Whatever you want to call it (agenda, assignment notebook, date book, mortar board, etc.) the date book is an amazing tool. It is an absolute necessity for people with bad memories who want to look like they are on top of things all of the time. I write everything down in my date book. At the beginning of the semester, I go through all of my class syllabuses and write in all the exams and important due dates in BIG RED letters. Exams rarely sneak up on me.

There are many different types of date books. In high school and grade school, everyone is generally handed a date book at registration. Schools hand these out in an effort to get students to be a little more organized. This tactic is generally unsuccessful because the people who use the books are the students who would have gone out and bought their own because they want or need the books to help keep themselves organized. In college and real life, only the people who want date books get them for themselves, and they (like me) actually use them every day, and they are better prepared and organized in their everyday lives because they use them.