The ABC's of Semester Planning

I have to begin this post with a good dose of honesty about my time management history. Before college, I was a notorious procrastinator. I'm not sure that I could even count the number of times I was surprised by a due date, cramming for a test, or sitting through a class completely lost because I hadn't done the reading.

If there is a single most valuable things I have learned at UConn, then it's definitely how to manage my time and plan realistically.

It's true, I graduated from high school with good enough grades to get into UConn, but I also put myself through unnecessary stress and anxiety as I raced against the clock to complete research papers on time and tried explaining to teachers why I hadn't completed my homework.

Managing my work and classes was a big reality check for me, and luckily for me I figured out some good planning strategies early enough in my UConn career to see the benefits of a little bit of organization.


The way I see it, there are different degrees of planning and different types of people are more comfortable at different levels, especially if they are not planners by nature. The place to begin is with the major events. For academic planning especially, just adding all of you due dates and exam dates to one calendar will help you to see those anxiety-inducing dates with a bit more perspective. I like to use the worksheet created by the office of first year programs called, Semester at a Glance to compile all these dates. Then I add them to a monthly calendar on my wall and in my planner.

The way I handle the next level or degree of planning is by filling as much information from each of my classes' syllabuses into my day planner. The image below is from a typical week during the spring Semester.

You can see that in addition to an in-class writing assignment and an upcoming paper due-date (in orange), I've also included the reading assignments on the days they are due for each of my classes. I find that putting all of my due dates and assignments in one place helps me remember what I need to get done but also helps me see how much I have to do for any given day. Seeing that some upcoming weeks or days are busier than others helps me to get started on assignments earlier, when I have less to do, to reduce my stress later.

You can also see above that I color code things, to help me stay organized. Orange is the color that I use for anything from the widest part of the pyramid (due dates, exams papers). The blocks in yellow are meetings with students that I mentor. I use purple for my work schedule, red for personal commitments (like mom's birthday), and Blue is for events for my leadership cohort. Color-coding might be a step further than you'd like to go but it helps me to glance quickly at the page and see what type of commitments and events I have coming up.

The point of the pyramid is the most in-depth and detail-specific level of academic planning. But even within this level there are options and degrees of planning to undertake. What I often do in my busiest weeks is create a prioritized to-do list. I usually make them on post-it notes and stick them to the pages of my planner. This kind of to-do list involves ranking the items in addition to listing them. Here is the ranking system I use:
(A):Must Do--These are thing that have to get done today, like tomorrow's reading assignment.
(B):Should Do--These are task I need to do eventually but I have a little more time for. Like starting an essay that's due a week from today. So I will get to these items after the (A) items.
(C):Could Do--These items can include anything I want to do, even things that won't necessarily get me closer to my academic goals. Some things to include under (C) might be watching a movie with friends or giving myself a pedicure. Working pleasurable tasks into a to-do list can make completing all of your tasks a more positive experience. It's also nice to reward yourself for working hard. (C) items should be completed after all of the (A) and most of the (B) items.

My advice to other students who are figuring out what kind of planning works best is to be realistic about how much you can do in a day and don't strive for perfection. Also pay attention to the way you usually behave a certain times of the day. If 4:30 rolls around and you usually need an hour to unwind and watch a little TV before going to dinner, that's probably going to be OK and you should plan for it. Set aside a different hour for reviewing your class notes, like the time between two classes.

A good way to better understand how you function throughout the day is to use a time monitor for at least a week. The one to the right is available on the First Year Programs website in the Ask Ali Pages (requires NetID sign-in). Spend one week just keeping track of all the ways you spend your time. Include sleep, showering, meals, exercise, entertainment, classes, and time spent studying, and any other way you spend time.

Then, come up with a plan for the following week based on what you observed. It's a mistake to strive for perfection here because it can lead to some serious discouragement. The point is not to
be a super-human task-completion machine, but to organize and prioritize the things you need to do so that you have time for all of the other things you want to.

Give yourself a chance to blow off steam and have some fun and use tools like a daily schedule, or a planner to keep you on track so that you can have that balance! Be realistic and set achievable goals each week. It never hurts to challenge yourself just a little bit. Can you accomplish more in a day if you wake up 15 minutes earlier and shave your "getting ready" time down to 30 minutes? You might surprise yourself how much less time a task like reading for class takes if you put a time limit on it.

Try these tips out and tell me what you think! Good Luck!

Sincerely,
Sarah M
AAC Student Supervisor & Coach