Students usually have a rough time when final exams approach. It is so stressful that some even named the time before finals as dead week. It might almost seem impossible to have a study – life balance when tests are near and there’s a lot of studying to do. Time management is essential and can prevent a stressful crisis, if handled as it should be. The easiest way to prevent stress related to study time is to grab a printable time and schedule. Scheduling can be done using tool like printable calendar.
Scheduling can have spectacular results if you follow your own guidelines for the calendar. You can have enough time to study, eight hours of sleep and as little stress as possible. Below you can find the steps you can take to master your time and schedule study hours to avoid any unexpected surprises.
Contents
Grab your tools
You need a few tools to successfully plan your time. Start out with a pen and paper. Then, print out a paper calendar for the next months. According to Calendar Table, simple designs are most efficient as they only outline the weekends, for easier time scheduling. Find such a calendar and make a test by printing a blank calendar for July 2018.
The calendar provides you with enough room for important notes but doesn’t allow you to mark unimportant and irrelevant to-dos. If you have things to do aside from learning, you can prioritize and eliminate some of them following the Eisenhower scheme:
- Important and urgent: Everything you’ve postponed until the last moment. They are usually tasks with immediate effects.
- Important but not urgent: Things to do with long term effects which you’ve postponed. You don’t need to complete them, but once you do, they come with benefits.
- Urgent but not important: Things that prevent you from achieving your goals. They are usually administrative responsibilities that you need to handle, such as fixing a home appliance you barely use.
- Not urgent and not important: Distractions, such as chatting or playing specific games with daily or monthly targets. They have become rituals in your life but are not necessary when you have work to do.
Research into your own life
They say that lists are helpful whenever everything else fails. Lists are popular for a reason – to help you prioritize tasks easier. Make a list of everything you regularly do and what you usually do before exams and eliminate excess. There are rituals and activities – such as the gym – which cannot be postponed.
Also make a list of the subjects you must study for and compare the two. Such a task will help you analyze which of your own activities you can postpone, and which are mandatory.
Schedule the calendar
Scheduling your time in the printable calendar is the key step in study organizing. Remember that your purpose is to work on all exams without time pressure and stress. According to a study, scheduling diminishes leisure activities by making them seem like work-related tasks. You can set up an entire day or two for relaxation to avoid such a downside.
Moreover, you should also leave out time for family events and hobbies. When splitting the remaining time for study, remember that you cannot fully cover a full day. Leave time for breaks to minimize procrastination.
Your brain is more agile when it focuses on related subjects as it finds similarities between information. Arrange study time so you can focus on topics and information that relate to each other. Don’t schedule chemistry after music or fundamentally different topics and your brain will perceive the information as requesting higher effort.
Technology is also on your side. You can use the printable calendar together with your tablet and create alarms when time is up. Feel free to explore ways to study faster or find answers aided by technology. You can even back-up your notes by taking a photo of the calendar and keeping it in your smartphone. If any trips come up, you can consult the calendar and provide your friends or family with a quick answer.
Evaluate and improve
You can test out time management by scheduling work for a project or the spring or autumn exams. However, keep copies of calendars you’ve used and try to improve your approach towards time. If you notice that studying in the morning was more efficient in the past month, wake up an hour earlier. However, when adjusting your future calendar, make sure you keep it realistic. Don’t exaggerate on minimizing study or leisure time.
Remember that mindset tightly connects to the psychological satisfaction you get after seeing the results. Acknowledge that you’ve began scheduling your study time to successfully complete it. By eliminating failure, you also eliminate any risk of having to edit the calendar.
Wrapping Up Time
The printable calendar is a reliable tool which students, employees and even housewives use for time management and improvement. By placing it in a visible area, where you can see it in the morning, you allow yourself to get inspiration for the day and focus on solving the study tasks. Make a coffee ritual out of acknowledging what you must do during the day.
The calendar method is popular among students who want to make the most of their study time without complaining about the dead week. Turn time on your side and maximize its benefits!
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So nice and good app for user easy to use