7 Steps for Making a Solid Studying Plan
User Blog #004
Everyone tells you that you should have a studying plan, right? So you go home, add in a couple of study sessions on your calendar app, and be grateful that you found an excuse to procrastinate for 15 minutes. Well, here’s an alternative (and much better) solution. It consists of 7 steps that must be included when creating a proper study plan.
Step 1: Review your materials.
There’s a pretty good chance you have a bunch of material from your school/university to cover your study needs. If not, there’s even more on the internet. Make sure you have enough within immediate reach. Get them all together before you start studying. From here, you’re going to review your curriculum for that subject, and figure out:
- What lessons do I need to watch/read/review?
- What are the practise activities I need to engage in to get better?
- What are the required deliverables for it? (how does this content need to be applied in real life — exam, essay, test, etc.)
Write down a list with the answers to each of these questions, so that you can check them off as you go.
Step 2: Calculate your minimum time investment.
This consists of all the work you must put in to complete the class/subject as specified.
- How long will it take to do the required readings?
- How long will it take to watch lectures/videos/attend class?
- How long will it take to finish the deliverables?
Obviously, nobody is asking you to get this number down to a tee, however, you can get a pretty good estimate.
(Number of classes x Time of classes) * (Time spent reading a page of text on average x Number of pages to be read) * (Number of deliverables x Rough estimate on however long it takes you to prepare and execute them)
This can be a bit annoying to do, however if you take the 10 minutes out of your day to do it, time management will be significantly amplified in the near future.
Step 3: Estimate additional studying time.
This adds on from Step 2. The time calculated in the previous step is only the minimum requirements for the subject. We recommend going beyond these requirements (if you want to do well).
Look at your personal historical data — what is the average amount of time you spend studying? What do your grades typically look like? If you want to improve your grades by 15%, add on an extra 15% to your time estimate. This is not a completely accurate calculation, however if you use that extra 15% of time to continue studying properly, it will most likely land in that ballpark.
Step 4: Schedule studying in your calendar.
Now you can enjoy those 15 minutes of procrastination. Except, you should be super focused here. Add everything into your calendar. Yes, everything. Every single foreseeable detail of your days should go into here, with the most notable one being the allocated time slots for studying.
It doesn’t matter if you use a book or an online calendar, just make sure it’s something that you check every day.
Step 5: Sanity check.
What on earth is a sanity check?
Ask yourself this: How does my calculated time investment from Steps 2 + 3 compare to what I’ve put in my calendar for Step 4? Is available time less than the minimum calculated time (Step 2)? If yes, start clearing out the unecessary things. You need to find a way to at least make sure you fit that minimum calculated time into your calendar.
Also, this time period spans from right now until the completion date of the subject — if that is too hard to estimate, do it by fortnight/month.
Step 6: Get feedback.
Now, so far we’ve done the easy stuff. Planning, scheduling, and telling ourselves we’re going to stick to it. The hard part is actually sticking to it. So, now you need to evaluate feedback whilst studying, and adjust accordingly.
Consider these sources for feedback:
- Your ability to actually execute your plan
Write your intention out each day (e.g. create weekly notes for 2 subjects, do 1 practise test, revise cue cards for 15 minutes), and then record what you actually got done at the end of the day.
- Find what’s causing your interruptions so that you can remedy them
This doesn’t mean just putting your phone away so you don’t get distracted. Find the actual root of the issue. Why am I getting distracted by my phone? It’s because I subconsciously find ways to put of getting my work done. How can I fix this? Tell myself if I do 45 minutes of solid work, I can use my phone. Don’t just put it on the other side of the room without setting any boundaries, you’ll be scrolling on Instagram in 5 minutes if you do that.
- Look at your learning progress
Actually look at which part you’re struggling with. Do you not have the basics entrenched? Are you unable to comprehend a difficult concept? Whatever it is, the first step to solving it is to actually know what you’re stuck on. This in itself is excellent feedback, as you know where to allocate your time specifically (as opposed to “Matrices is too hard, I’m going to work on something else”).
Step 7: Make modifications.
Use the feedback you’ve gathered in Step 6 to modify your plan. Think about:
- Do I need to increase hours spent working?
- Do I need to add/remove something from my routine?
- Should I change the order in which I get my subjects done each day?
- Should I just drop out?
(Don’t).
In the end, you may not stick to your plan with complete rigidity. That’s okay. Try to be as close to it as you possibly can. If you plan correctly, this is highly achievable. If you don’t plan it right the first time around, make appropriate adjustments and go again. You don’t need to eliminate the ability to improvise your schedule, you just need to make sure you’re getting that minimum time commitment in.
Note: this post is a summary of Scott H Young’s podcast on the topic. It has some extra information included. (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rll7q8fjrsKiEaB8vQd96?si=0cbeb415b3cd4b72)
Now, get back to work. https://www.joinmodus.com/
