The first ever post I wrote on this blog was a guide to how I make my study schedules. However, since then, my methods have changed pretty significantly, so I thought I’d write this post as an update.
- Why you need a study schedule
- Be organised!
- Find time to study
- Decide on your priorities
- Plan ahead
Why you need a study schedule
Study schedules are incredibly important. This is because they can get rid of procrastination, save time, and reduce stress. Study schedules can help you organise your studies and prioritise what is important, meaning you’ll be less likely to waste time on procrastination and low-value studying. As well as this, study schedules can reduce stress since you plan for exams in advance, therefore making you less likely to cram.
Be organised!
You need to be organised in order to be a successful student. I personally like to use Google Calendar to help me stay organised, but Notion, planners, and bullet journals can work as well. Make sure that you’re planning out your day, and that you’ve got a to-do list to help you stay focused. This will also help you work out your daily tasks, which is useful for working out how much time you have to study.
Find time to study
The first thing you should do is figure out when you have time to study. As I said before, you need to have a calendar or somehting to keep track of how you spend your time daily. In your calendar, write down when you have school, work, and extracurriculars. Be sure to leave some time for self-care and recreation! Now look at the blank spaces in your calendar: those are the times during which you can study.
Decide on your priorities
Before you decide when to study each subject, first make a list of all your classes, and how difficult you find each one. Try to allocate the most time to the hardest subjects. Once you’ve decided how much time you want to spend on each class, start to decide when you want to study each one, and schedule them as recurring events in your calendar.
Plan ahead
Now that you’re mostly done with your study schedule, you just need to decide specifically what to study in each session. Make the goal for each study session very clear, otherwise your study sessions might get off-track. For example, a good goal might be to finish a practice paper, or to have memorised some quotes.
