10 Organizational Skills Every Student Must Have

As students, it might not seem essential to master the art of organization. But if these habits are not included in our behavioural skills at this point, would later lead to a striking disadvantage in the competitive job market. Companies seek out employees who aren’t simply knowledgeable but instead seek those who understand and respect the need for organized work life. To strike a balance and complete tasks within a set deadline, it is necessary for them to have followed this work order throughout. In this blog, we cover the 10 organizational skills every student must-have.

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List of Important Organizational Skills for Students

Let us first have a look at the list of organizational skills every student needs to possess. They are:

• Prioritizing
• Making and Adhering to Timetables
• Time Management
• Avoiding Procrastination
• Maintaining Documentation of Work
• MultiTasking
• Planning Effectively 
• Self Motivated and Resourceful
• Setting Goals and Striving to Achieve Them
• Coordination

We will now look into these organizational skills in further detail so that we can inculcate them in our daily lives.

Prioritizing

Studying, working, all of this requires students to multitask. While multitasking is essential to remember the importance and deadlines for tasks. One must maintain a log and work accordingly. To assign importance to tasks is possible only if the individual is aware of the weightage and the deadlines surrounding the task. Therefore, prioritizing is one of the important organizational skills we must have. Alertness is key to working around a strict schedule. In order to avoid confusion, it would be better to constantly note the progress and tick off the work completed. Maintaining a task board is one of the ways students can effectively manage to prioritize their work. 

Making and Adhering to Timetables

The best possible manner to remain organized is by ensuring that we adhere to a fixed timetable. But while making a timetable it is essential to not overestimate the working capacity. To work in a balanced manner ensures not to burn out in the long run. Overestimating one’s capacity to work leads to an added stress. Instead of focusing on completing the task, it might result in the student worrying about the incomplete tasks instead. Another thing to keep in mind while preparing a timetable is to ensure that there is some portion of the day dedicated to some outdoor or self-care activity. To improve the organizational skills, it would be prudent to avoid postponing completion of tasks. Equal distribution of the workload throughout the week also helps prevent stressful situations especially at times of submissions.  

Time Management

Social media and the internet are a boon to us but can prove to be a source of distraction for students. To improve on organizational skills, time management would be good to keep away from distractions or allocate a certain amount of time daily and restrict the use of social media and all such things to within the pre-decided time frame. It is an important quality to have to enhance personality development. Allotting time to each task and keeping track of it has proven to be a well-devised technique to improve productivity. It might prove to be difficult to stick to strict schedules, but they can ensure that all the work is done well within the predefined limitations and also allows for some additional leftover time in case of emergencies. 

Explore: Time Management Matrix

Avoiding Procrastination

This is what one might call a silent killer. Leaving it all to the last minute can never be a good choice. There are times when one might be able to pull it off. But this is not a guarantee, and if it develops into a habit it could prove to be dangerous. The act of putting off work leads to added stress and lack of sleep. It causes lack of sleep, irregular schedules and added workload with poor performance. This is the first thing to avoid while trying to build on organizational skills. 

Maintaining Documentation of Work 

To avoid redoing work and easily go back to previously done work it is good to maintain the completed work in an orderly manner. Filing sheets and backing up assignments is a good start to improve organizational skills. Keeping your work according to dates and separating files according to subjects are just small ways to help with efficient storage of the documents. This proves to be really helpful especially during the submissions. It saves on the additional time taken to retrieve documents and also prevents double work that would have to be put in case the documents are misplaced. 

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Multitasking

The key to completing the desired work in a shorter period of time, one must learn the art of multitasking. Organizational skills are developed gradually and perfected over some time. The key to being better at it is to keep at it despite the setbacks. Multitasking could prove to be a difficult skill to master, but once learnt it can help improve efficiency.  

Planning Effectively

Effectively working can be achieved only when it has been planned accordingly. Effective planning is to minimize the time invested in completing work, but not at the cost of the quality of the end result. Being realistic and aiming to attain achievable goals is ideal to sharpen organizational skills. Planning can help to work systematically to achieve a set target.  

Self Motivated and Resourceful

The ability to get things done despite the obstacles or constraints is called being resourceful. This includes approaching difficulties faced head-on and optimizing resources to handle the problems. To prevent these setbacks from affecting the pre-decided flow of work, one must ensure to be resourceful. It is one of the key organizational skills. Self-motivation is to push yourself harder in face of adversities. It helps secure faith in oneself that they possess the skill required for the task and also the competency for achieving their goals. There are several ways to maintain a self-motivated attitude for students. Remaining optimistic, Breaking bigger goals into smaller short term ones, monitor and recording success at every stage.

Setting Goals and Striving to Achieve Them

One should be able to assess the rate at which one can work and the maximum capacity of handling workload. It is then easier to set tasks both short term and long term, be it preparing for a quiz, examination or even filling out application forms, completing assignments, projects. There are innumerable testimonials stating how effective these methods prove to be.

Coordination

While working in teams for assignments or on projects, communication is key to ensure smooth functioning. Working as part of a team the requirement for good coordination skills. Coordination ensures smooth functioning and polishes the overall organizational skills of the team as a whole. Coordination and communication also prevent misunderstandings as well as increase efficiency. 

Also Read: Career Skills: The Essence of Success

Importance of Organizational Skills

Organizational Skills Presentation from Emily Kates

We hope you understood the importance of organizational skills. Irrespective of what the task is, it is better to maintain a similar approach throughout. This accustoms students to deal with all matters in an organized manner. Stay tuned with Leverage Edu for more such awesome content.