Guide for the management of your studying

How would you like to not fall behind in your work and be less stressed before exams or tests? All the good method plans to organize you.

"This year, it's decided, I work regularly...", "I'll try not to be late", "I have to go to bed early", "I need to exercise", "I'm going to work in the library"...

What student hasn't made these good resolutions every year... to forget them a month later? It's just that it's not easy to manage your time. In high school, you have to find your rhythm of work in busy schedules.

In a student's life, freedom is greater, the cravings for immense leisure and the work to be provided more demanding.

Other young people spend a lot of time working without necessarily seeing the results. Stress, failure, discouragement, fatigue... Stop!

If you don't want to stick to good resolutions, follow these tips step by step.

1. What are your priorities this year?

A professor filled up a transparent vase with large pebbles and then asked his students: "Is the vase full ?"Everyone shakes their heads, but the professor then pours a bag of small pebbles to the empties of the vase. "And this time ?"It's hard to see what might be coming back, but the teacher manages to put sand in it... and more water!

A telling story: the vase is your time. It can allow you to live anything: study, personal work, rest, outings and even... daydream. Yeah, but, as long as you put the big rocks first, right?

To get organized, start by choosing your "big rocks": there is first of all the essential elements for your life, the time of sleep so beneficial, the meals (you are not just a brain, are you not ?); then your priorities for this year, your core activities, for example, your courses and your personal work, then for some the sport, for others the time devoted to their student job...

2. Make a schedule starting with the priorities

Organizing time and work: the secret to studying without stress

These priorities are what you need to put first in your schedule. And yes, school time isn't enough. To make sure your "big pebbles" are in the vase, plan your entire week's schedule, from Monday to Sunday, from Wake-up to bedtime... This schedule should include not only your classes, but also personal working hours, extracurricular activities, transportation, and regular recreation...

Use the tool that suits you: a large cardboard board that you put on the wall in front of your desk, a classic paper calendar, or a free calendar software to download from the internet that you can print or synchronize with your smartphone... The visuals will use different colors for personal work, classes, sports, outings...

3. Think about your biological rhythms and especially sleep

Organizing time and work: the secret to studying without stress

The right organization is one that takes into account your studies but also your personal rhythms. Sleep is often neglected by students who are asked to participate in outings, on-screen activities and the many leisure activities offered in the evening. Especially when you're alone in your student room.

Yet lack of sleep is a source of stress for 20% of students! Also know that lack of sleep does not recover from one day to the next and that it causes difficulties of concentration and therefore of memorization.

So don't start by reserving the time for sleep: how many hours of sleep do you need each day to be in shape? The average is 7 to 9 hours. We also know that the hours of sleep before midnight are the most recuperative.

Avoid screen work just before going to bed because it can interfere with sleep.

In order to get these hours of rest right, take into account your sleeping profile: are you in good shape in the morning or in the evening? If it is morning, you should give up working sessions in the evening and late nights during the week (for example, Thursday evenings for students): it is better to get up earlier and schedule personal working sessions early in the morning...

And if you are at night, Be careful not to move too much because if you have to get up in the morning to go to class, you will not have your sleep count.

Please note: If you are having trouble falling asleep, make sure you do not go to bed directly after working or using a computer screen. The brightness of the screens slows down the release of the sleeping hormone. It is better to have calm activities to decompress before sleep. for example, take a shower, drink a herbal tea or read something that relaxes you

4. Cut personal work into slices

For the personal study work to be produced outside the course, it is not enough to book a few hours on your schedule indicating "work". You have to plan much more precisely what you want to do in each session: what discipline and what kind of work are you going to do?

The ideal is to cross-cut material and exercise style: read a course, then work on an exercise, then read a text, do a search. The schedule for a two-hour work session can look like a big hamburger with meat, cheese and salad stacked up... Easier to digest, right?

Only certain exercises require a long working time in a row: the writing of a paper, a documentary search, the reading of a book...

Schedule them in quiet times adapted to this type of work, for example on weekends or during a free afternoon in the library. However, don't forget to take small breaks every 50 minutes to relax your eyes and stretch your legs.

5. Do the right activity at the right time

Organizing time and work: the secret to studying without stress

It is also one of the secrets of efficient work: you have to schedule the right type of work at the right time, that is, when you will have the most mental facilities to do it.

You understand that you have to alternate subjects, but how do you start when you get to work? It is often said that what appears to be the most difficult needs to be tackled. There is always the risk of starting with what we "prefer" and postponing the rest until tomorrow, and then at the last moment.

But if it is a job that you risk blocking (dissertation, Internship Report, math problem), you will spend too much time on it (to the detriment of other tasks), getting upset about not getting there and discouraging yourself from not moving forward.

It is, therefore, better to start with work which requires concentration but which can be carried out quickly in time, for example :

- Learning a course, a lesson: proofreading, annotation of your copy, learning, recitation...

- Carrying out application exercises: either in connection with the course you have just learned, or a course previously learned.

You have the satisfaction to move forward, it boosts your motivation for the future :

- The preparation of a difficult assignment to finish in the next few days : math problem, dissertation, reflection exercise ; if you block, you can get help and come back the next day. This is typically the type of work to be spread over several days.

This organizational model can be used for weekday work, interspersed with courses.

Longer and quieter moments, for example on weekends, on a free afternoon or on a public holiday, can allow you to schedule in-depth or reflective work.

- writing an essay, a report, a difficult assignment

- reading a book, a large file

- the revision of a whole chapter and the production of summary sheets

- training on more difficult exercises.

This substantive work is all the more effective because it has been prepared through several short weekday work sessions. So the student goes through the sessions like a gymnast the workouts. The movements learned one after the other make it possible to achieve a beautiful sequence.

According to Word Maze these principles are valid for everyone, but everyone must of course adapt them, because we do not all have the same rhythms or the same difficulties.

Get to know each other better and choose the right answers to your problems.