BlogStudyA Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Study Plan That You Will Stick To

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Study Plan That You Will Stick To

Notebooks and pens - Study Plan

Are you having trouble sticking to a study plan? Maybe you start off strong but completely give up on the plan 2 days later. Need help creating a study plan that you’ll actually follow through?

Well, you’ve clicked on the right article! We’ll be taking you through a step-by-step guide to constructing a study plan, from goal setting and blocking out distractions, to break times. 

What are you waiting for? Let’s jump right in! 

Step 1: Set Your Goals
Step 2: Set Yourself Study Times
Step 3: Use To-Do Lists
Step 4: Add Buffer Days
Step 5: Earn the Fun 
Step 6: Block Out Distractions

Step 1: Set Your Goals

Target

Before you launch into a study session, setting academic goals for yourself is super important. Your goals are essentially a roadmap towards what you want to achieve — they’ll help you figure out what you want and how to get there. Setting goals is also a great way to keep yourself motivated!

#1: Choose Long Term Goals

Your long-term goals are ones that have to be achieved over time. You’ll be working towards them for a long period of time, which is why these goals need to be really specific!

If they’re too vague, you might end up getting off track after a couple of weeks. To make your goals more specific and achievable, all you need to do is tweak the wording! 

Here are some popular vague goals: 

  1. Get a good ATAR
  2. Get into a good uni for the course I want
  3. Improve in (subject)
  4. Do well in Trials
  5. Get into better study habits

Now you can easily make these goals more achievable by figuring out what exactly you want, and setting a benchmark that you want to achieve. 

Here are the same goals as above, but with slightly different wording to make them more specific: 

  1. Get an ATAR over 84
  2. Get into UNSW or UTS for a journalism degree
  3. Get 85% on my next English assessment
  4. Average a mark of 75% across all subjects in Trials
  5. Start studying 4 hours a week

Once you choose a long-term goal to work on, it’s time to identify how you’ll get there. The best way to do this is to figure out the ‘criteria’ for achieving your goal.

For example, if your goal is to improve your performance in a specific subject, your criteria might include polishing study notes, completing more practice papers, and studying more often. 

#2: Create Short-Term Goals

Creating short-term goals to help you work towards a long-term goal is actually a super easy step! All you need to do is to reword your criteria into short-term goals that you can achieve within the next few days, weeks or months. 

For example, if your criteria was to study more often, your short-term goal might be something like “Study for at least 7 hours a week”. 

#3: Set Dates 

Mapping out due dates for your long-term and short-term goals is a really important step. It’ll help you stay on track and every time you pass a milestone date, you’ll feel motivated to keep going! 

Setting dates is a really simple step. All you need to do is grab a calendar and write when you want to complete each goal. 

Looking for more tips to help you with your goal setting? Check out our article on How to Set Goals and Actually Achieve Them!  

Step 2: Set Yourself Study Times

Clock on a table

Now that you’ve got your goals sorted, you can use them to stay on track for study sessions and use them as motivation throughout the school year! 

The next step is to set study times for yourself. Having non-negotiable study times helps you create consistency with your study, which will allow you to develop self-discipline by creating a routine. It essentially makes sure studying is habitual behaviour for you! 

#1: Schedule study sessions 

Figure out how many hours you need to study each week — this will depend on your current marks, ATAR goal, extracurricular commitments, and other factors. Based on the hours of study you’ve identified, grab a calendar and map out study sessions for each week. 

Keep your existing habits in mind when scheduling study times — if you’re used to taking a nap after school, don’t set your study times then because you’ll end up falling asleep! 

Check out how to create a study timetable here!

#2: Schedule break times

One of the most important steps when creating a strong study plan is to set break times. You’re most productive when your mind is rejuvenated and energised.

If you work for hours with no breaks, your concentration starts to wane and you might end up procrastinating or wasting time. 

Make sure you’re setting predetermined break times because otherwise, you’ll take a break whenever you feel like it, which usually ends up being 5 minutes after you start studying! Then your break will soon become never-ending and you’ll never complete your study session. 

To avoid this from happening, when you’re planning your study times, make sure to schedule breaks too and actually stick to them!

You might like to try the Pomodoro technique, which recommends 5 minute breaks after 25 minutes of studying. After every hour or two hours of studying, make sure to take a longer break of 15-20 minutes.  

Use your breaks to do something that’ll help you relax and re-energise, like grabbing a snack, getting active, or meditating. 

Learn more here about why study breaks are critical! 

Step 3: Use To-Do Lists

Writing in a notebook

Now that you’ve scheduled your study sessions, you might be wondering how to actually stay on track during those sessions. The key to creating an effective study plan that helps you get stuff done is to use to-do lists! 

Start by making a weekly list of tasks and prioritise them based on due dates, how important they are, and how long it will take you to complete them. 

Using your weekly to-do list, make a detailed list every night for what you want to achieve the next day. If you have a major task like “Finish English Essay”, you might like to break it down into smaller tasks so that you can allocate each task to different study sessions. 

With to-do lists, you’ll know exactly what to do every study period and it’ll be easier to stick to the study plan! 

The first term of Year 12 is critical to your HSC! In fact it sets the tone for the rest of the year! Find out why here!

Step 4: Add Buffer Days

Sometimes, you might overestimate how much you can get done in a study session. Maybe you pile up your to-do list with heaps of tasks and find yourself feeling overwhelmed when you can’t finish it all.

Not to worry! We have an easy solution to prevent feeling overwhelmed — adding Buffer Days and Buffer Time to your study plan. 

Buffer Time considers how long a certain task might take to complete, and adds time at the end as a buffer to allow catch-up time. If you have a day of the week that you’re often less productive on, make that a Buffer Day! 

You can use that day to catch-up on any incomplete tasks from your to-do list, and if you have nothing left over, turn it into a well deserved break! 

Looking for a week by week guide on what to expect in your first term of Year 12? Check out our essential guide here.

Step 5: Earn the Fun 

Your study plan is almost ready! But an important step to make sure you actually stick to it, is to keep yourself motivated! 

Give yourself something to look forward to everyday by scheduling fun into every day. The key is to schedule something fun after your study sessions, so that you have an incentive to get the work done.

For example, you might schedule in watching Netflix or meeting up with friends, but only after you’ve completed a particular task. 

Step 6: Block Out Distractions

Social media apps on a phone

Ever find yourself checking Instagram in the middle of a study session and going completely off track? We’ve all been there, which is why the key to an effective study plan is to block out all distractions! 

Try to create a screen-free study environment by putting devices in another room, using productivity apps such as Forest App or Self Control (for Mac), or switching to hard copy note-taking. Remember that you can use screen time as a reward once you’ve completed your study! 

Check out some more tips on reducing digital distractions here!  

Studying for the HSC? 

Check out some of our subject specific study plans we’ve already made: 

There you have it! 

We’ve walked you through a step-by-step guide to creating a study plan that you will stick to. Use these tips and you’ll be on your way to productive, effective study in no time. Good luck!  

Are you looking for some extra help with creating a study plan?

We pride ourselves on our inspirational coaches and mentors!

We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a large variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor get in touch today! 

Give us a ring on 1300 267 888, email us at [email protected] or check us out on Facebook!

Maitreyi Kulkarni is a Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Public Relations and Social Media) at Macquarie University. She loves writing just about anything from articles to poetry, and has also had one of her articles published with the ABC. When she’s not writing up a storm, she can be found reading, bingeing sitcoms, or playing the guitar.

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