Paper Planning vs. Digital Planning (Sixth Form Edition)

Greetings humans!

So, at the end of half term, I thought I'd try something new. Digital planning. That's right, I considered using my phone to plan my schoolwork. Anyhow, long story short, it didn't happen and I carried on using my Filofax anyway. Here are both of my systems and why I ended up failing miserably in this endeavour:

Filofax

If you follow me on Instagram (*ahem* hannahburley *ahem*) you've probably seen these camper van tabs a million times already - as explained here, I have one for each subject and one for my EPQ.

The first page of each tab is a summary of the A2 specification, just so I know how far I have left to progress through the course and for easy reference when playing the "which topic are we going to be taught next" game. (Note: this is not a real game and it should be made apparent at this stage that I don't get out very much).

The next page is where I record all of my homework set with Task, Completed, Date Set and Date Due. (Just realised that I haven't ticked off an essay that was done over two weeks ago - I should probably do that...). Aside from the aforementioned mistake, this keeps me on track and it's useful to see what I have left to do, not to mention I really enjoy ticking tasks off of to-do lists.

Here's the other side of that list and a graph I've drawn where I track my essay marks. The green line is at 90% - as you can see I'm far off of that (and even more so recently) although I'm aiming towards it; if I get a horrible question in the exam then I should still do well enough to get the grades I'd like. Hopefully.

I use the pages in my WO2P diary to record to-dos for the day. I find I work best in small chunks of various subjects, as opposed to focusing on just one or two solidly for a day.

The only deadlines that I record in my diary pages are my EPQ ones; since it's so self-directed, I often forget about them if they're just left in my EPQ section. Here's the deadline for everything but the presentation - the bit I'm looking forward to the most!

Digital

A good three or so years ago, probably around the time I had just started using Filofaxes again for my social (ha) life, I downloaded an app called iStudiez Pro for around £1.99. I decided to revitalise it and put in all my classes for this year, to see whether it would work for me at school.

A calendar: the coloured dots are for each lesson I have that day.

Assignments: where they all appear. As you can see, this experiment went really, really well.

So, why didn't I use this? Well, here are the reasons:

• Although I'm in sixth form, it's still in a school as opposed to a college, and we're not allowed our phones out in lessons. Therefore, I may end up having to wait around two hours to put an assignment in, since I am the most unsubtle person in the world and would struggle to do so on the sly.
• I'm a creature of habit. Even if I wanted to get my phone out and make a note of my homework, I'd still get my Filofax out without thinking.
• If something is on my phone, it doesn't feel *real*, or like an actual commitment. On the contrary, on paper it feels like some kind of legally binding contract with myself, meaning that I need to get it done.
• Time and effort - it took me about an hour to fill in my timetable on iStudiez Pro. It took me fifteen minutes to make one on Word, print it out and put it in my Filofax. Easy winner.

Which method do you think works best? Paper or pixels?

UCAS (in my Filofax)

Greetings humans!

Sorry for not posting in a while; I've been swamped with work and have been putting the final touches to my UCAS application. Today I want to share with you how I've organised the latter.

It's got its own little sub-section, which I've tabbed with a Martha Stewart x Avery tab and a cute owl sticker from Paperchase. On the front page I just placed some washi tape and wrote over it with permanent marker.

When it's opened up, the first page is a (very messy, so I won't show you) to-do list page, and then my login and a timeline. Of course, I've hidden the details, but I've written my username, Personal ID (it's amazing how quickly one can learn that off by heart when Track's being checked every other second) and the answers to my security questions, since I always forget them. Then, I have the school's timeline for our applications (I haven't applied to Oxbridge/for medicine or veterinary science, but our school ask for them to be in super early because although it's not meant to, the chances are it'll give you an advantage).

On the back of that page I'm keeping a log of my application, so the date it was processed, the date I received my welcome pack (which is hardly a pack, more a piece of paper telling you where you've applied and for which course), and a record of any offers I've received (I got my first one yesterday lunchtime - yay!). Not only does this put my mind at ease, but I can also then compare the offer(s) and consider where I wish to put as my firm/insurance choice nearer the time.

I also have this checklist for what to include in the personal statement. Obviously some of these are paraphrased (eg. "Why I'm so bloody brilliant") but I found it really handy to have a structure to follow when writing it. Of course, there is no one set formula for a good personal statement; these are just tips I have picked up from various open days/humans who have done this before/school.

So there you have it, the UCAS section of my Filofax. I can't believe it's ten and a half months until I should be leaving home for uni!