Applying proper study time management strategies can help you to save time and stress; plus: it will enable you to spend more time on your hobbies and spare-time activities. Furthermore, it will help you to empower your study efforts as you will be able to spend more time on important subjects. Study time management definition: Study time management is the process of applying skills and techniques to save time, study efficient, set aims and reach study-goals effectively. Students that apply study time management will be able to beat procrastination and focus their full attention on their studies, which will finally allow them to spend more time with leisure activities.
Time management for students:
In the following, you will be presented with some effective student time management techniques and student tips on how to study effectively!
1. Prepare a Term Schedule/Calendar: You only have 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week and X hours a term. Effective study time management means that you use your given time in the most efficient way. You will only have one, four or even more hours a day that you can invest in your studies, depending on your leisure activities and if you have a job or not. Therefore it is important to prepare a regularly updated term schedule/calendar, where you:
- write down all your scheduled tests
- write down all tasks, assignments, and duties, if necessary with their due dates
- record your planned leisure activities, such as gym, etc.
2. Get an Organizer: Another useful study time management technique is to have an organizer: This could be your smartphone, a college block or some sort of homework booklet. The easiest way for me is to sort a single paper on top of all others into the ring binder I use during my courses. Now every time you get a task to accomplish you will mark it down in this booklet/paper. You can consider this organizer to be a to-do-list for your studies where you write down everything that needs to get done. After you accomplished the task you can place a √ next to it.
3. Study time management: Take yourself some minutes after coming home from university/college and evaluate the amount of time you can invest in your studies. This is where you start to manage your study time, so I would recommend you to take up to 15 minutes for this! Make sure to include time for studying, completing tasks and assignments, projects, etc.
4. Use the time efficiently: Just as every other student, you will have to accomplish different duties and tasks BESIDES your studies, which means that you need to use the given time as efficient as possible for your studies. Make sure that you do not get interrupted while preparing for exams; not from the TV, music, telephone or anything else. You can get more done within less time by applying power sessions, where you focus all your attention only on your studies.
Definition power session:
A power session is a defined amount of time (from 30 minutes up to one and a half hour) where you focus all your attention on the completion of a specific tasks, your studies, etc. The effectiveness of such a power session lies in the advantage of not being interrupted in any kind of way, may it be emails, internet or anything else.
5. Schedule your time depending on your energy level: Another every important study time management technique is to schedule your time dependent on your personal energy level. Your energy level reaches its peak at approximately 10 am, but is very low during the time from 2 pm to 4 pm.
A lot of students are very productive in the morning, so it could be very useful to rise up early (when you are not in university at this time!). Others prefer the evening hours as their most productive part of the day. The only important thing is that you know for yourself on which time-period you can work most efficient and adapt your schedule accordingly to your high-energy periods.
6. Procrastination: One of the biggest obstacles you might face while applying effective study time management is procrastination, which is correlated to discipline. Every student is affected by procrastination once in a while or continuously. The desire to avoid specific tasks comes within boredom, fear or similar concerns. Not getting started will lead to stress and anxiety, which are very negative emotions during your studies. Luckily you can overcome procrastination by applying the following study time management technique: create smaller sub-goals and sub-tasks. You will notice that a subtask will help you to get started with your studies and will get you motivated to do the next tasks as well.
Getting excellent grades can be accomplished by everyone if they apply study time management and integrate careful planning into their everyday life. The above-named student tips on how to study effectively will help you to manage your time more efficient so that you have more leisure time, which is the most important thing during your studies.
What are your most favorite strategies to manage your study time?
This following articles about Time Management in general and how to get motivated to study might also interest you:
The article Study Time Management was brought to you by Planet of Success.
29 Comments
All these articles really, really helped me. It was simple to understand and was also not too complicated to incorporate into my schedule. Really great!
Hi Keerthi, thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you like the articles!
its really helpful.. very hard to apply it in my life bt i wil do it as i m very much struggling for success and i wil achieve my goals daam sure!!
Thank you Dipesh! You have a great attitude and I’m sure you will succeed!
“If you want to succeed as badly as you want to breathe after being one minute under water, then you will succeed.”
Long time since i’be read something influential .. thank you Steve .I will surely follow this
Hi Krutarth, that’s great! Thanks for your feedback and I’m happy that you found the article helpful! Keep it up!
I am still looking fr answers as to why am i procrastinated frm studies frm time to time
Hi sir! I have now come across this article of yours and this one is as wonderful as the others. Sir I want you to give me some really effective tips to avoid procastination and not the reward thing cuz I don’t do things even if I plan rewards for myself but the fact that I get diverted by the fact the other tasks are more pleasurable than studying is true for me! I hope I can get some help!
You say you want some really effective tips to avoid procrastination. I will give you these tips in the following, and thereafter I will give you the one tip that stands above them all.
