Short-term and Long-term Planning
- General Expectations
- Short-Term Planning
- Long-Term Planning
- Your Daily Planner
- Keys to Successful Time Management
The schedule of a university student varies from week to week and day to day. With little structure and a lot of independence, it can be difficult to know how to balance all the parts of your life: school, work, family, friends, sports, volunteering, and more.
Many university students quickly learn the paradox of time management: the more time you have available, the more difficult it is to manage your time.
By developing good time management strategies, you can work to define and achieve your goals, reduce your stress, and improve your marks!
General Expectations
Short Term Planning
Short term planning involves creating a weekly schedule that allows you to complete your work. Creating a 24-hour schedule is an excellent way to start your planning; it helps to create structure to your days and illustrates how you use your time and how much time you have available. A 24-hour schedule sounds daunting, but it allows you to be flexible and to work at times which suit you best, whether you prefer the moonlight or early morning sun for study. Download a blank template to make your own schedule.
How to Create a 24/7 schedule
- Block off all of your class, seminar, and lab times. Consider time getting to and from classes if you have to commute or take public transit.
- Block off your paid work hours, volunteer commitments, training schedule, or program placement.
- Block off times for sleeping, eating, exercise, household tasks, and socializing. If you know you will be spending Friday nights out with friends, block it off – don’t try to plan to do work at a time when it is unlikely to happen. (Also consider how early you will rise the following Saturday.)
- Read the syllabus for each course and identify the weekly workload. Estimate the time you need to complete readings or practice questions, to review, or to do an online quiz. Expect to spend two to four hours per week per course for these tasks, which can be in one large block or in a few smaller blocks of time (for example, you might find it easier to focus on your psychology text book if you read it in a few 45-minute blocks instead of a 3-hour slog). Enter blocks of time for this work where there is time available (and when you are likely to do the work) in your schedule.
- Schedule in “major assignment” time each week; this may vary based on your course requirements, but many students find they need 8-10 hours weekly for research, writing, and preparation for essays, labs, projects, or exams. Each week, you can decide which major assignments you need to focus on based on your long term planning.
Two approaches
To-Do Lists
To plan your week, day, or work period, to-do lists can be a great tool. First, take an inventory of tasks by making one big "empty the junk drawer" list. Next, prioritize and map out tasks for different days of the week. A to-do list can quickly become long and overwhelming, so download a blank template (Word doc) to try and consider the tips below to help you make a doable to-do list!
Tips for Making Your To-Do List
- When prioritizing your tasks, consider urgency and importance as well as "need-to" and "want-to" tasks. Aim for a balance to help you find sustainable progress and avoid losing focus and burning out.
- Try your best to be honest and realistic to keep your list achievable. Overestimating the time a task takes to complete can help you build in buffer time.
- Consider when you typically feel most energized during the day; try working on your toughest task at that time. For some of us, that means starting with a challenging task to get it out of the way whereas others prefer starting with a low effort-task (an "easy win"!) to spark motivation.
- If feeling overwhelmed and having trouble starting, break down tasks into small, specific steps. For example, instead of "write essay", try "read instructions, choose topic, find 3 sources".
- Consider tasks that enhance your own wellbeing and include them on your list: going for a walk, enjoying a snack, cleaning your space, etc.
Long-Term Planning
In addition to having a weekly schedule, it is essential to create a long term plan that will allow you to know when your major assignments are due and whether you have crunch periods during which you have many assignments due at once. A 4-Month Planner can be an excellent tool to use; it allows you to see all the months of a term without turning a page or changing screens.
You can download a term-at-a-glance calendar or use a four-month wall calendar, whichever is more convenient for you.
Using a Term-at-Glance Calendar Effectively
- Go through the course outline for each class and carefully note all assignment due dates and exams. Put these dates onto your 4-month calendar. You can use a different colour for each course if this helps. Keep this calendar in plain view for quick reference.
- Be sure to include important birthdays and planned trips home as you often need to work around them.
- Identify your “crunch times,” periods when you have multiple assignments or exams. Plan for these times by deciding when you need to start each assignment in order to get it done in time.
- Don’t forget to note Reading Week in your calendar; it’s a great time to catch up or get ahead!
- Make intermediate deadlines for different stages of each assignment and put these on your calendar. You can determine your intermediate deadlines (or mini deadlines) by following our steps for Assignment Analysis.
- Remember that learning to make and follow a plan takes time. Be flexible. If a week looks full, try to move some work to an earlier week. Don't worry if you need to adjust your calendars a few times. That's part of the trial-by-error process, and it's useful.
Assignment Analysis
In the example below, the assignment is broken into specific tasks and these tasks are spread out over the course of 18 days. This breakdown allows a student to approach the assignment thoughtfully and provides them to complete work for other courses without the stress of completing the assignment. You can download a template to help you with this task.
Assignment |
Step/Task |
Estimated time to complete |
Complete task by |
---|---|---|---|
Research Paper: 6-8 pages min. 6 sources Due Oct 10
|
Read assignment instructions Select a topic Brainstorm ideas |
0.5 – 1 hr |
Sept 22 |
Preliminary research
|
1-2 hrs |
Sept 22 |
|
Research Questions Working Thesis Question |
0.5-1hr |
Sept 24 |
|
Research Find Sources Read Sources Take notes |
6-10 hrs
|
Start Sept 24 Finish Sept 30 |
|
Thesis & Outline |
0.5-1 hr |
Oct 1 |
|
First Draft |
6-10 hrs |
Start Oct 1 Finish Oct 6 |
|
Revise (second draft) |
2-3 hrs |
Oct 7 |
|
Edit (third draft) Proofread |
2 hrs |
Oct 9 |
|
Submit/Deadline |
|
Oct 10 |
Your Daily Planner
The final step in your time management process is to record all of the critical information in your daily planner or in daily to-do lists. Referring to your 24/7 schedule to identify blocks of time for school work and using your deadlines and mini-deadlines to prioritize your work, you can effectively plan your week and your day to keep up with your readings, stay on track with essays and assignments, and maintain your personal interests and social life.You may wish to use a planner you buy, a calendar application you like, or you can download this two week planner.
Sample To-Do List
|
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
---|---|---|---|
Academic |
ERS pre-lab (1 hr) IDST read chp 4 (2 hrs) HIST find 4 articles for research paper (1-2 hrs) |
HIST read/sum 1 article & create citations (1.5 hrs) GEO outline & draft 2 pgs (2.5 hrs) |
ERS data analysis (2 hrs) GEO draft 3 pgs (2 hrs) POST read chap 3 (2.5 hrs) |
Life |
Laundry Gym |
Work 4-8pm Groceries |
Call home Gym |
Make time to manage your time: Plan your week on the same day every week
Tips for Planning Your Work Week
- Use your time wisely: don't plan to spend too long on one task. Establish a comfortable time span during which you can focus. Take lots of small breaks to re-energize.
- Vary your tasks: don't spend all night just reading or just writing. Do some research, some thinking, some editing.
- Plan your tasks so that you blend more enjoyable tasks with less pleasant ones. Don't leave all the things you don't want to do until the end.
- Consider your habits. If you are not normally at your best first thing in the morning, schedule an activity that is more active or that you are motivated to do (perhaps you enjoy reading for History or writing essays for ERS – do this at times when it might be difficult to convince yourself to tackle readings for Philosophy or Chemistry).
- Reward yourself for staying on track, but also take time to re-assess if you think things are derailing.