Need help staying organized? Success Coaches are here to help.

Success Coaches at Elgin Community College Bianca Diaz and Ashley Letteney held a Success Workshop in The Fishbowl located inside the Library in Building C on Sept. 28. There, they talked about how to stay organized physically and digitally. 

By having a small group of students Diaz and Letteney were able to make sure everyone felt included.

During the presentation, Diaz recommended making sure you have a clean space to work on. 

“A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind,” said Diaz. “Choosing the space you decide to do your homework can impact how focused you are while you’re working.”

There are many spots all around campus to sit and work or study. You can access study rooms at the library and other places on campus that have minimal distractions. 

If you prefer traditional organization over digital, Diaz recommends keeping things from the same class in the same place. It can be in folders and/or binders. Once you’ve separated everything, you can then color code because it makes it easier to find each subject. 

If you prefer digital organization, Diaz recommends making separate folders for your classes in your Google Drive. From there, you can make separate folders for your assignments, projects, essays, and notes. This also works for keeping your student email account well organized, you can create labels on the side bar of your account. She showed an extremely helpful tip for students who like to use Google Calendar for their upcoming assignments and exams.  A way where you can take your class calendars from your D2L and pass them onto your Google Calendar.

Here are the ten easy steps for that process:

1. Open D2L & have Google Calendar open on the side;
2. Click calendar on D2L;
3. Go to settings;
4. Enable calendar feeds & hit save;
5. Click the subscribe button;
6. Choose class & copy link;
7. In Google Calendar, scroll down to other calendars;
8. Click plus sign & click from URL;
9. Paste link & click add calendar;
10. Repeat steps five through nine for the rest of the classes.
    • Calendar Page in D2L

      Yesenia De La Torre
      
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    • Google Calendar after process

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If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment with one of the ECC Success Coaches, you can email [email protected].

“These are all things that I probably needed in college,” Diaz said. “I didn’t realize how important it was to stay organized as well as being mindful of my time management. It’s nice to have a refresher.”

There are other Success Workshops being held on these dates:

Oct. 5 from 1-2pm for Time Management

Oct. 25 from 10:30-11:30 a.m & October 26th at 1-2 p.m for Stress Management & Midterm Review

Nov. 16. at 1-2 p.m & Nov. 17 at 10:30-11:30 a.m for Preparing for Finals & Test Anxiety

All these workshops will be held in The Fishbowl located inside the Library in Building C.