Creating a Study Schedule you can follow
If you google “How to create a study Schedule”, these are some of the suggestions:
These suggestions show that most people depend on an app, a template, or a code to prepare their study schedules. While apps and templates can certainly help, they can’t actually create your schedule. Creating a s schedule is very easy and a favorite pastime for many people. But creating a schedule, you can actually follow is tough and should be done with utmost focus. Here 7 things you must keep in mind while preparing a schedule:
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1. Live your Schedule one day at a time
As Matthew Kelly says in his book, The Long View,
“ Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a month.”
Do not fill a single day with all your tasks and goals. Spread them out. If you are creating a study schedule, do not write “Complete History Syllabus” as a task on Monday. Break it into the topics you are going to cover and assign each topic to a single day. This will help you to accomplish multiple things in a day and help fight boredom.
2. Do not fix timings, fix the duration
Most people are not God. They don’t know what is going to happen at 3 pm the next day. Whenever I have planned to do something at 4 pm and for some reason been delayed to actually begin at 4:05, I have always made the extremely logical choice of starting at 5:00 instead then. Adding specific timestamps to your schedule makes it unnecessarily complicated and rigid. In order to make flexible schedules, fix durations. Allot two hours to a particular task in a day and be flexible about the division and timestamps. Somedays you can work for 8 hours continuously, on others do 4 short 2-hour sprints.
3. You are unique. Do not follow someone else’s schedule
People become great not by creating excellent schedules but by following them. While you can model your entire schedule exactly like a successful person, you can’t possibly model your life around it. Your schedule should be made according to your personal and situational limitations. if you are good at something, you maybe able to do it faster than most people. If you are slow in certain other things, give yourself extra time for them. NEVER COPY-PASTE SCHEDULES.
4. Use triggers
Most of us are complacent and lazy. We need to be reminded periodically that we do exist in a physical form. Don’t let your future self get away with excuses. Use multiple triggers. Set alarms. Make calendar reminders. Involve your family. Tell a friend to check on you periodically. Make it practically impossible for yourself to not do it.
5. Make sure you factor in rest.
The best way to get things done effectively is to have a consistent sleep schedule. In order for your mind and body to function well, they need to receive sprinkles of rest throughout the day as well. Go for a Walk. Listen to music. Make a work playlist. Factor the duration of these activities in your schedule as well. Do not let these activities be a distraction or an escape from your productive work, rather treat them as complementary activities that make your working experience better. A work session should always consist of hours of work and minutes of rest.
6. Keep your eyes on the prize
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Do not get so engrossed in schedule-making that you lose sight of your goal. Your purpose is to ace the upcoming exam and get into your dream college, not to excel in schedule-making. Always remember that excellent planning means nothing if the execution is poor. And even the most perfect executions are considered failures if the desired results are not obtained. Focus on your results and align your entire schedule accordingly.
7. Do Not Marry Your First Schedule
The first schedule you make is probably just going to last 2 days. Do not be rigid with your schedule. Make it adaptive and dynamic. Whenever you find yourself not following the schedule, ask yourself why, and list down all the possible issues. Solve those issues and incorporate them into your schedule to make it better. Keep repeating this process.
Finally, Take a moment to breathe! You’ll get there. Creating a schedule is just the first step in your journey. You’ve got a long way to go.
