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Everyday at Michigan is unique. Sure, there is a more or less fixed schedule of classes and some regular meetings. However, it seems as though a new special event, meeting, or activity is always springing up.

In high school, you are most likely limited to moving between different rooms in one building at fixed time intervals. At Michigan, you can have classes, appointments, meetings, or events not only on different campuses, but also throughout the city of Ann Arbor. This requires more planning than simply walking down the hall from room 201 to room 203.

For instance, you might have a class in Angell Hall and then head directly to your research project at Mott Children’s Hospital. Will you take the bus? Which one? Do you know which entrance to enter at the hospital? What floor your meeting is on? All of these questions can become overwhelming. To manage your time and where you’re headed, you’ll need to find a special organization system that works just for you.

In all of this chaos and scheduling, I’ve found Google calendar and a smooth gel pen for a planner to be the best tools to transform complicated schedules into seamless, stress-free transitions! Google calendar has been especially helpful in keeping me on track. I can see an overview of my day, planned down to the minute. It’s great, too, because I can even make multiple calendars in different colors to categorize types of events.

For instance, Google calendar is especially helpful during that busy first week of the semester. There’s so many special introductory events, mass meetings and interviews that tend to take place within that first couple of weeks. With careful planning, I had no problem making it to the JumpStart dinner with my team in the Multidisciplinary Program.

With Google calendar reminders, I was able to plan, attend and host a fun Study with RAs event with other RAs in a cool study party (with food!).

As you step onto campus, armed with your complimentary Michigan planner and your custom system of time management and scheduling tools, be that Google Calendar or similar apps like Any.do or TimeTree, you can go about your day focusing on the important things in your life, confident that you won’t miss any of the important things in your time as a Wolverine.