Your main issue sounds like that you are highly distracted and as a result of this you start to procrastinate. Obviously, the solution to this is to get rid of all these distractions in the first place. This means that you will have to look at your study environment and to cleanse it from distractions. Some students of course go for this reason into the library, where they can study in silence and are not allowed to talk or use their mobile phones. If this is not possible for you, make sure to lock away your mobile phone the remote control to your television and whatever else that could possibly distracts you during studying. What you want to achieve is the state where it is nothing that could distract you. This means that even if you want to procrastinate, even if you want to watch television, there is no chance for you to do so. Because there should be nothing else in your study room but your study materials. So if you find yourself in such a situation where you are basically locked up in a room without anything else to do, studying with seem like a good thing to do after a while. After some time you will become used to this kind of situation and becoming concentrated will work much easier for you.
But here is the one and only tip that can have the biggest effect on your ability to concentrate and to avoid procrastination: learn to control your mind. The mind is like a muscle, you have to train it and control it, otherwise it will just do whatever it wants. In your case, it just decides that it wants to watch television so it forces you to do so. Being able to control your mind and your thoughts is of course not easy. But I would recommend is to pick up meditation, which is the most effective way of learning to control your thoughts.
Another idea that I have is the recommendation that you should try to strengthen your willpower. This means that you will have to learn to say no to whatever distracting thought that comes up. It means that you keep studying, even if your mind wishes to watch television or to procrastinate. We have to get into this mindset where you are stronger than your thoughts and urges. This will take a lot of willpower of course, but it is highly Rewarding.
I hope this helps you so far, but feel free to ask further questions.
the third soloution to this is that find a part that you enjoy doing because I was a math student for me it reading the notes and rewriting them and reproving them then you can go to the bit you donot like i.e. this problem you just can’t understand
Absolutely correct. This is the best way of doing things.
Thanks a lot sir! I promise to keep my cell phone and the remote locked in a cupboard nd myself locked up in a room with no distractions! Meditation and others too! I will try my best! Thanks a lot once again sir!:)
No problem at all, and you will make it. Have faith in yourself and your abilities and most important of all: never give up.
I came across this particular article on effective time management at work. This is ideal for professionals who do not feel contented and happy at work. Follow these tips, to attain better work lifd.
Thank u for posting this it will surely change my work load thank u thank u please reply me on this email
You’re welcome.
iam nt being able to study,i get restless,i feel like i cant study,iam useless pls help me
Have you tried meditation?
Hello,
Thank you so much for all these amazing articles. I’ve read them thoroughly and would start applying most of what has been suggested,
and I do hope I succeed in it!
Also, I have a suggestion regarding the same. This was suggested by our psychology professor who advised us to maintain a notebook or a register where in we record everything we do. For instance from what to what time we invested in a subject and what did we actually learn in the time frame.
A friend of mine and I tried doing the same, and we found it to be somewhat helpful. One get’s conscious about how time is being wasted or utilized!
I hope this helps!
Thank You,
Rhythm
You are very wellcome. I’m glad that I could help.
Thanks a lot for your suggestion, it is excellent. Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? I think such a notebook helps you to realize would what kind of your efforts you accomplish the most.
Hello Sir. I m a big fan of your articles and your advices have always been of certain help to me, I got it from you the last time and everyone time I would procrastinate I would think about it all and it saved me so thanks a lot for that first of all. But this time I have a bigger stranger problem this time. I have been in India since birth and now I have shifted to US its a lot different here I mean I m not able to cope with it all which has resulted into me not being able to focus on my studies that much. What should I do maybe to get out of it all and focus better on studying? Thank you in advance 🙂
First of all, don’t worry. What you are experiencing is a culture shock. The Indian culture is so much different than the American one. Take yourself the necessary time you need to adapt. Maybe it can help you by finding an Indian meeting group somewhere around where you live. These Indians could give you the necessary support that allows you to better integrate into the new society. Plus you’ll find some new friends.
But regarding the concentration issue, try to not allow your environment to distract you. Basically, you would have to find once more the right environment that allows you to focus and concentrate. This might be at the moment extremely difficult, as your familiar environment is so far away. But try to accept the challenge, I’m sure you will quickly adapt. This process however, takes time and your willingness to make the best of it.
Put a special focus on improving your concentration and most important of all: try to eliminate all kinds of distractions in your new environment. This will help you to a certain degree to get rid of obtrusive and distractive thoughts.
well done 😊
Thanks!
I m really thankful sir for ur tips, bt sir i have some more tips, because i m a medical student n i lives in hostel i m nt able to concentrate on my study, because of this i had failed in my university exams, what should i do?
I think the following article is really interesting for you: How to Focus on Studying.
Great article! Lots of useful info. I spend a lot of time studying but I end up studying quite little. Looking forward to use power sessions to be more efficient. Thanks for the help!
Thank you, sir! I tried it, but it doesn’t work for me. I need more advice.
Dear planetofsuccess,
Thank you so much for this article. This article was very helpful for me not only me for everyone. Those students want to manage their effective time. it’s totally helpful for everyone. You shared very well. I learn many things from this article.
“Thank you so much for listening to me.”