My Go-To Method for Week Planning

Author: Lindsay Vinson

My drive to start week planning really began when I enrolled in extracurricular activities in college and started making plans with people. I made a point to dedicate time to social and extracurricular activities each week- this way I could hold myself accountable to put myself out there, make friends, and avoid just studying by myself the majority of the time. However, of course I wanted to prioritize academics, do as well as I could on exams, and have my assignments be of good quality and turned in on time. I quickly realized that managing a college workload, honoring my commitments to work and extracurricular, and spending time with my friends required having a thoughtful, methodical plan for each week. I had wondered before, “How do some people seem to balance so many things so well?” and truly- methodical, consistent planning is the answer. After some trial and error, this is what I do each weekend to prepare for the coming week. This has been the most effective in planning everything about my week-from doing assignments, working out, going to work and extracurricular activities, and making time for friends.

First- list out all of the assignments that you know are due the coming week

This lets you lay out what your workload will be and how much time you will need to dedicate to assignments. Preferably, separate them by classes so that you know which classes you will need to prioritize for the week. Include the date that they are due. Though assigned readings don’t usually have a set due date, I include these as well. This is a sample of what my class list and assignments might look like on a typical week and how I would sort them out:

Next, list out what events are planned this week. This would include extracurricular events, appointments, planned outings with friends, and things of the sort. Include the date and time.

This gives you a heads-up as to when you need to be somewhere at a certain time, other than your typical class schedule. Again, preferably sort them out by category so that you know which one you will be dedicating most of your time to. Here is a sample of what these might look like on a typical week for me:

Next, list out your events/appointments and your class times for each day in a schedule format.

This lets you know which days will be busier with commitments and which days you have more time to dedicate to assignments and studying. Ultimately, this prepares you for the next step, which is to create a list of which assignments and tasks to complete each day. Here is a sample of class times that I created based on what my schedules have typically been like:

note: Soc 311 is not included in the schedule because I’ve almost always had at least one online class per semester, and many other college students take online classes as well. I wanted this schedule to be as representative as possible.

Now, I have the following pieces of information that are key to starting a realistic plan for this week:

-I have an essay due soon

-I have basically all day on Sunday to do assignments

-There really isn’t much time for classwork after Py 218 on Monday, meaning that I will need to dedicate the morning to assignments.

With this, I know that Monday and Tuesday are going to be busy, because I have more time dedicated to events on Monday, most of my assignments are due on Tuesday or Wednesday, and I want to be able to make the sisterhood event on Tuesday. Again, this gives me a heads-up that these two days are going to be busy, so I am prepared to go into them with more adherence to a schedule than other days might need.

Now that you know which assignments are due and when, when you have places to be, and on which days you are busier, it’s time to create a task list for each day. Based on the sample that I created, this is how I worked with it to create a list of assignments that I would do each day:

Note: I grouped readings and discussion posts together for Sociology classes, as typically, discussion posts are based on assigned readings for classes like this, and I would want my mind to be fresh on the reading when I did my discussion post.

Now that you know which assignments and activities that you are going to do each day, add the assignments to the schedule. Place them logically based on which assignments typically take the longest. Add a time estimate for how long you believe that they will take. While doing this step, you can add things like working out, walking, or a morning routine on the days that you will have time.

This gives you a full plan for each day that is all in one visual, and now you know exactly what each day will look like. Notice how I included times to eat meals here- with a busy schedule in college, I know that it can be difficult to remember to grab food or to feel like you’re just too busy, but I promise, taking proper care of yourself is so important, especially when you’re trying to balance multiple demanding things. Believe me, you will thank yourself for it.

On the note of prioritizing your wellbeing, having a set schedule for when you will do assignments can keep you from procrastinating and then staying up much later than you normally would trying to complete them. Take it from someone who was chronically sleep deprived her first semester of college, you do not want to be sleep deprived. Avoid it unless you don’t have another choice.

I have templates just like this that you can purchase and download on my shop page. They are designed specifically for this method and are available in 3 colors :).

Other notes and tips:

-I only listed out meals here when it made sense to, such as before or in between classes when it would be easiest to forget or choose to do work instead. They’re not listed during work, on Monday morning where I would have the time to take a break from working to grab a quick bite, or in the evenings/afternoons where there’s more flexibility to choose when to grab dinner.

-You can also use alarms on your phone or computer so that you don’t lose track of time while working in between classes. For example, If I was working in the library before Py 218, and that class was a 7 minute walk from the library, I might set an alarm for 9:45 or 9:50 to remind myself to start putting up my laptop and heading over.

-Again, if you are in classes where you have a lot of readings and discussion posts based off of them, I would make sure to do them together, as it’s easy to forget a lot of what an article or chapter says the day after reading it. Doing them together minimizes the amount of time you would spend going back into the reading to create a discussion post.

-There will likely be times when you have to make sacrifices for social events that you typically enjoy or for non-mandatory extracurricular events. I love going to sisterhood, philanthropy, and social events with my sorority, and I use this method to try to make sure that I go to as many of these as I can, but there are times when I really just need to focus on my assignments. You likely won’t be able to go to everything.