How to Master Self-Management Part 2: The Calendar System
If you’ve read the previous article in this series, you now know a foolproof method to prevent your brain from having to remember little pieces of information while trying to study. But time management is much more than having an external source to place information in. It’s also about utilizing your time in a way that allows you to complete everything you need and still have spare time for yourself, your friends, and your family. Throughout this article, you will learn how to more holistically manage your time by integrating methods of time management into your life, specifically those that require the use of a calendar (what I call the Calendar System). And just like in my last article, I recommend using a digital calendar like Apple Calendar or Google Calendar rather than a physical one, because you're more likely to remember to use it.
There are three main strategies that I use for time management with a calendar: (1) Identifying your homework priorities, (2) Blocking time to study, and (3) A few tips and tricks to make calendar usage effective.
Now, before we can discuss any of the above, it’s important that you put any events that have set times into your calendar. Typically, that would entail things like classes, extracurriculars, and appointments. This allows you to know when you’re busy, and when you’re free. This is essential, because once you know when you’re free, you know how much time you have available to dedicate to your studies and personal life.
You now have a semi-filled calendar. But how do you know what to do with that spare time? How do you pick what homework assignment to tackle first? This is where identifying priorities becomes very important.
Identifying priorities requires one to find a balance between the difficulty of the assignment and the deadline of the assignment. Assignments that have a closer deadline or are more difficult to complete are prioritized over assignments that are due far in the future or are less difficult to complete. Therefore, identifying priorities requires you to understand what your weaknesses and strengths are (i.e., what do you find takes you a longer time to study for? What kind of assignments are you quicker at completing because they’re easier for you?). For example, if I have a math test and an English essay due on the same day, I’ll prioritize studying for the math exam, because it takes me longer to study math than to research and write an essay.
Once you’ve identified your strengths and weaknesses, it becomes much easier to decide which tasks should be done in a certain day. But how long will each task take you to complete? While this sounds impossible to know, it is actually quite simple to figure out. Homework is essentially four different types of assignments repeated over and over again in different classes: tests, essays, slideshow presentations, and booklets/practice questions. Odds are, if writing an essay about grammar takes you two hours, then writing an essay about a book will also take you two hours. Finding these patterns within your homework will greatly help you schedule tasks on your calendar. To find these patterns, I would recommend you start a log and see how long certain assignments take you. You don’t need to keep logging assignments forever. I would recommend logging how long assignments take you for a month or two, and by that point, a pattern should be pretty clear. With this log, you now know which subjects are more difficult than others, and how long different types of assignments take you to complete.
It is now time to schedule your studying. This is extremely beneficial, because you always know what you need to be doing, and never spend time in the middle of the day trying to decide what homework to tackle. It also helps with avoiding multitasking (which has been proven to be extremely time-consuming).
If you look back in your calendar, you will see these spots of “free time”. These spots are when you can schedule time for you to complete homework assignments (and, if you read my last article, you would know that all you need to do is pull out your homework list to know what kind of assignments you have on your plate). Because you know which subjects are the easiest and hardest for you, you know approximately how long different types of assignments will take you, and you know the deadline of each assignment, you can now use your best judgment to schedule time for you to study or complete assignments. I will give a hypothetical example to outline what I mean, but it is only through your personal trial and error that you can find the perfect balance of subject difficulty, assignment difficulty, and deadlines.
Scenario
Available time to study: 2 hours per day
Easiest subject: French
Most difficult subject: Biology
Easiest assignment: Worksheet
Most difficult assignment: Exams
Deadlines: Math Exam (due Tuesday in class), Biology Exam (due Thursday in class), French Past Tense Conjugation Worksheet (due Friday in class), Essay (due Friday at 11:59 pm).
Monday: Schedule two hours to study for the math exam
Reason: The exam deadline is close, and I have no other time to study for it.
Tuesday: Schedule one hour to study for the biology exam and schedule one hour to research my English essay
Reason #1: Both biology and exams are difficult for me. The reason I schedule only one hour to study is because I have more than one day to study for it, so I would prefer to spread the studying out than cram it.
Reason #2: I typically research, write, and edit an essay in three different sessions, so I like to get one thing done per day until the deadline arrives. Based on previously determined patterns from my study log, I know that researching for an essay takes me an hour.
Wednesday: Schedule two hours to study for the biology exam
Reason: The exam deadline is close, and biology and exams are difficult for me.
Thursday: Schedule one hour and a half to write my English essay and schedule 30 minutes to complete my French conjugation worksheet
Reason #1: According to my usual patterns, that’s how long it takes me to write an essay.
Reason #2: The worksheet deadline is close BUT since the assignment is easy for me, it won’t take much time.
Friday: Spend one hour editing the essay (and then hand it in!). Chill for the last hour.
Reason: One hour is typically how long it takes me to edit an essay.
Now, while studying is great and beneficial to your academic life, your personal life is equally as important. When it comes to making time for your personal life, I would recommend having one day a week dedicated to yourself. No schoolwork or obligations, just you doing whatever you want to do. For me, this day is typically Sundays, because it lets me reset for the upcoming week. It’s also important to schedule something every week that you look forward to. Whether it’s an exciting extracurricular or a movie with friends, I just think that it’s important to have something you enjoy every week. This also helps you get through the parts of the week that you dread, because you can tell yourself that every time you do something you don’t like, you’re one step closer to doing something that you do like.
Finally, I have a few tips that I have learned from personal experience that I find benefit me greatly when it comes to scheduling things with my calendar. Below are my three tips that I would recommend that you implement into your calendar routine.
First, always schedule more time than you need to complete assignments. Say you estimated an assignment would take you an hour and you’ve scheduled an hour to complete it in your calendar. If any delay occurs, you’ve miscalculated the amount of time needed to complete this assignment (which happens to everyone eventually). You now feel that you are behind schedule and this stresses you. If instead, you always schedule an assignment to take more time than your estimates, you won’t ever feel like you have fallen behind. For this reason, I always schedule things in my calendar to take 1.5 times longer than my estimates.
Secondly, when organizing your calendar, make separate color-coded categories for different parts of your life, like school, personal time, extracurriculars, appointments, etc. This gives a more visual representation of what you have to do in a week.
Third, I would recommend having a weekly session where you reflect on how your past week went. This is specifically aimed at trying to get a better understanding of how long tasks take you to complete. You can analyze what tasks took less, more, or the right amount of time you had estimated. This, over time, allows you to accurately identify how long a certain task will take and schedule it appropriately.
Congratulations! You now know how to schedule study time in your calendar! The next article in this series will discuss how to stick to your schedule and avoid distractions. Stay tuned!
