Back to school means changing gears from a relaxing summer to buckling down and studying.

Eileen Roth, national speaker and author of Organizing For Dummies has these tips to share for successful students.

1. Plan your time. Have a weekly planner for daily assignments as well as a large monthly calendar to visually see the entire month at one time.

2. Break major projects, large reading assignments, research papers, or even studying for exams into smaller chunks to make a large task easier to achieve.

3. Color code. Choose a color for each subject and match notebook, book cover, spirals and folders. Always grab the right material for class from your locker or backpack!

4. Have a separate desk in a quiet area. The study area should have little to no distractions -- turn off music and TV. You can't study and focus when you have distractions.

5. Highlight on the second reading. On the first run through – use a red pen and underline.

On the second round – highlight the key information to study for a test.

6. Use an index card notebook (3x5 ) to prepare a research paper.

This allows easy movement of note cards to create the draft and final version of research papers. It also keeps cards from getting misplaced or lost.

Eileen Roth is a national speaker and the author of Organizing For Dummies®. Sign up for Eileen's free monthly Organizing Ezine at www.everythinginitsplace.net