As a new academic year starts, it’s unlikely that you are already planning your revision schedule – but having a study timetable set up annually can truly help you reach your top potential. Not only does this keep you focused, but in addition, it enables you to maintain a healthier life-study balance, meaning you do not wind up needing to cram before deadlines or have to wave goodbye to your social life during active periods. It is hard to know where to begin when you think about organising your study schedule, so we’ve broken it down for you under…
Step One: Identify your deadlines and significant social dates
To effectively organize a study timetable, you need to get all your important dates composed – that means both your social and academic responsibilities.
Think about:
– Exam periods
– Birthdays
– Important events (birthdays, weddings, religious and national holidays)
– Other responsibilities (part-time tasks, music festivals, sporting events, intended vacations etc.)
Once you understand these important dates, they will need to go down in your calendar. If you know it will take up your entire day or perhaps a couple of, block this time out right away. Otherwise, make a note so that you’re aware you may be occupied for at least some of this day. This will allow you to account for days you won’t be able to study. As opposed to finding yourself a week prior to a deadline with only three accessible days, you will have prepared for this beforehand.
You know your key occasions, it is time for Step 2 – Choose how long you want to prepare for them. This will depend on your distinctive personality and level of research, but make enough time to focus on your commitment without having to devote all your time to it. Whether it is a wedding you’re helping to plan or an exam you are studying for, it’s tempting to dismiss these important events until you have enough time to drop everything else and focus, but by organizing your schedule at the beginning of the year, you can make certain this will not happen.
Once you have a clear timeline of everything you want to reach and how much time to spend on that, you can move onto step three.
Step Three: Schedule your courses and extracurricular activities
Before you variable which how to balance your free time, you also should account for time on your program consumed by courses and activities. This will be based on what course you are studying and how time-intensive your hobbies are. You may be spending the majority of your week in assignments, or you might be scheduled down to get a research stint in the library — it is all dependent on your topic and level of research. Instead, your weekends and evenings may largely be spent on the sports field or group practice, or maybe you have whole days free to devote your time.
Step Four: Balance your Spare Time
So now you know precisely how much time you’ve got, it is possible to work out how much of it you want to spend researching, which places to prioritise and schedule some sociable time for yourself as well. If you have an intensive course at which you’re in class for most the day, you’ll want to reserve the majority of your evenings and weekends for non-academic pursuits. If, however, you are pursuing a research degree or just have a couple hours of contact time, booking 70% of your free time for analyzing and 30% for relaxing and socialising is a fantastic benchmark.
This weighting may slightly change as programs evolve or particularly busy times appear, therefore it is a good idea to approach your schedule flexibly, like a guideline as opposed to written law. By handling your time properly from the start of the academic year, you’ve a higher prospect of knowledge being stored in your long-term memory, which makes it less difficult to accurately recall during examinations and assignments. It also needs to help lower stress as you’re aware of what is expected of you from the beginning, rather than enabling deadlines and important dates to creep up on you.