Study Planners

What Works For You?

It is important to think about what works for you, just because the research says that particular strategies are effective it doesn't guarantee that they will help you. That's why there are a few suggestions below that you might try. Even combinations of planners might work best for you. After all, we are all different, we all learn in different ways and have different needs and that's okay. Interestingly, what works for you now might not work for you in a few years, so keep learning about learning -this is always time well spent. If you have struggled with planners and diaries before, take some risks and try some alternatives, if you find none of the planners on this page work for you, see Mr (Library) Jones in the library and we will find some more alternatives for you to try, we can also support you while you work through the testing process.

The Year Planner

It can really help to keep an eye on the big picture. Assessment tasks, family and friends' birthdays, holidays, and special events. Here are some options for you to choose a Year Planner with 2024 NSW school dates. These do not replace a diary, they are great for printing and sticking on a wall near your home study area, then you can look and see the term at a glance; knowing when you have events during the term helps you avoid surprises and can even reduce anxiety around your commitments.

Below are three options for you:

(Source: NSW Department of Education)

Weekly Study Planner

Managing your home learning time doesn’t have to be overwhelming; with some planning and structure, you can feel in charge of own your time, live a balanced life, and stay on top of your work. And it pays off: studies have shown that students who plan their time were more efficient in allocating their individual study time, prepared more appropriately for classes, and achieved higher scores on cognitive tests (Van den Hurk, 2006). Either each week write a new one or have a standard version that you adapt to accommodate new goals as they arise.

Download your own copy of the Weekly Study Planner:

Click here for a PDF Weekly Planner 

Click here for a Word Doc Weekly Planner (can be edited to suit your needs)

Tips On Planning Your Planner

• Mark and label time slots already committed, eg. employment, sports, chores, and commitments.

• For each class, create a weekly to-do list, estimating how much time to allow for each reading, assignments and study prep. Insert these tasks into open slots in your planner, building in buffer time.

• Use colour to differentiate classes and activities visually.

• Reduce your tasks to manageable steps or segments, rather than doing assignments in long sessions.

• Know when and where you work best. Plan for your hardest studying when you are most alert.

• Maximise breaks in your schedule. Set a timer to remind take a quick break after 25min for 5min. Incorporate movement or exercise into your breaks to help you stay focused during study time.

• Strive for balance. Schedule time for self-care (exercise, meditation, etc.) and free time if you want it.

• Adjust your plan as needed. Unexpected events happen, be flexible and creative to prevent derailing. If your schedule gets thrown off, readjust as best you can, be realistic and kind to yourself.

• Plan mini and bigger ‘rewards’ for yourself when you stick to your schedule.

• Set a healthy stopping time at night. Sleep deprivation affects attention, cognition, and memory. 

Three Steps to Powering Up Your Weekly Planner

2. Distributed Practice For Revision

When it comes to revising your learning as a part of general good study practice, or when revising for exams, rather than cramming all of your revision for each subject into one block, it’s better to space it out – from now, through to the exams. Why is this better? Bizarrely, because it gives you some forgetting time. 

3. Distributed Practice and Interleaving for Revision 

The two concepts of distributed practice and Interleaving are similar but essentially distributed practice is revision throughout the course, whereas interleaving is switching between ideas while you study. Although interleaving and distributed practice are different interventions, the two are linked because interleaving inherently introduces distributed practice. 

When you are revising a subject, the temptation is to do it in ‘blocks’ of topics. Like below:

The problem with this is, is that it doesn’t support the importance of repetition – which is so important to learning. So rather than revising in ‘topic blocks’ during a study session, it’s better to chunk these topics up in your revision program and interleave them (Curtis-Brignell, 2021):

Managing Your Priorities and Expectations Within Study Blocks

Okay, you have a lovely and helpful study planner that breaks down your available time into blocks. Some people find it helpful to break it down further, even if you just read this once it is worth it to understand the principles of managing blocks of time. Here are two options that might help you: 

1. Must-Do, Should-Do & Could-Do.

Within a study block, break down what your tasks are using the categories of Must-Do, Should-Do and Could-Do. Decide which column to list each item by considering due dates, difficulty of task, length of time needed to complete task, etc.. You can't realistically put everything in Must-Do, rarely do you have the time to do everything and you can set yourself up for negative self-judgement when you always fail your goals; so be realistic, celebrate your victories. 

To download a copy of the Must-Do, Should-Do, Could-Do planner click here.

Below is a summary of many of these study techniques in a video:

More Structured Daily Homework Planner

Would it help you to work with a planner where a parent or teacher checks in with? The following daily homework planner reminds you to check if you have everything you need to do your homework and more. Download the Daily Homework Planner authors' website. It was created by Dr P. Dawson and Dr R. Guare, authors of Smart but Scattered. There are strategies in this sheet that would help any student improve their organisation.

References

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2021). Smart but Scattered. https://www.smartbutscatteredkids.com/

Curtis-Brignell, J. (2021). Improving Learning Through Effective Study Skills. Thomas Tallis School, https://www.thomastallisschool.com/uploads/2/2/8/7/2287089/improving_learning_through_effective_study_skills_and_revision.pdf

Van den Hurk, M. (2006). The relation between self-regulated strategies and individual study time, prepared participation and achievement in a problem-based curriculum. Active Learning in Higher Education, 7, 155-169. 

NSW Department of Education (2021). Calandars. https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/calendars#tabs0

Content on this page is in part copied or adapted from the following sources: The Learning Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/using-planners/). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.