How to Study

Your Long-Term Planning Calendar
It’s not necessary for you to construct your own calendar, though 
it’s certainly the least expensive alternative. There are ready-made
wall and desk calendars available in a variety of formats for your 
convenience, including magnetic and erasable. Your local art supply,
stationery, or bookstore will have a selection of them. I suggest at
least a three-month calendar. You could certainly use a six-month or
even a yearly calendar.
You will not be filling this calendar with a great deal of detail, so the
spaces in which you will write do not have to be humongous. This
calendar is the overview of your schedule, a kind of “life-at-a-glance”
summary of those items and appointments occurring more than one
week in the future. (If they are happening this week, they will be in
your daily calendar, but I’m ahead of myself.)
So start by entering the date for every major test, when papers and
projects are due, future appointments (yes, this isn’t just for school-
work), and anything else that you must remember. I have reproduced
a single month from a typical calendar on page 94. Notice that there
is little detail. It’s a snapshot, remember?
Your Daily Calendar
This is the most essential tool you can utilize, and one you absolutely
must. Find a format that works for you. I prefer one like that repro-
duced on pages 96–97, with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on a
left-hand sheet and Thursday through Sunday on a right. Whether in
a notebook or spiral-bound, this format gives you the entire week 
at a glance and more than enough room to write in great detail. I find
that reason enough to avoid those appointment books that give 
you one day per page. You may get a lot more room to write, but 
you’ll find yourself doing a lot of flipping around just to see what’s 
happening tomorrow or the next day.
Chapter 4 
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How to Organize Your TIme
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In the filled-in calendar on pages 96–97, our student—let’s call her
Lindsay—did a pretty good job. She didn’t just jot down homework
assignments. First, she prioritized them—those As, Bs, and Cs to the
left of each entry.
Next, she estimated the amount of time each would take (in the “T”
for “Time” column) and how long it actually took (in the “A” for
“Actual” column). She used minutes, but you certainly can use 
fractions of an hour if you find it easier. Whatever total time you 
wind up allocating should approximate the time you actually have
available. If you find yourself habitually spending more time on 
assignments than you have projected, consider adding a “safety 
margin” to your estimates. Then total all the estimates and make sure
you haven’t scheduled yourself till 4 a.m.!
Finally, Lindsay included more than just homework assignments—
she jotted reminders to herself about grocery shopping, phone calls
she had to make, band practice, and a host of other things.
There are also assigned projects that are not due this week—an
English paper, an upcoming quiz in geometry, a bigger test in history.
Lindsay scheduled time to choose a topic for her English paper, get
the teacher’s approval, and even begin preliminary research. She also
planned time to study for both geometry and history.
The dates when future projects are due and future tests scheduled
actually are recorded twice—once in her daily calendar, and again in
her long-term calendar. But the steps necessary to write her paper
and the time she needs to allocate for studying are only on her daily
calendar. (This is not a hard-and-fast rule. You can certainly include
steps necessary for future projects on your long-term planning calen-
dar, too. I prefer not to muddle it up with too much detail.)
Unfortunately, Lindsay isn’t doing the greatest job projecting how long
her homework will actually take her. Geometry always takes her
longer than she thinks it will, and her biology lab report clearly was
more complicated than she expected. She scheduled five total hours
How to Study
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for band rehearsal…but spent eight, which is probably why she failed
to do any preliminary research for her English paper. And it’s not clear
whether she’s scheduled “make-up time” during the next week.
If you set up and use your daily calendar this way, you will quickly
discover it is your life. You will always carry it with you, and you will
die a horrible death if you ever misplace it or, heaven forbid, lose it.
Leave your long-term planning calendar on your wall or desk at home,
and carry your daily calendar with you— everywhere. Whenever new
projects, appointments, meetings, etc., are scheduled, add them
immediately to your daily calendar. Then transfer key dates to your
long-term planning calendar.
Remember: If it’s a simple task that will definitely be accomplished
within a week or an event or appointment that is occurring that
week—read pages 201–274, study for quiz, proofread a paper—
it belongs in your daily calendar.
If, however, it’s a task that is complicated—requiring further break-
down into specific steps—and/or one that will require more than 
a week to complete—the final due date should be entered on your
long-term calendar, then the individual steps should be added to your
daily calendar.