Why do I need a study plan?

Necessary for Online
Study plans are especially important for online classes because you need to be self-disciplined to succeed in online classes without the constant reminders from your instructor.
Your Brain Doesn’t Want You to Study
Your brain finds studying to be hard, even painful, and your body naturally avoids things that are painful. If you don’t plan your studying and you instead try to fit it in when you have time, you will find that your body subconsciously avoids studying, which results in procrastination, lots of stress, and low grades.
Scientifically Proven to Work
One study technique that is scientifically proven to work is called interleaving. Interleaving is when you spread your studying out over a period of time rather than trying to do it all in one sitting. By planning your studying you make the time you use studying more effective. This means that if you're consistent, you can study less and learn more.
Be a Wise Student
In a physics class, a student complained that their physics teacher had a deadline on Friday each week. So every Friday, they had to spend hours and hours doing all of the work. Plan out when you will work on your assignments rather than waiting to do everything the day the assignment is due. The due date is not the do date.

Step 1

Open a new spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, and so on).

Note: If you want to use your smartphone calendar or computer calendar, you can. It's a good idea to make your plan on a spreadsheet and then transfer it to your computer or phone calendar later.

Step 2

Put the days of the week across the top. Put time from when you wake up until you go to sleep down the left-hand side.

Spreadsheet with Monday–Sunday across the top and 6:00 AM–10:00 PM down the left hand side.

Step 3

Add to the plan the essential things in your life (work, church, meetings, family responsibilities, and so on). If you work, read the article titled Surviving College to determine how many credit hours you should be taking each semester.

Spreadsheet with days across the top and time down the lefthand side, work hours added, time for meetings added, time for church added.

Step 4

Use this chart to determine how many hours you should spend studying this class. The general rule is that you should spend 3–4 hours per credit hour per week.

Class Credit Hours	Time Should Be Spending On Your Class
2	6–8 hours per week
3	9–12 hours per week
4	12–16 hours per week
5	15–20 hours per week

Step 5

Add your study time to your plan.

Remember:

Make sure you break your study time up, remember interleaving is more effective than scheduling all your studying on one day.
Keep it simple. Simple plans succeed more often than complicated ones.

Spreadsheet with days across the top, time down the left hand side, time blocked off for work, church, meetings, then time added for studying, 12 hours of studying added in the morning, evenings, and on Saturday.

Step 6

Print your plan.

Post your plan.

Stick to your plan.

If it is your study time, and you have finished your homework, then use your study time to work on projects or study for a test. Get in the habit of using your study time. You invested money into this class. You should invest time into your class too.

If you need help sticking to your plan, try the following ideas:

Set an alarm on your phone.
Work on your class in the morning, when your brain is clear, and then you won’t have to worry about it the rest of the day.
Tell someone about your plan and ask them to check on you.
Adjust your plan as needed, it’s okay to make changes so this study plan works for you.
Reward yourself for doing all of your studying each week.

Picture of a young woman reading a book, with the caption: When you study you are investing in yourself.

References

How We Learn by Benedict Carry