There’s a lot to be said for owning a diary aimed at dealing with the academic year. School, college and university life tends to end up crammed with all sorts of appointments: lectures; seminars; classes; study time; club meetings – you name it, the active student is into it. Getting an academic diary is a simple, easy way to make sure all those appointments and commitments are in the same place – and, unlike the latest mobile phone or communications device or whatever they’re called these days, it isn’t going to get nicked and sold on an auction site. Of course you can keep track of all your study commitments, social appointments and all the rest of it on a swanky new phone – but that involves having the thing out at all times, making it easy pickings for any light fingered opportunist who happened to be around. Not to mention the fact that trying to use one of those glorified activity centres to do anything halfway serious is a bit like transcribing the Bible onto a stamp. You could do it but it would be a lot more trouble than it was worth.
Buying an academic diary is a lot cheaper and easier than having your phone nicked – and, of course, if you do lose your diary you won’t be spending the next eight weeks trying to remember everyone’s phone numbers and email addresses. You can get academic diaries in any usual size and format, from tiny little pocket size diaries suitable for keeping quick references of your seminars and what not, all the way through to giant desk sized tomes that really aren’t practical outside of your own room. A big one is usually a pretty good overall bet, mind – you can keep it on your desk and use it to refer to at night so you can plan the following day properly.
Successful study is much easier with forward planning. Use an academic diary to do just that and you’ll find your school life goes a lot easier.
