Follow this step-by-step guide on how to plan your week as a student to optimize your schedule for maximum productivity, while still making time for relaxation and socialization.


Follow this step-by-step guide on how to plan your week as a student to optimize your schedule for maximum productivity, while still making time for relaxation and socialization.

Whether you’re a student in high school or college, you might frequently feel like you’re running behind and rushing to get things done. Especially in college, when you no longer have a rigid schedule, you might be unsure how to structure the large chunks of time outside of class.

If these sound like problems you can relate to, keep reading. This article will provide you with a step-by-step guide to plan your week as a student so that:

  • You can stay on top of work;
  • Still have room for self-care, personal projects, and socialization;
  • And be consistent in sticking with your plan in the long run.

I’ll also be providing tips on how you can go the extra mile to truly transform your productivity.

Let’s dive in!

Spreads for planning, habit tracking, mood tracking, self-reflection, and more that you can use any month of the year.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that when you make a purchase through a link, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Why is it important to plan your week ahead of time?

Before I started planning my weeks in advance, I would write daily to-do lists that were more often than not unfinished. My to-do lists were unrealistic, and I procrastinated tasks I didn’t want to do.

I never seemed to have time for long-term personal projects, and I couldn’t seem to make room for the healthy habits I wanted to start.

However, once I started planning my weeks ahead of time, I began to experience several powerful benefits. Planning ahead:

Saves Energy and Reduces Stress

Every day, we’re faced with tons of decisions. What will I eat for lunch? What test should I study for? Should I go to the gym after class today?

Planning your week ahead of time relieves you of this burden. You’d be surprised how much cognitive energy you can free up.

Also, planning ahead reduces stress. In the past, I struggled with creating realistic to-do lists because I felt like I had an overwhelming amount of tasks to complete. I’d be afraid of not getting everything done on time, so I would also work late into the night.

When you don't plan ahead, it's easy to get overwhelmed.

By planning my week in advance, however, I already know exactly what I need to do each day to meet my deadlines. As a result, I’m able to create more realistic to-do lists and not worry that any “off time” I spend is preventing me from getting my work done on time.

Stops You From Procrastinating

Before I started planning my weeks ahead of time, I would often procrastinate tasks I didn’t want to do.

A research paper due two months from now? I’d think, “No need to worry about it now.” But then, a week before the due date, I would scramble to finish the entire paper.

When you plan your week ahead of time using the method discussed in this article, you won’t be able to procrastinate tasks you don’t want to do.

Planning ahead of time forces you to recognize the priority tasks you must complete and create room for them in your schedule.

Makes You Realize You Have More Time Than You Think

As a student myself, I think it’s fair to say that one of our biggest struggles is never finding enough time. You want to do things like go to the gym, call your parents more often, or read more, but you feel like you never have room in your schedule.

When you don't plan ahead, you'll always feel like you don't have enough time.

However, once you start planning ahead of time, you’ll realize that you have more time than you think. The issue isn’t not having enough time. The issue is that you’re not prioritizing the right activities.

Planning my weeks in advance made me realize how much time I was wasting on unproductive activities. With this knowledge, I was able to rid my life of many time-consuming, counterproductive distractions and spend more time on what mattered.

Not only have I been able to get more done, but I’ve also been able to start healthy habits””like reading and exercising””without feeling overwhelmed.

By planning your week in advance, you'll be able to juggle many responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed.

I hope these three reasons have convinced you of the importance of planning your week in advance as a student. Now, let’s move on to exactly how you can maximize your planning time to become the productive, inspired student you want to be.

Resources I Use to Plan My Week

Before you start planning, it’s important to choose resources that streamline the planning process. If your planning resources are disorganized or inefficient, they’ll only obstruct your progress, not facilitate it.

Here are the resources I use to do planning:

Google Calendar

I use Google Calendar to time block my week. If you’re not familiar with time blocking, it’s exactly what it sounds like: assigning specific activities to specific periods of time.

My time blocked Google Calendar

Notion

Notion is the all-in-one planner app that I use. I use it to plan and organize most aspects of my life, including but not limited to:

  • Weekly goals
  • Daily to-do lists
  • Long-term project progress
  • Habit tracking
  • Notes for my courses
  • Important deadlines
  • Almost everything related to my blog

Click the link for more information on what Notion is and why it’s such a powerful student planner app.

You can also check out my free student Notion template by filling out the form below:

Physical Planner

If you prefer pen-and-paper planning over digital planning, it’s important to have a physical planner that works for you.

You can get access to my undated monthly planner, which includes all the spreads I used when I did pen-and-paper planning:

  • A monthly overview to write down deadlines, as well as set goals and priorities
  • A playlist page to record your favorite songs of the month
  • A books list page to record books you read
  • A habit tracker
  • A mood tracker
  • A weekly agenda to set goals, record important dates, and write daily to-do lists
  • A weekly time blocking page
  • A weekly master to-do list (I’ll explain how this is used in the next section of this article)
  • A weekly reflection
  • A monthly reflection
Spreads for planning, habit tracking, mood tracking, self-reflection, and more that you can use any month of the year.

Steps to Plan Your Week

Once you’ve chosen your planning resources, it’s time to start planning.

#1: Create a Planning Ritual

Set aside a 15-30 minute block of time to plan each week. You can do your planning on Friday or over the weekend, which is when I generally do it.

This block of time may feel like an additional activity you need to add to your to-do list. However, as I explained at the beginning of this article, planning ahead of time is well worth the effort.

#2: Schedule in Obligations

Now, it’s time to start time blocking your schedule. As I mentioned, you can do this on pen-and-paper (a time-blocking page is included in the monthly planner).

This is the time-blocking page from my undated monthly planner.

