7 simple and practical tips for setting up a study schedule
One of the biggest difficulties for students, both in preparation for the entrance exam and during college, is organizing themselves to be able to study all the necessary content. If you’ve ever wondered how to do this, you’ve probably heard about the study schedule.
This is a great tool to improve your productivity , as it organizes your free time and the content that needs to be studied, according to the defined deadlines and goals. But how to create this schedule? This is where the biggest doubts arise, mainly because preparing it in a planned way is essential to achieve good results.
With that in mind, we prepared this post with 7 incredible tips on how to put together a complete study schedule to help with your routine. Keep reading and learn!
1. Organize your available time
This is the starting point for your schedule: analyze your routine and find out how many hours you can dedicate to studying per day. For this, remember to consider other commitments, such as work, courses and college, in addition to periods of rest and leisure.
It is based on this information that you will start your planning. The next step is to put together a calendar with all your routine, including weekends and holidays. This can be done by hand, in Excel, Trello, or any other app you like.
Afterwards, it’s time to fill it in with schedules and commitments, determining which moments will be allocated to studies. Simple, isn’t it? This way you will be able to really visualize the time available to fulfill your tasks and start to organize your schedule.
2. Separate all materials
In order for you to be able to plan your calendar correctly, it is essential to separate all the subjects that need to be studied in the period. Put together a list of all the contents and, if possible, make a few more divisions by themes – this will make it easier when organizing.
If you are focusing on a specific test, the tip is to take a look at the notice, which already separates the themes of each discipline to ensure the inclusion of all content in the schedule. By the way, this is a great way to save time, making it easier to separate all the materials.
3. Identify study priorities
Do you speak Urdu very well, but find it difficult to do calculations? Do you dominate history, but suffer with biology? This is very common, so evaluate these issues and set priorities when formulating your study schedule.
It is also important to consider the weight of each subject in the test — in entrance exams, it is common for some subjects to be charged more. The disciplines that are worth more deserve more time dedicated to ensure the best performance.
With all the contents separated and priorities defined, you can start organizing your calendar, writing down the subjects that will be studied each day and specific tasks, such as solving questions or reviewing the subject studied.
4. Set study goals
Structuring the study schedule helps to maintain the routine, but to avoid temptations and remain focused on your tasks, it is also important to define short, medium and long-term goals. If you are planning for a specific test.
But it is also important to define some smaller goals and their deadlines, such as completing certain contents, finishing reading a book or, finally, mastering physics and chemistry formulas.
In addition, if you are preparing for a test that does not have a defined day, the goals become even more important so that you do not lose focus and keep the pace of studies until the dates are announced.
5. Plan for any unforeseen circumstances
When setting up the schedule, it is important to consider the possible unforeseen events. Last-minute commitments may arise that take up study time, illnesses or days when your income leaves something to be desired.
To avoid problems, have some periods dedicated to restoring tasks. If no unforeseen events have arisen and your studies are up to date, these times can be used to review what was studied during the week or to pay more attention to content that is causing more difficulties.
6. Do not forget about rest and leisure
A very common mistake when putting together a schedule is finding free hours and filling them all with study periods. When planning, remember to set breaks to rest your mind during tasks and to set aside some time for fun.
Even if you have a lot of material to review and big goals to achieve, you need to have moments to relax your mind and have fun. This reduces your stress and makes your brain work harder during your studies. On the other hand, a tired and stressed mind will not perform as well.
7. Update the study schedule
You followed the previous tips and finalized your schedule; now just follow it to the end, right? Wrong! To ensure good performance and enjoy the best results, it is also important to revise and update your planning.
In some subjects you can present a great performance and follow your study plan smoothly. However, other content can bring difficulties and delay your goals. In these cases, it is important to review the schedule and make updates, replacing schedules to adjust the time for each subject.
This tool should serve as a guide, but making adjustments to boost your performance and correct some flaws is natural and is exactly what will ensure that you have the best possible performance when you study.