How To Study Effectively with a Study Plan
This post is all about creating a study plan to study effectively
Do you feel overwhelmed with the amount of work you have? Do you struggle with procrastination?
If you answer yes to those two questions then you are at the right place! Today, I am going to teach you the six steps to create a personalized study plan that will help you to study effectively. Preparing you for the upcoming final season!
What is a Study Plan?
A Study plan to an organized schedule that containes your academic, professional, social, and personal duties. It can help you priortize your tasks, budget your time, and avoid procrastination.
Why do I need a Study Plan?
Five Reasons to have a Study Plan:
- Avoid procrastination
- Achieve your academic goals
- Stress releive
- Maintain work-life balance
- Increase productivty & Study effectively
Step 1: Determining your goals and priorities
You need to first reflect on yourself and determine what kind of goals you want to acheive by the end of the semester. Ask yourself these two questions:
"What grades do I want to get for my courses?"
"What GPA do I want to achieve by the end of the semester?'"
Being able to be honest and realistic to yourself when answering those two questions is the key to this step. Keep in mind that it’s totally fine to change your goals as you go through the semester!
Step 2: Reflect upon how you study best
Now that you know what you want to achieve, it’s time for some reflection! Think about how you would achieve those goals, what steps you need to take?
Use the following prompts to guide you through this step:
"Where do I study most effectively?" (e.g. school, home, library, etc.) "How long is my attention span before I need to take a break?" (e.g. 25 mins, 50 minutes, 60minutes, and so on.) "Do I study more effectively in the morning or at night?" "How many hours am I willing to spend on studying everyday?"
Everyone is unique and different, some of us can work longer hours and some of us needs break more often, it’s best that you reflect on your exiting study schedules and make arrangements.
Check out section 7 of this post for more time-management tips to help you plan out your day!
Step 3: Create a one-month calendar
Being a student means being responsible for deadlines, you need to keep in mind of when you have tests, assignments, or exams.
Mark every due dates you have on your calendar, whether digital ones like Google calendar, or physical ones like notebooks or planners.
This is so you always have an overview of when your deadlines are coming up, to help you organize better and start ahead to avoid missing your deadlines.
Tips: Download your course syllabus and check for any important dates that your school might have to make this step easier.
Step 4: Plan accordingly and Determine your priorities
This is the step where you sit down and take some time to make the actual plan. Refer to your one-month calendar, focus on the first two weeks. And ask yourelf:
"What assignments or tests that I have are coming up?" "How much time do I need to spend for each of those assignments or tests?" "Other than assignments, what kind of prep works do I need to do before lectures?" (E.g. Any assigned readings/Class notes)
You might not know exactly how much time you need to finish each tasks but I would say it’s better to underestimate yourself than overestimate it in such situation; you can always start ahead to your next task if you finish early, but you won’t be able to have anything done if you don’t have enough time.
If you are having trouble planning, consider using AI tools to help you out, simply use the following prompt:
I need help in creating a study schedule for the next two weeks. The following are a list of tasks that I have, along with their due dates and the approximate time it takes for me to finish them: [Task 1 (Due on ____)(Takes approximately 1-2 hours), Task 2 (Due on ___) (Takes approximately 1-2 hours everyday for a week), and so on.]
All you have to do is copy and paste the above prompt to any AI chatbot of your choice, for example ChatGPT and insert the tasks you have along with their due dates and the approximate time it takes to finish them like I said in the prompt. Now all you have to do is let technology perform its magic for you!
Step 5: Get things done
Now that you have a plan, it’s time to make some commitment.
Stick to the plan, work hard, and take breaks when needed.
I do recommend taking a glance of your study plan every night, checking things off, and looking at the tasks you have for the next day so that you are prepared for it.
What’s important about having a study plan is to stay devoted, keep in mind of why you are doing this in order to make use of it and study effectively.
Step 6: Revise your plan
Your study plan is flexible, you have the ability to make changes to it. Do the best you can to achieve your goals and make adjustment to it when needed. Here are some questions to ask yourself when revising your study plan:
"Was I realistic about the amount of time I budgeted for my tasks?" "Did I have enough time to finish my tasks?" "Do I have any additional tasks to add to my study plan?" "Is there any task I need to re-prioritize or re-schedule?"
Again, you can always make changes to your study plan, it is not fixed. Allow yourself to make mistake and learn from it.
Stay devoted and trust that you are capable of whatever you are trying to achieve.
Additional Resources
The following are a lists of hyperlinked resources that might be helpful for you to come up with your own study plan.
These are such good tips! thank you for sharing them 🙂
I agree that step 2 is so important! My study sessions really improved when I learned what environment I study best in (for me, it’s my dedicated desk setup along with mixing up my study locations a few times per week) and knowing that I study more effectively in the evenings. Thanks for sharing this!
These are very helpful questions you’ve posed for students to ask themselves when creating a study plan. The additional resources are great to include at the end for anyone who needs, or would like, a bit more support. Thanks for sharing.
Where was this blog when I was in school? would have been very helpful.