My first-year as an undergraduate student is officially complete. If I were to rate the year, I would give it an 8 out of 10. I gained leadership roles; I changed my major twice (but am officially in love with what it is now); I gained friends and am learning how to maintain healthy relationships; self-care has become a top priority of mine. It's nice to finally be able to just breathe without the added stress of homework, exams, group projects, and other extracurricular activities. But the thing is, I wasn't super stressed this past semester with the aforementioned. First semester - yeah, I was new and learning, so I got stressed out easily. Second semester was fairly easier because I had a pattern going PLUS I learned a new time management/procrastination/organization technique. Well, it's not a technique, per say. It's more of an app/website that saved my frickin' butt. 
Let me introduce you to Trello. I talked about it in this post about completing online courses. I promised to update you all on how it worked throughout the semester, and the update is finally here! Trello saved my but. Multiple times. First, let me explain how it works. Trello is an online management system (that's free, might I add, with the option to upgrade) that also has applications for mobile devices. You are able to create as many boards as you want, and subsequently as many lists within those boards as you want. The great thing about these lists is that you can add many cards with deadlines, links, attached documents or photos, additional members, labels, comments, and even checklists if there are multiple things to be done for a card. For the deadlines, Trello will send you reminders (urgent or simply "coming up"); once a deadline has past and you check it off, you can archive the card, which makes staying organized super easy! Now, for you all who may prefer to look at your assignments in a calendar format, Trello also gives you that option (but you have to add a deadline to the card you want to show up). 
Other amenities of Trello are the customization options that you have. There are pretty backgrounds that you can make use of, in addition to Power Ups, which are basically connected apps that you can use. 

How I Used Trello for College 

First of all, I create a new board called "College." I wanted to separate my personal life from my university life. That not only lets me stay more organized and have fewer lists per board, it also allows me to have individual calendars. Under my college board, I created a new list for each of my courses. At the beginning of the semester, I had 6 courses; now, I have finished quite a few, so many are archived, hence the 3 that's left.

I switched each list's name to the name of the perspective course. Within each list, I added a card with all of the professor's information (name, email, phone number) and attached the syllabus. This was very important for me to be able to do because I hate having to locate each syllabus if I need it. Trello makes it very convenient for me to have it all in one location for easy access. Next, I went through each syllabus and created corresponding cards for every assignment, project, and exam due throughout the semester. I color coded my labels so that I knew exams were yellow, homework was blue, group projects were red, etc. I always added the due date! (Using Trello for college would be pointless if you didn't, in my opinion. Due dates are your savior and prevents any "I forgot" comments.)

Throughout the semester, as I finished each assignment, I checked off that I finished the card and archived it. This allows me to visually see how much more work I have to do before I am done with the class. I also enjoyed looking at the calendar because I can see all that's due in a week. Once I was completely done with a class, I archived the entire list. Out of sight, out of mind, I say!  Do you use organization systems for college? Have you ever used Trello?
*None of this post is sponsored. I just really like Trello, so I'm singing its praises!