Creating a schedule and sticking to it is one of the most effective steps to setting yourself up for success in the HSC
However, schedules can be a tricky thing as sometimes unforeseen events may just come up, causing the schedule fall apart quite quickly.
It’s important to remember: If one of the days in your schedule falls apart – that’s fine! Just get back on schedule the next day.
So how do you create an effective schedule?
There is no one way to create a schedule. Some people want their schedule to be packed so they know what they are doing each minute of every day, whilst others would prefer a schedule that has the bare minimum.
We suggest you do a combination of both.
Firstly, print out 2 weeks on one A4 paper with days across the top and times labelled on the left hand side. i.e. 7am to 10pm
Here are some events we would advise you to put in when planning it all out:
• The time you wake and the time you go to bed.
• What time you leave for school, arrive at school, leave school and arrive home.
• Label your school period times e.g. period one, two, recess, lunch, etc.
• Label the period with what you will be doing e.g. period one = maths, period two = study, etc.
• Allocate times for you extra curricular activities e.g. sports training, sports games on the weekend, debating, volunteer work etc
• Allocate dinner times, lunch times, etc
• Allocate times for family as well as other activities or responsibilities like Church, Youth Groups, Coaching, etc.
Allocate multiple 45 minutes to one hour time slots for studying with at least 10 minutes between each session.
You can either choose some of these time slots to be for subjects you had that day at school to complete homework. Other time slots could be solely to complete upcoming assessments or writing study notes. You can choose to be specific with all time slots as to what subject you will be focused on or you may choose to only be specific for a few… it’s really up to you and your preference for flexibility or control.
Side Note:
It is important to realise that sometimes life is just like this schedule… you can’t plan everything. You might have an idea of what you want to do, how it will be done and when but, unfortunately, we just don’t have control over everything…you’ve got to just roll with the punches. But what we can control is our perception of the event (c’mon, is it just a first world problem?) and who we reach out to when the going gets rough. Don’t ever think this is just a one-person journey. There are so many people out there who care about you (sounds weird – but some of these people don’t even know you personally!). If at some point it all becomes too much, reach out to the people you trust (yes, talk to more than just one person) and give yourself an afternoon off studying/work and just do something that makes you happy.