How to organize your study time in 12 steps
Several tips and tricks to organize your time to study in the best possible way.
Many students, especially in times of exams and exam papers, ask themselves how to organize their study time in the best way possible. how to organize their study time better.
Everyone assumes that improving one's study plan is synonymous with better academic performance, but few manage to apply it in their daily lives.
That is why this article, in addition to helping those students who find it more difficult to pass exams, serves as an assessment of time and its importance when it comes to dealing with the educational curriculum.
The importance of proper time management
It is known by all that, ideally, it is to organize the day in three strips of 8 hours each one.8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work/study and 8 hours of leisure. However, this magic rule of the three eights is very difficult to fulfill in practice.
That is why it is of vital importance to organize the time we dedicate to our obligations, and in this case, to study, whether it is for exams or to write a paper that is due.
Although students, unlike workers, have a certain advantage because they have some freedom to organize their time, this is sometimes more of a problem than a help. As we grow older, the timetables of study centers are more variable.A clear example of this is the university, where there are morning and afternoon shifts.
The organization of study time is the responsibility of each individual. The problem for many is that, despite having plenty of time for it, they have acquired bad study habits. This is why, especially in high school and university, the exams and the time of exams and deliveries is experienced in a very anxious way.. Without a good study plan, test results are negatively affected.
How to organize your study time?
In order to perform in the best way in the exams and have the best possible score, it is necessary to have a meticulous study plan, properly organizing the time devoted to each topic of each subject. Here are some tips to help you organize your study time better.
1. Have a calendar
This tip, which is perhaps the most basic, is of vital importance to get an idea of how much time is left before facing the dreaded test or handing in a paper. Having a calendar, whether digital or on paper, is the tool that can help the student the most.
Not only exams or deliveries can be recorded in it, but also other events and make us aware of them, other events can also be noted and made aware of them, such as extracurricular activities, appointments or other chores.such as extracurricular activities, appointments or other chores.
2. Create a study routine
Once you have started, it is very important to establish a study routine, preferably daily. Everyone has their own biorhythms and, therefore, some people are more productive in the morning while others are more productive in the afternoon or even in the evening.
Whatever time you are most productive, you should try to study every day starting at the same time of day.This gets your body used to getting down to work every day.
Like any habit, studying is a matter of carrying it out until it becomes automatic. Once it is done almost instinctively, it will not be so tiresome and unmotivating.
3. Prioritize objectives and avoid multitasking
There are tasks that have to be accomplished before others, and should therefore be given higher priority.. This may be because the deadline or exam date is approaching.
It must be understood that, although human beings can carry out more than one task at a time, when it comes to studying, this is not at all advisable.
For example, trying to study mathematics and language at the same time is very complicated, since both subjects require a high degree of concentration and, if you switch from one to the other constantly, you will not be able to assimilate the subject matter, you won't be able to assimilate the syllabus..
4. Set realistic short and long term goals
A main objective can be to pass a competitive examination, but, this big goal has to be broken down so that it can be achieved..
A good way to achieve this is to keep in mind how many subjects must be studied, and how many are the subjects that constitute them. Once you have this in mind, you can set more realistic goals, both in the short and long term.
For example, if you have three months to study 40 subjects, a good way to approach them is to take care of learning 4 each week. Thus, each month you will have about a third of the entire syllabus, meeting the ultimate goal of seeing the entire syllabus.
5. Plan breaks and leisure time
Studying is good, but doing it constantly leads to inevitable exhaustion.. Everyone needs to rest and disconnect by having fun. However, these breaks can be very risky, making you decide to stop studying and put it off until the next day.
Therefore, in the same way that you plan the hours at which you open the lirbo, you should decide when to take a break, and that it should always last the same length of time.
6. Willpower
The attitude with which you approach your studies is essential if you want to succeed. if you want to succeed. Motivation when studying and willpower are aspects that influence the way we learn.
If it is seen as something tedious and boring, it will always be seen as something undesirable and you will not be able to acquire the habit of studying properly.
7. Plan ahead
You will only succeed if you are well prepared, which is why it is so important to plan ahead for your study session.
Whether studying at home or going to the library, you should prepare all the material well in advance, you should prepare all the material well in advance.It is also advisable to write down on a piece of paper what you are going to study, preferably the day before, since this will avoid improvising at the last minute and forgetting an important note or book.
It is also advisable to write down on a piece of paper what you are going to study. You may think you have a good memory, but if you write down what you should do, you will make sure you do not forget anything..
8. Study in the right space
The place where you study can be a source of concentration or, on the other hand, an environment full of distractions.
But the most suitable place will always be the library, preferably alone.. If you decide to study with friends, you should make a joint effort and not entertain each other.
9. Avoid interruptions
If you decide to study at home, beware of interruptions from family members or roommates.In addition, make sure to have the cell phone on silent or, better, turned off.
Also, in case of studying with a computer, avoid social networks or pages that may involve some kind of entertainment.
If you listen to music, it is best to choose either ambient sound, such as rain with thunder, or melodic music, rather than sung. If it is a song, you may run the risk of being more aware of what is being sung.
10. Coherence in the distribution of tasks
Not all subjects require the same study time, given their different difficulty and extension. It may also be the case that one subject is more difficult for you.
First, you should classify the subjects according to their difficultyThe time to devote to the more difficult ones should be decided and the easier ones should be left for the end of the day or week.
The time to dedicate to each subject will depend on the proximity of the dates of examination or delivery.
11. Going from more complex to simpler subjects
The brain, as with muscles, becomes fatigued after an activity. That is why it is better to go downhill, from the most strenuous to the least, since doing it the other way around runs a greater risk of not making it to the end.
If you are a person who is productive in the morning as well as in the evening, the best thing to do is to stop working out, the best thing to do is to leave the hard stuff for the beginning of the day and the easy stuff for the and the easy stuff for before bedtime.
If this is not the case and you are more productive at certain times of the day, the best thing to do is to start with the more complicated topics and leave the easier ones for the end of the session.
12. Review, review, review and review
And, of course, the final tip of this article is to review again and again what you have studied.
Reviewing is not only useful to consolidate new knowledgeIt also makes you more aware of its details and, if there are any, to detect possible mistakes that may have been made when preparing the notes.
Bibliographical references:
- Ausubel, D. P. (2002). Acquisition and retention of knowledge. A cognitive perspective. Barcelona: Paidós.
- Martín, E. & Onrubia, J. (Coords.) (2011). Orientación educativa y procesos de innovación y mejora de la enseñanza. Barcelona: Graó.
- Mayer, R.E. (2002). Educational psychology: learning in the subject areas. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)