How To Plan Your Work

Why It Matters?

In a world full of unpredictability, it is important to focus on the things you can control. By effectively planning your work, you ensure you complete tasks on time, stay organized, and manage your workload with minimal stress. Proper planning helps avoid last-minute cramming, prevents procrastination, and ensures consistent, high-quality work. It also allows for better memory retention and flexibility to handle unforeseen events.  

How Do I Plan My Work?

The following 5-step process can help you plan your life for greater freedom and efficiency:

1. Get enough sleep! Lack of sleep will impair your ability to think, focus, and retain information. First, establish a consistent sleep routine and avoid screens 1-2 hours before bed to manage your sleep. Gradually adjust your sleep schedule by 15-30 minute increments to reach your desired sleep time.
2. Ensure your workspace is clean and organized, as outer order brings inner calm. The act of organizing and cleaning your workspace will also get you moving and help you transition into the working headspace.
3. Plan your learning by time, not by task, by blocking a consistent amount of time each day for your work. Treat your study time like a job with a fixed schedule at a time you are most likely to do the work. It might be useful to plan your learning time around other routines you currently have (e.g., study after lunch). Use a calendar to manage commitments and set reminders (Bio exam in 3 days). Plan 70% of your time for commitments, leave 30% flexible, and be sure to schedule breaks to avoid burnout. Keep in mind that you can have multiple blocks per day if needed.
4. Prioritize your work by doing the most important or difficult things first and make a to-do list for each time block, ranking tasks by importance. Try to keep to-do lists between 25-60 minutes in length to keep things manageable and avoid burnout. 
5. Now execute the task list and use strategies like the Pomodoro Technique: 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break to avoid burnout. 

When Should I Apply These Strategies?

These strategies can be applied every day to help manage your workload. Remember that creating a plan and executing it takes discipline. It takes time to form habits, so start small and keep track of your progress.

Action: 

Over the weekend, put some time aside to plan out your next week. Sunday evenings usually work well for this activity, but do what works for you. Decide when the best time(s) are for your learning blocks and schedule those blocks into your calendar. Then set reminders as necessary to keep you on track. You can connect your Canvas feed to your calendar or phone calendar to keep track of assignments. Remember that we tend to underestimate how long projects or tasks will take and how much work will be required. So this will take some practice. Stay disciplined and get after it!