Plan Your Day to Have Time For Study
Annabel Abrahams explains how to plan your day so you have time to study.
To most individuals in Australia and the world, studying and working is seen as a herculean task that leaves you drained. The fact is that you can study and work and still be successful academically. The key to this is managing your day smartly. Smart work, instead of hard work, helps students avoid stress and achieve high success easily.
Here are a few tips on time management for college students to incorporate as a habit.
Map out your objectives
Before starting your day, you should make a list of the activities and tasks you aim to accomplish by the end of the day. Most students fail to do this and end up in a pickle that could have been avoided. Students can quickly identify both academic and personal objectives and allocate a time frame for completing them.
Set the priority level of each task, with you attending to the higher-level tasks first. Also, when considering the objectives you hope to achieve in a day, you should consider their impact on weekly and monthly goals.
Make use of aids
A technique that helps you manage your day effectively and frees up time to achieve other tasks is using aids. You can work and study effectively without getting stressed out with the help of family members, friends, study groups, online writing services, and online writing tools. Get assistance with assignments, house chores, etc., to gain extra time on your schedule. Seeking help with the assignment given in school from professionals or your study partner or group can also make your study time more effective. As students, having friends or professionals assist them with an assignment helps them spend less time researching and learning faster.
Set realistic time frames
One thing about managing your day is that you are being realistic and flexible when setting up your schedule. Do not try to cramp up your schedule in a bid to achieve numerous objectives. This is a common occurrence with students. They cramp up their schedule with multiple activities and end up not finding the time to attend to most of them. Doing this, they fail to find time to study or complete a high-priority task.
When mapping out your day set realistic time limits to attend to them. Avoid taking up too many daily activities even if you can accomplish them. There is a high chance that you will get exhausted or events might not turn out as planned, as unforeseen events may arise. A flexible time frame helps you manage possible contingencies without overhauling your schedule.
Have a physical representation
Having a mental plan for your day is not going to cut it. You must also have a physical representation to remind you of your schedule. In the modern world, there are multiple smartphone apps to help you schedule your day. Organizers, timetables, or notes can also be used as representations.
Stay clear of Procrastination
Procrastination has been the bane of students since the inception of education. It is commonplace to find individuals, especially students, trick themselves into believing that there can accomplish a task at hand faster than the time currently available. Hence, they can relax for a while or perform other activities with fun and exciting activities, often being their go-to option. It is easy for anyone to lose themselves in activities that keep their minds off their tasks. Therefore, this leads to them missing deadlines and falling far behind their schedules.
The only known cure for the harmful habit of "procrastination" is dedication. Staying dedicated to achieving your plans will give you the willpower to see them through.
Examine the external factors that make you susceptible to procrastinating. These factors include friends, activities, environment, etc. Create a time on your schedule to interact with these factors and stick to it. If this proves ineffective, you should steer clear of these factors entirely.
Care for your body and mind
The state of the body and mind play vital roles in studying. If both are not in a healthy state, learning may be difficult. The best way to achieve this is by living healthy and exercising regularly. Make time from your schedule to perform light exercises between your study time. Exercise for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Sleeping is also crucial to keeping your mind and body healthy, so it is best to avoid late nights and get ample sleep. For some students, the early hours of the morning are often the best time to study. The recommended amount of sleep ranges between 7 and 8 hours, meaning you should be in bed by 10:00 p.m. so you can at least wake up by 6:00 a.m.
To cool off, take siestas, which last 30 minutes to an hour. Exercises also produce a similar mental effect to sleep, so they can occasionally replace siestas.
Managing time for the daily activities of students
Below is a table showing the necessary activities students carry out in a day. This schedule provides students with four hours of study, four hours of work, and six hours of class time.
| Start | Finish | Activity |
| 5am | 7am | Study |
| 7am | 8am | Prepare for classes |
| 8am | 2pm | Classes |
| 2pm | 3pm | Rest |
| 3pm | 4pm | Chores |
| 4pm | 6pm | Study |
| 6pm | 10pm | Work |
| 10pm | 6am | Sleep |
With the average hours of class time in a week being just about four hours, students have free time to manage contingencies within the free time there get from class periods. The recommended independent study hours in a week are 20 hours, which this schedule provides you. Weekend schedules can be fixed to include extra study or work hours, unwinding and spending time with friends, and taking care of the tasks you did not accomplish during the weekday.
Final Thoughts
If you manage your time smartly, assignments or workloads will not be congested. Poor time management strategies are why most students get overwhelmed with their academic and personal tasks. Curtailing this will ensure you maintain a stress-free academic and work life.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- ABRAHAMS, A. (2019) Plan Your Day to Have Time For Study [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article464.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Annabel Abrahams writes and publishes articles to guide people aspiring to join universities. She is also a freelance writer and helps students write challenging projects in her free time.