A Week to Go: Time to Get Organized

With only a week left before my course starts, I’ve been reflecting on how things went the last time I was at university. Keeping track of assignments and deadlines was a constant struggle, and once I started working, balancing everything felt impossible. But this time, things are going to be different—and I’ve got a plan to make sure of it.

This time, I’m hoping for a different experience. The course seems much more aligned with my interests, and I’m determined to be better prepared with the right tools to help me manage everything. I’m taking a proactive approach to get organized from the start.

One of the first things I did was set up this blog. While researching the curriculum and tasks, I stumbled upon a few websites from previous students in the same program. That inspired me to create my own space—not only to experiment with things like web hosting and Cloudflare, but also because it could help me track and visualize my progress. For now, though, it’s a fun project, and I’ll keep building on it as I go.

Here comes the task tracker

Along with that, I’ve been sorting out how to track my tasks and assignments. I tried setting up a system in Notion, but it didn’t quite do what I needed: it’s missing the automation and links functionality that I’m really used to. So, I turned to YouTrack, a tool I use daily at work. I set up a few projects and automations for them to remind me of upcoming deadlines and activities.

I set up the YouTrack instance a couple weeks ago, but yesterday it’s finally been put to use. Last week, I received an email from the Essex team outlining the first introductory module and its two units. The email broke down everything I need to do: watch lectures, participate in forums, complete quizzes, and submit the final assignment.

So, yesterday, I transferred all of this into YouTrack as individual tasks to keep things organized. Here’s a screenshot of how it currently looks like, and we’ll see how this system works as the course progresses!