remember to do it at all.