How to Stick to a Study Schedule

By Miranda Darling

Trying to study for a final is like going to the gym. You certainly don’t mean to put it off until weeks or months have passed. When you do make it to the gym, you don’t mean to stop going after the first week, or even the first day. Fortunately, with studying it’s a bit easier to cut off the problem at the source and easily change your approach to significantly improve your productiveness–here’s how!

Step 1: Spend no more than 5 minutes creating your study schedule

Surprisingly, one of the easiest ways to procrastinate actually studying is planning how to study. Spend 5 minutes on the following:

• Gauge how much time you have to study for the exam/exams
• Make a list of any topics that could possibly be on the exam, with the more significant topics at the top
• Create a schedule for each exam, which includes 10-30 minute chunks of time dedicated to each topic
• Start studying

The key to success here is to not spend forever planning and prioritizing. You want to hit the books sooner rather than later, so, while having a plan is a important, it’s more important for you to make a plan quickly and then start to execute.

Step 2: Allot times to study that you know are less likely to conflict with other events

Always choose a time to study where a conflict is less likely to come up. If you think someone will ask you to go get food or hang out, or even ask to study with you, pick a different time to study! You’ll be much more likely to actually do it so you don’t have to choose between being social and being studious.

This might mean taking advantage of time between classes, stopping off in public areas to study, or studying while you eat if you have meals you know will be alone.

Try to make things easy on yourself by using your down time to study so you won’t have to sacrifice social opportunities.

Step 3: Set smaller goals and reward yourself

When studying, whether memorizing material or understanding a concept, there must be an attainable goal with measurable progress.

“Be prepared for the exam” is not a real goal. Set smaller goals like memorizing a small set of terms, or being able to solve one type of difficult problem. Be sure the goal is measurable. And then reward yourself for completing your task in any way that brings you satisfaction (ex. spending time with friends, watching an episode of your favorite TV show, going out to eat, etc.)

Studies show that you’ll learn best when you break studying up into small intervals. So don’t feel like you have to sit down and cram knowledge for a marathon, 5-hour session. Even if you have a lot of material to cover, try to break it down into small time slots, with a meal, walk, or other break in between to give you enough time to learn and retain what you’re studying.

Step 4: JUST DO IT

The hardest part is getting started. Just do it! Many times procrastination is a byproduct of feeling overwhelmed. This procrastination will then lead you to get even more overwhelmed, which makes the problem worse. It quickly devolves into a vicious cycle.

When you find yourself dreading studying, just tell yourself you will do it for only 15 minutes and then stop. More often than not, simply getting started leads you to work on far more than you had anticipated. Once you overcome that initial anxiety and start to dig into the topics you need to learn, chances are that it will be much easier to stay focused on the task at hand.

Incorporating these four steps will get your significantly closer to your desired grade! Good luck!

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