Every learner plans his study schedule before starting the daily course of study. But not everyone who plans ends up finishing that. Few learners tend to move away from the schedule planned by them. When this happens one will feel stressed and overloaded at the peak time such as during tests or examinations. Planning out a study schedule is important but sticking and following that schedule plays a major role than just planning. One has to follow a routine to overcome this kind of trouble or worry. In this article, we will throw some light on how to plan a study schedule.

What is a Study Schedule?

A study schedule is a timetable that is meant for studies and other activities after school or college hours. This schedule can be followed when one comes back home and plans his activities for rest of the day.  A schedule planned with balanced activities such as study, practising sports, hobbies, sleep and break is the appropriate schedule. One must not just sit at one place and study for hours together and also one must not spend his entire time in other activities and keep minimum time for daily study. Every activity of a student must be in an appropriate proportion to maintain the balance between academic curriculum and extracurricular activities.

Create a to-Do List

Each one of us has numerous tasks to do on a daily basis. One tends to fail in doing all the tasks either due to lack of time or forgetting by the end of the day. To avoid this one can create a to-do list and list out all the task or activity that has to be done on a particular day and stick it in a place where one spends much of his time. The list can comprise of all activities such as practising football, solving chemistry Q&A, keeping bag ready for next day, colouring or painting etc. One can finish a task and check the list for the next one. This helps in accomplishing the task soon and also one will not forget the things. This technique is helpful if one adheres and sticks to the tasks assigned in the list. Otherwise following this method is not useful and creating a list is a waste of time.

Work on Priority Tasks

We all face a day where a pile of tasks are lined up and we feel confused about which one to do first. One can solve this problem by prioritising the task. Check out the deadline for all the tasks and finish those tasks which are nearing the timeline. Tasks that consume more time and effort has to be taken into account first as the smaller tasks can be accomplished easily while doing other tasks. One can also reduce the leisure time such as reading novels or other activities and finish the incomplete task at this stage.

Then and There Rule

It is human nature of procrastinating our tasks and things at that moment. One feels that this task is not that important and can be done later. But later one ends up forgetting that and at the last minute in a rush, we just finish it as soon as possible. By doing this the quality of the task is not maintained. The task might be a smaller one but in the end, it consumes more time than ever. One must try to finish the task on the assigned day itself or at least one has to remember that there exists a pending task. The task can be either solving physics questions of the chapter taught on that day or keeping the sports kit ready for the next day’s sports activity. This ensures that one will not be in a hurry and perform the task peacefully.

Flexible Schedule

The timetable scheduled for the day or a week must be in such a way that it must have at least a few hours of backup. Some things are not certain and one cannot stick to the routine always. So one has to have a few hours of backup to fulfil the hours lost due to uncertain things. This kind of trading time can be like extending a few hours at night for studying or waking up early in the morning. One can also reduce the hobby time and use this time for priority tasks.

The study schedule is the prime and vital rule for studying efficiently. But sticking and maintaining the schedule on daily basis yields good results than just creating it. One must ensure that all the tasks are completed, all activities that are important are given enough time and long study hours such as four hours at stretch is avoided. Taking regular breaks in between also plays an important role. As well all know that all work no play makes jack a dull boy. Hence the breaks can be of playing an instrument, a power nap, a walk in the garden and so on.