Realistic study planning should be designed to match your personality and lifestyle. Making general resolutions, such as ‘I will study X number of hours per day or week’, does not usually work and can make you feel frustrated, guilty, and inadequate. The process of learning what works for you can be painstaking and take years of trial and error. You might choose a study plan you think works for you, but do you actually know that it does?

A great way to find out is to draw up a monitoring timetable. One week of monitoring your daily activities should quickly establish your ideal study routine. Once you know your pattern you can use the same kind of timetable to draw up daily and weekly study goals according to semester deadlines. You’ll know what works for you, what doesn’t and be able to work free of the uncertainty that maybe your schedule isn’t what’s best for you.