With the myriad of tasks in a student’s life, it’s difficult to find the time to devote to a scholarship search. Not only is it difficult to find the time, but it’s even more difficult to stay focused. If scholarship money is the largest part of your college budget, then staying focused with your eye on the prize should be a priority, especially during junior and senior year.

1. Add scholarship searching to your daily schedule

As with any task, it helps to add it to your schedule. Schedule scholarship search time just as you would any other important daily task or activity. Compare it to having a job. The hours you spend searching and applying to scholarships will net you big rewards, much more than an hourly wage. Consider devoting at least 30 minutes each day to this task. Schedule it either before or after your homework and make it a part of your daily routine.

2. Devise a plan to organize scholarships and deadlines

When searching for scholarships, you’re going to accumulate mounds of information and data. To stay focused and organized you will need some type of system to keep and compile all that information. I like using Google for this task because you can create spreadsheets and add the deadline dates to your Google calendar. Whichever method you choose, be consistent and methodical. As you find a scholarship, add it to the list and note the guidelines and deadline date.

There are also scholarship search programs that will keep track of the scholarships you qualify for and apply to as well. But as you widen your search beyond these search engines, you will find scholarships outside their parameters and you will need to have some other method to list and organize these scholarships. It’s also important to note that once you apply and win a scholarship, you should keep track of these as well.

3. Sign up for notifications

Scholarship search engines and apps abound to help you search for scholarships. My favorite is Scholly because it’s available as an app or on your desktop. However, there are many others as well: Chegg, Scholarship Experts, Cappex, are just a few. These sites send you daily emails with scholarship updates, notifying you of scholarships that have become available. They also send reminder emails regarding the scholarships you have been matched to whose deadlines are approaching. You can even sign up for a daily email from Scholarships360, which emails you a new scholarship every day.

When using these search engines try to give as much information about yourself as possible. This will guarantee the best matches and save you time chasing down scholarships that you don’t qualify for. Once you have completed your registration, the site matches you with available scholarships and you can begin adding them to your application schedule.

4. Make regular visits to your counselor and high school websites

High school counselors receive scholarship information, especially local notifications. Paying a regular visit to the counselor’s office and inquiring about new scholarships should be part of your search routine as well. Schools also often list these scholarships on their school websites. You can check your own school and go a step further by searching other local high school websites as well. These sites are often more helpful than search engines because the scholarships are local ones with less competition and greater odds of winning.

5. Incorporate social media in your search

As part of your scholarship search strategy and in an attempt to stay focused and on track, combine your social media time and searching for scholarships. Social media is a great place to search and even stay organized. Pinterest is one social media tool available to you that gives you the option to search and stay organized, along with Facebook scholarship pages and scholarship search engine Twitter accounts. Almost every available scholarship has a Facebook page and almost every scholarship search engine has a Twitter account. As part of your daily routine, check these accounts for new scholarships and scholarship tips. Since you are using social media anyway, use it to your advantage in the search for scholarship dollars.

Scholarship searching and applying could very well be the most labor intensive but rewarding task you will complete during the college prep years. But if you start with a plan, stay with the plan, and remain focused, your reward will be great. Who doesn’t like free money for college?