Getting Started for a New Week

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One of the things I had the most trouble with in my first semester heading back to school part-time with a full time job, was just keeping things organized.  Taking two related classes at the same time often left me wondering what was due in what class.  

If you have read any of my earlier posts you might assume my solution is some fancy Obsidian calendar plug-in or a similar technological marvel.  Despite the benefits of having my notes interlinked, accessible and attributed to their source, this is not how I approach organizing my week.

This took a little while to get to a place that works for me, but now the system works pretty well and uses a simple cheap notebook and about 10 minutes of my time on Sunday morning.  You could of course reproduce the exact same ideas within a Obsidian, a spreadsheet or something similar.  For me taking the time to sit down, drink a coffee and set-up my layout gets me focused for the coming week.

The notebooks I use for this are a simple Moleskin XL Brown Journal. (Amazon Link).  For about $25cad you get 3 journals.  I started this system in a partially completed notebook and still have COMM 406, GEOS 415, GEOS 406 and GEOS 419.  I could have fit this entire semester into the notebook as well if it has been empty when I started.  I suspect this system would start to break down and need some modifications, after about the 3rd class, just due to space requirements.


The above image represents the next week of classes for me, including the objectives for each class (GEOS 457 did not have them posted at the time I wrote this.).  Each full page spread represents a week.  
  • The top right corner of the book gets a number label to represent the week we are on.
  • Top 2/3 of the right hand page gets the week dates, and each course listed with the weekly objectives
    • Each objective gets a check mark or a system of 3 letters as I progress through it.
      • R - Read
      • S - Summary notes
      • P - Permanent notes
  • The bottom 1/2 of the page hold any notes for the courses, and most importantly any due dates that are coming up soon, or that I want to keep an eye on.
  • The left hand side of the layout is a quick look at the week, allowing me to organize my time. 
  • On the left hand side I will also add a column against the center margin that I will use to check off dailies that need to get done, such as checking my student email.
This gives me a quick living document in a pretty small form factor, these notebooks are almost exactly the same size as an 11" iPad.  This makes them pretty convenient to carry around if you already have a tablet with you, and if you don't they are still pretty small.


Once this pen and paper system is set-up and I am ready to stay organized for the week I move over to obsidian and prep each course for the coming week so I am ready to get started come Monday morning.


This consists of completing the following for each class
  • Create a new folder in the class folder and give it a name.  You can see the hierarchy in the pane on the left hand side of the page.
    • Create a new note in that folder and add the "Map of Content" template and fill it out for this week.  This is the middle pane in the above image.
  • At the Class folder level create a new note and call it "Week X Literature Notes".  You can see this in the right hand pane above.  
And that is it.  The week is ready to go.  On Monday I can open my notebook, review what I need to accomplish, get out what I need to read or complete, and get summarizing in Obsidian if necessary.

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