Hello Everyone! My name is Rebekah Thomas, and I am a P2 and pharmacy ambassador for the College of Pharmacy! I am originally from Pittsburgh, and I attended Slippery Rock University for my undergraduate degree. Outside of class, my favorite things to do are walk around the park of roses, get Condados tacos, and ride the bird scooters with my friend!
With school in full swing, I just wanted to share some of the planning and organizational tips I collected through my first year at the college. I used to have this ability to remember due dates and stay on top of my tasks in high school and undergrad, but that didn’t really work well for me in my first year of school. Pharmacy school definitely keeps you busy, and it can get overwhelming trying to remember all of the events, due dates, and project deadlines from straight memory. I connected with my peers and mentors within the college to gain some tips to how to better organize my time for school and for activities.
SO here is my approach to staying organized while in pharmacy school:
- Get a planner or use a calendar. I swear your life will be much better organized if you can see what is coming up.
- The syllabus is your best friend. The first thing I do is write down all of the assignments, quizzes, tests, and other important dates in the monthly section of my planner. These dates can be tentative but at least they are there so you can plan ahead! I even color coordinate by classes and will highlight the test dates.
- If you work put the dates and times in this section when ever you get your schedule!
- Now that you have a good idea when you have things do and when your exams are, look at the days where you may have off or free. This will sound weird but pencil in some time for yourself! The first thing students tend to forget is to include time for them self because they become so overwhelmed with school. It is very important for your well-being to add this time for yourself. By penciling it in your planner you can plan around it to ensure you get the “me” time that you need!
- You now have a good idea of what your month is going to look like. It is going to look like a lot but do not worry because now you can plan out when and how you will accomplish the task and turn it in on time!
- Once I have my month filled out the best I can, I will sit down every Sunday and fill out the pages for the upcoming week. In this section, I will write in the important dates, block out time to do assignments, and block out time to study. I found that It is very important to pencil in your study time because you may push it off (I used to be a big procrastinator on studying. Don’t do that in pharmacy school! ).
- After you block out time to do school work and study, you can see when you have time to do other fun activities!
This seems like a lot of work, but I assure you that it will alleviate so much stress when it comes to tackling your school work. Mastering the “work-life balance” that everyone is talking about starts out with great planning.
