How to Stay Super Organized in Physician Assistant School

Have you already been accepted into physician assistant school? If the answer is yes, then congratulations! That means you already have some level of organizational capabilities. A disorganized individual would (in my opinion) be unable to keep up with everything that is required to apply and be accepted into physician assistant school. This is good news, it means you have a strong base and work ethic to start with. I have no doubt you can become organized in physician assistant school in no time.

As anyone reading this likely knows, once you start any graduate school program life can get intense. The average physician assistant program is 27 months. You are basically at work for the entirety of the program (without actually getting paid), from sun up to sun down. To succeed and also not let the rest of your life crumble away into unforgotten dust you need to stay organized.

This article is going to outline how (after several months of trial and error) I organized my life while in physician assistant school. I was able to graduate with honors and had a job lined up 6 months ahead of graduation. I did this while maintaining a long-distance relationship and still making time for fitness, my mental health, family, and friends. This post is for you if you are a few months or even a year into PA school and feeling like your life is disorganized. Or maybe you are ahead of the game and you are reading this to prepare yourself for physician assistant school. If so bravo to you, you are going to rock it in school as the most organized person there. 😉

Schedule everything

Scheduling everything may sound extreme but stay with me. I do want you to schedule everything but that also includes scheduling time for socializing and of course, don’t forget about sleep. Class is already scheduled for you but you need to incorporate time around class to work out, study, go grocery shopping, etc. If you can create and write down a schedule that works well for you then you’ll save yourself time in the future. This is because you will no longer need to think about when and what needs to be done, you already have it scheduled and now all you need to do is stick to it.

I still tend to schedule my days, weeks, and months out in advance. Although now that I am a practicing provider and not adhering to a strict school/study schedule I offer myself a little bit more freedom to change things as I see fit. While I was in school, it was a different story. I stuck to a very strict schedule for the duration of my didactic year and then once I moved onto rotations I had to adjust to my new monthly schedules. For someone who tends to be more type A, this was difficult for me. On one hand, I had fewer exams and quizzes to juggle during clinical rotations but on the other hand, my schedules differed monthly and sometimes weekly depending on the rotation.

Don’t procrastinate

Not procrastinating can be difficult but it is key to staying organized. If you have already mapped out your schedule then guess what you need to do now… adhere to it! If you scheduled time to study for an exam in 2 weeks then do it, even if it’s just for a short 30-minute chunk of your day. When that exam starts to inch closer you will slowly increase your study time per day and then when it’s a day or two before the exam guess what you WON’T be? Super stressed out because you are just now looking at the material for the first time. Decreasing your stress during PA school is another vital factor in doing well. Decreased stress means an increased ability to focus on studying and absorbing material.

Have an organized filing system

Along with writing or typing out your schedule and keeping up with it, you also need an organized filing system for study notes and other important documents. You will save yourself time if you set up these systems now and stick with them. I wrote a million notes and had to sign probably another thousand documents throughout physician assistant school. Throwing these papers into a random pile in your closet or accidentally throwing important documents away altogether will cause a headache when a year later you need to find said important document (yes this happened to me on multiple occasions).

It would be ideal if all paper copies were instead electronic. Then you could save them into an organized file system on your laptop. If you can do that then that’s fantastic. Label all folders and documents with simple names and dates. This way all you need to do is a quick search and you can pull them up.

Keep your environment decluttered

An easy way to not lose track of things is to have a minimalistic study and living environment. This will keep you from becoming distracted. I always cleaned before I sat down to study because a clean work space kept me relaxed and then I was able to focus better. If I was trying to study and constantly looking around at a messy apartment it would stress me out. Another thing to note is that one important aspect of having a filing system includes tossing anything that is not necessary to keep.

Prioritize the important things and habit stack when you can

When you are scheduling your time make sure to prioritize what’s important for you. My 3 top priorities were my long-distance relationship with my now husband, studying, and working out. They were my non-negotiables every single day. I always made time to communicate with my husband (at the time boyfriend) multiple times a day. Normally we would text throughout the day and either FaceTime or talk on the phone at night.

This is when habit stacking can come into play. If we were talking on the phone I would typically talk while making dinner or tidying up my apartment. If I was working out at the gym or going on a run at the nearby state park I would ask a friend to come with me so I could feel like I was socializing while getting a workout in. Atomic Habits by James Clear taught me everything I know about habit stacking. You can learn more about how this book helped me here: This Book Will Help You Build Better Study Habits in PA School.

To recap, my recommendations for staying super organized while in physician assistant school include: 1. Keep a clean and decluttered study/living environment. 2. Determine your top priorities and schedule all of your exams, quizzes, study time for said exams and quizzes, and day-to-day activities. 3. Keep an organized filing system whether paper or electronic with all of your notes and documents required for school. 4. Last but not least don’t procrastinate and adhere to your schedule the best you can.

Are you currently in physician assistant school and have any other tips for current or future PA students on how to stay organized in physician assistant school? If so, comment below I would love to hear them!