Valuable tips for successful time management during your studies

Managing your time means planning your time. Creating a schedule that works for you and moves you forward requires planning ahead, creating a weekly schedule, and setting daily goals.

Plan ahead

At the start of a new semester or at the start of a significant period of time (e.g. summer, winter break), take a moment to think about your goals and get an overview of the upcoming period.

Below are three steps you can take to plan ahead.

1. Write down one or two goals for each area of your academic work.

Some examples of specific semester goals are listed below.
- Learn to speak Spanish.
- Learn a programming language.
- Improve my research skills by learning how to use a library database.
- Participate in every class at least once a day.

2. With these goals in mind, determine when, how and whether you can achieve them during this period of time.

‍
- Use a physical calendar or monthly calendar to plan deadlines and requirements for the semester (e.g. submission dates for papers, exam dates, application deadlines, milestones for study requirements, other important events).
- Or use an electronic, color-coded calendar to plan the semester in a similar way or to plan a month.

3. With the fixed dates in the calendar, break down each set goal into steps and plan these steps in your calendar.

This will help you determine whether your overall goal is realistic.
- If they don't all fit into your calendar, you know you need to prioritize goals. Prioritizing your goals allows you to create a plan to achieve the most important ones.

Recognize that there are things you can control and there are things you can't control.

Some of your work might depend on you staying healthy, having others complete their tasks, etc., so you need to be flexible.
Having a system to keep track of your long-term goals will help you not forget them and will help you reevaluate and possibly reprioritize them, depending on what the circumstances dictate.
Be deliberate in your assessment of your circumstances — some that seem beyond your control may not be as uncontrollable as you think. If you think you can't objectively assess your situation, seek help from your counselor or your academic or social support network.

In addition to taking a broad view of your time, it is also necessary to take narrower views of your time in order to move forward productively. Consider creating a weekly schedule and setting daily goals.

Make a weekly schedule

Creating a plan for the week at the start of each week increases the likelihood that you'll get your work done, because a weekly schedule gives structure to your time. This is particularly important if you're learning remotely and don't have the usual social and environmental cues (e.g. friends going to the library to study, regular meal times in the dining room) that provide this structure. A weekly schedule also helps you estimate how much time you want or need to spend on various tasks and activities.

Below are four steps you can take to create a weekly schedule.

1. Start with a blank weekly schedule divided into one-hour (or 30-minute) blocks.

You can use a printable template for a weekly schedule, or the Google calendar, or whatever calendar system is most effective for you.

2. Make sure you include everything you need to do on a given day, not just your work.

‍
- Wake up time.
- Focused work blocks, scheduled for your hardest work when you're at your best.
- General work blocks for tasks that require less mental energy (e.g. answering emails).
- Classes, sections, lab, study groups, meetings, etc.
- Meals
- Sports.
- Free time.
- Buffer time.
- bedtime

3. Test your schedule for a week and notice how often you deviate from it.

Identify when you're off schedule. Try to figure out why you've deviated. For example, didn't you set aside enough time for the task because a task was more time-consuming or difficult than you thought? Did you get distracted? Have you spent too much time on an unimportant task?

4. Create a schedule for the next week that makes appropriate adjustments to support more realistic expectations

This might involve dividing tasks further, using strategies to reduce distractions, reallocate your time, etc. Start a new weekly schedule using this printable weekly schedule template, Google Calendar, or your favorite app. As the end of the semester approaches, consider making a plan for the entire reading time and exams.

Set daily goals

Approaching each day with purpose will enable you to get through the day without burdening yourself with decisions all day long.
Use your weekly schedule template and decide what you're going to do during the time blocks you've planned.
Decide the morning (or the night before) what you're going to do during the focused blocks of time you've set aside for that day in your weekly schedule. Add these specific tasks to your to-do list.
Decide the morning (or the night before) what you're going to do during the general work blocks you've set aside for that day in your weekly schedule. Add these specific tasks to your to-do list.

Turn the tasks on your to-do list into achievable goals for the day.
Failure to complete a planned task can reduce self-confidence and start an avoidance cycle.
Conversely, it is extremely satisfying to check the boxes or cross out achieved goals! Completing one task motivates you to move on to the next or even exceed your current goal.

Below are some specific strategies you can try to help you stay on top of your daily goals.

- Try using a daily block schedule.
- Keep an actual to-do list — in a notebook, on an index card, on your computer
- Review your to-do list at the end of the working day and be happy with everything you've done.

If there are things you haven't done, take a moment to evaluate and reflect on those points.

- Have you avoided a task for any reason?
- Did you underestimate how long other tasks would take?
- Have you had too many unexpected interruptions?
- Use these considerations to guide your plans for tomorrow

If you postpone an important but not urgent task, make a specific task mandatory.

Examples include including new comments in a draft, writing an email to a professor for a letter of recommendation, or searching for sources for your research paper for one hour.