Make an effective study timetable and do more in less time

An effective study timetable streamlines the study hours and allows you to be more productive. It helps you get more studies done in the allotted time.

An effective study timetable makes studies a habit that get baked into your daily routine. It also gives you an immense amount of satisfaction at the end of the day for having got some tangible progress in studies.

Best of all, an effective study timetable is not only easy to plan and execute but very inexpensive to go along with.

I will teach you easy steps that you can follow to plan and put together an effective study timetable that you will be able to follow with ease.

Calculate the spare hours at your disposal

How many spare hours do you have at your disposal to include in your study timetable? Before you chalk out your timetable, you will need to make a bucket list of items on your plate on a typical day. This list essentially is a list of items you do every day or on most days. This list will read something like this

1. Sleep
2. School
3. Daily rituals (Brushing teeth, Breakfast, Dinner, Freshening up in the evening, etc)
4. Sports / Playtime
5. Watering the plants
6. Morning Exercise / Yoga
7. Walking the pets
8. …..and so on

The next thing you will do is assign the number of hours for each item in the above list. This assignment can be in multiples of 30 minutes. The numbers are ballpark and need not be very very accurate. Your list will now resemble something like this

1. Sleep                                             7 hours
2. School                                           8 hours
3. Daily rituals                                 2 hours
4. Sports / Playtime                         1 hour 30 minutes
5. Watering the plants                    30 minutes
6. Morning Exercise / Yoga            30 minutes
7. Walking the pets                          30 minutes
8. …..and so on  

Totaling the time will tell you how many hours of your day are already occupied. In the example above, 20 hours in a day are occupied.

This exercise will make two things clear

1. How many free hours do you have, that can be allocated for studies?
2. If you need more time for studies, what existing items can I curtail?

Determine the best time to study

Studying is a very personal matter. Different individuals study most effectively at different times. Some find morning study extremely effective. Others are at the best of their study abilities during the evenings. 

Some of us can stretch our study times for 3 hours and more in a single sitting. Others might have difficulty staying in study more for longer than 1 hour during one sitting.

Be aware of your body and mind. Creating an effective study timetable will need you to identify the best times that suit you. What works well for your best buddy might not work for you at all.

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Design the study timetable

A timetable should be designed to meet 4 requirements

1. It must take into account the spare hours you have.
2. It must fit into your ideal study time.
3. Study slots and breaks must conform to your abilities
4. Last, but most importantly, it must motivate you to study.

For starters, I recommend a simple timetable that distributes your time across the different subjects fairly uniformly.

Adjust and readjust till the study timetable fits you like a glove

Persist with this timetable for a week or two. Reallocate the time assigned to various subjects. Stretch study hours by slowly increasing or decreasing the individual slots. Give short breaks to refresh yourself. Don’t force fit yourself to the timetable. The timetable needs to be amended to suit you.

Move heavy subjects upfront in your timetable. That will help get over with the most difficult stuff early on when you are fresh. Keep easy or light subjects towards the end.

Inform your family and friends about your study timetable

Preparing a study timetable isn’t sufficient. You need to put it to practice. Putting your timetable to practice also means roping in your family and friends to support you.

Let your family know about the timetable. Request them to not disturb you during the study hours. Let them know when you have breaks planned. This will go a long way in strengthening your resolve in following the study timetable.

Let your friends too know of your timetable. That way interactions with friends can be pushed into other times. Share your success and failures with the study timetable. They may be inspired by you. They can come up with suggestions of hacks that have worked for them.

Put in place a reward mechanism when you stick to your study timetable

Any study timetable can get monotonous after the initial excitement starts wearing off. To keep going, you will need some kind of motivation and refreshment. That is where a reward system helps. Rewards should prompt you to stick to your slot for the allotted time.  Rewards can be a piece of your favorite dish, a walk you are entitled to take in the garden, a fun time of 10 minutes with your pet…

Getting Study Timetable to work for you

1. Putting together an effective timetable can be a one time task for newbies. However, as you mature, you may want to create a daily study timetable.
2. Creating a study timetable is not sufficient. Getting others to support you in executing it is equally important
3. Initial attempts may fail; do not quit though – as, with any new habit, it does take time – to create an effective study timetable and follow it up without fail. 

Good Luck and do post comments on how the above tips to create an effective study timetable helped you…Happy Studying 🙂

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