I plan on getting on the Dean’s List this semester, so keeping that idea in mind, I have been trying to find some way to keep somewhat organized. As such, I’ve been using a new app called Todoist to get my work done.

One of the things I like about Todoist is that you can do something I call “branching” your projects. Say you have four classes—for example, my classes this semester are: Ancient Greek History, The Women of Rome, Greek & Roman Religion, and History of the Mediterranean. Now say you have certain sub-projects each week for these classes, you can put those into a subcategory of these “parents,” and you can color code all of these for even better viewing and tracking. Our list would now be something like this:

1. Ancient Greek History

1. VT Responses

2. The Women of Rome

1. Discussion Posts

2. Slides

3. Greek & Roman Religion

1. Discussion Posts

4. History of the Mediterranean

1. Weekly Assignment

2. Discussion Posts

Another one of my favorite things Todoist pushes is “human dating.” Say you have something due at noon next Friday, but you don’t feel like finding the date. Just put “due next Friday at noon” next to your task. It’ll turn it into a date and put it next to the task as its own appointment without you having to bother finding the date.

You can also sync Todoist with your Google Calendar. Google Calendar and Todoist integration will automatically add all your tasks from Todoist into your calendar. Easy enough! If you still have that syllabus, take those dates and put those in there! Or just do it every couple weeks at a time. Set the tasks and the reminders and Todoist will help remind you and take care of getting those things done. Of course, any changes you make will change between this calendar and Todoist, so you don’t have to fret with the syncing not going right.

Now if you want to get on point, you can start outlining things! From thinking up topics for papers as header tasks to finding sources as small sub-tasks, by adding the above integrations. Pro tip: If you add an asterisk and a space before any task, you can turn that into a header task without worrying about accidentally checking that off. You can also add links into tasks and format text with bold, italic and underline if you want to really drive home certain points and priorities. I’ve actually got to the point where I’ve started to use Todoist for more stuff like this than even Evernote. But that might just be because all my classes and their notes are already online.

This was just a taste of what Todoist has to offer. If you Google “A Student’s Guide to Todoist,” you can find even more helpful tips!