How To Plan Your Day For Studying
Let’s say that there is one last piece of chocolate that you and your sibling really like. You already know where this is going if you have a sibling😃. Assuming that there are no rules like “the older one (or the younger one) gets it ” you have to decide who gets the last piece.
I mean, sure, you can just split it in half but then you are losing half of the chocolate you really like so that option is a no-go. After some back and forth, you realize that both of you have a test on the same day.
Who gets the better score, gets the last piece of chocolate, right? Game on!
You really want to win so you decide to take this seriously and prepare a schedule.
Just one problem.
You have never done that before and don’t know the optimal strategy.
So, what are you supposed to do, and how to make a good schedule?
If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, just go and buy another chocolate. But, if you want to learn how to properly plan your day for studying, I got you covered. First, let’s decide the material (or if there is one material, which part) you are going to study.
I group the material I study into 3 categories:
- What I have to study
- What I want to study
- What is easy to study
What I have to study
This is the part I know is important and the best thing I could be studying right now. If you decide on a time to study and are full of energy (let’s say have enough energy, who is full of energy when they have to study), this is the material to go through.
What I want to study
If I don’t feel like studying the most important parts or have low energy, I would choose the part I want to study. Even if I had to skip some material, I would still do it. Sometimes, I find that I can’t understand something in the material because I didn’t read the important parts and skipped them.
That is often enough to give me the motivation to go back and study what I skipped. If that does not happen, I continue to study the material I want and leave the important part for the next time.
What is easy to study
If I don’t feel like studying at all or am too sleepy to study, I pick what I know will be easy. The material that goes in this category is mostly one that I have already studied before and have a good understanding of.
Notice that no matter how I feel or how low my energy gets, if I commit to studying then I will go through with it.
* * * * *
Now that you figured out what to study (if you didn’t then go and do it now, I will wait), the next question to answer is when to study. When it comes to the time for studying, there are usually only two answers:
- I am a morning person so I like to study in the morning
- I am an evening person so I like to study in the evening
If you know which type you are then you don’t need to do anything, and if you don’t know, test yourself to see if you study better in the morning or in the evening.
Now, here comes the most controversial part of this lesson:
It does not matter whether you are a morning or an evening person, the most important thing is that you know when you are better focused.
I can already hear the question: Is that not the same thing?
No, it isn’t. If you give yourself the label that you are a morning person, you will not do any studying in the evening. Thoughts like “It would be better to study in the morning because I am a morning person” are just excuses.
I would know since I used that excuse for the better part of my life.
I barely ever studied in the evenings, and that was only at the times I had to. Sometimes, I would rather wake up two hours early, and study in the morning than study in the evening. And, the worst of all, if I woke up later than I wanted to, my whole day would be a mess.
Although, I think my situation is just about the worst-case scenario (I hope that it does not get much worse), just doing one of the things I did is already enough to hinder your studying.
The best way to get rid of these bad habits is to think that you study better in the morning, and not that you are a morning person. That way you acknowledge that your mornings are better for you, but you could still make use of your evenings.
I can comment on some of the struggles as a morning person, but since I am not an evening person I can’t say much about them. The one thing that comes to mind is that they would study the whole night instead of sleeping, so if this is you go to bed and sleep.
Sleeping is far more important than anything you could learn in the middle of the night.
Now that you know when you have the best concentration it’s time to decide what to study during that time. The most logical thing is to study the hardest material during the time you are the most focused (or “what I have to study” material). During the time you are less focused, pick something from “What I want to study” and “What is easy to study” material.
If your focus is the same around the whole day I would recommend starting with the hardest thing first. For those who have the best focus in the evening, there might be a bit of a dilemma here.
If you study the easier material in the morning, you might lose energy for your evening study session and miss out on the important parts. So, you could try to study the harder material in the morning and see how it goes.
At the end of the day, no matter when or what you study, the most important thing is that you learn what you are studying. So try to experiment and see what happens.
There is just one last thing I have to mention. If you are going to schedule your studying, do it at least the day before studying. That way, when you wake up you already know what to do, and don’t have to spend time planning what to study.
* * * * *
If you think that you now have a chance at winning that chocolate, think again. You just know how to schedule your study sessions (which is still a great place to start). The next step is to learn how to focus for a longer period of time. A great place to start is to use the Pomodoro technique.
What if you have already mastered the Pomodoro technique, but are still not able to focus?
Good question. Even if you split your studying into 25-minute sessions and decide to focus solely on studying, it does not mean you are going to stay focused the whole time.
There are always going to be some distractions so how do you avoid those?
And even worse, what if your sibling wants to sabotage you so you don’t get to study and increase his chances of getting the chocolate?
To make sure that doesn’t happen you have to learn how to get rid of as much distraction as possible.
Remember:
Split the material you study into 3 categories:
- What I have to study
- What I want to study
- What is easy to study
Study the hardest material when you have the best focus and leave easier parts for the time your focus is slipping.
Experiment to see when you are the most focused by trying to study at different times.
Schedule your studying at least one day before, and not the day of the studying.