Or, you can do it digitally, using a platform like Google Calendar. Since I like to color code everything, I have a separate calendar called “Obligations”, to which I’ve assigned the orange color.

Add all the events you must attend. This includes lectures, extracurriculars, meetings, appointments, and anything else you can’t miss.

First, add obligations to your schedule.

#3: Schedule in Daily Routines

After scheduling your obligations, you need to make time for daily routines. This includes things like getting ready in the morning, getting ready for bed, eating, taking breaks, exercising, etc.

Choose a different color for daily routines in your schedule to make them easy to identify.

Next, add daily routines to your schedule.

#4: Create a Master To-Do List

A master to-do list should include every single task you want to get to during the week.

If you’re following along in my undated monthly planner, there is a separate page for creating a master to-do list. You’ll notice that it splits tasks into two categories:

  • Priority tasks that you must do (these are things like studying for tests, completing assignments, responding to emails, etc.)
  • And flexible tasks that you want to do but which aren’t absolutely necessary (this could include working on a side project, taking an online course on your own time, etc.)

#5: Rank Tasks by Priority

Once you’ve created your master to-do list, it’s time to rank the tasks by priority.

First, rank your priority tasks. Next, rank your flexible tasks. Finally, put an asterisk next to the priority tasks to denote that they must be completed this week.

If you’re following along in my undated monthly planner, there is a section on the master to-do list page to rank your tasks by priority level.

#6: Create Work/Study Blocks

Next, set aside blocks of time each day to work and/or study. Make sure to choose a different color for these work/study blocks to make them easily distinguishable in your schedule.

Schedule these blocks based on your energy levels. For instance, if you know you’ll be exhausted after lectures, don’t schedule a work block immediately after. Also, be reasonable and give yourself time off, such as on the weekends.

Lastly, add work/study blocks to your schedule, during which you can study, complete homework, and work on anything else you need to do.

Additionally, it’s important to leave room for flexibility in your schedule. It’s easy to underestimate how much time it takes to complete a task. Plus, unexpected things happen, and your work sessions may be interrupted.

Therefore, I suggest scheduling at least one “catch-up” block per week, in which you catch up on tasks you meant to complete earlier.

#7: Assign Tasks to Each Work/Study Block

Now, it’s time to refer to the master to-do list you ranked by priority earlier. Going in order of priority level, assign tasks to each work/study block.

Make sure every task marked with an asterisk is accounted for. If you have time remaining, start scheduling your flexible tasks, moving down the list in order of priority level.

How to Go the Extra Mile to Transform Your Productivity

If you want to maximize your planning sessions to elevate your productivity and well-being, here’s what you can do:

Evaluate Your Current Routines and Improve Upon Them

Planning my weeks ahead of time made me realize I was wasting a lot of time that could be more productively spent. To fix this, I replaced unproductive routines in my schedule.

For instance, I used to have a habit of watching YouTube before bed. Since I knew this was an unproductive routine, I decided to replace it with journaling and reading.

By creating time blocks for these activities and putting my devices out of reach, I was able to transition into a more productive night routine.

Also, I used to work late into the night because I couldn’t find time to get everything done during the day. However, my productivity would be low because I’d be exhausted after a long day.

As a result, I decided to move my late-night work hours to the morning. I started waking up at 5 am to study and work, and it completely transformed my productivity.

Waking up early has boosted my productivity significantly.

As you’re planning your week, reflect on your current habits. Think about which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to replace. Do you want to spend less time on your phone and start exercising more? Do you want to start meditating or doing other activities to increase your attention span?

Make room for these more productive activities in your schedule.

Even if you start small””by exercising for 15 minutes twice a week or by reading 10 pages a day””you’ll begin reaping the benefits.

Seriously, you’d be surprised how small positive changes can accumulate into remarkable results in the long run. One of my favorite quotes from Atomic Habits (which I summarize in this post on how to build habits that stick) is:

“If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.”

If you’re not sure what habits to start and how to start them, ask yourself these questions:

  • What kind of a person do I want to become?
  • What are actionable, achievable steps (a.k.a. habits) I can take now to make progress toward that vision?
  • Where can I fit these habits into my schedule?
Download this list of 30+ daily habits to improve your life.

Create a Master List of Deadlines

Review your course syllabi at the beginning of the semester and make a master list of deadlines. This should include all exams, quizzes, assignments, lab days, etc.

You can organize all these deadlines in a document or spreadsheet and print them out for easy reference.

Identify which weeks are heavier in workload and which ones are lighter. When you plan your week, refer to this master list.

On lighter workload weeks, you can schedule time to start work due during heavier workload weeks.

Create a Bucket List

Make a list of long-term projects you’d like to get to. This could include starting your own business or learning a new instrument.

Once you’ve made a list, choose the project(s) you would like to prioritize most. Then, break down the project into smaller tasks.

You can do this through the process of reverse engineering. Envision what you want to achieve, then work backward to figure out what you need to do to get there.

Reverse engineer your long-term projects to break them down into actionable steps you can start taking now.

Also, as you’re planning, make sure to choose actionable steps. For instance, if you want to start your own business, listing tasks like:

  • Design a website
  • Do marketing
  • Launch product

won’t be helpful. You need to create more specific tasks that you can start on right away, such as:

  • Determine business vision statement
  • Research what website builder to use
  • Design logo
  • Create basic website layout (home page, about page, etc.)
  • Research marketing strategies

and so on.

Take a look at your master list of deadlines. After your school commitments are fulfilled, how much time will you have to devote to your personal project? Based on that, set reasonable deadlines for each related group of actionable steps.

Personally, I use a long-term project tracker in my Notion setup to keep myself on track:

Use a long-term project tracker to plan out bigger projects.

How to Stick to Your Plan

Planning is great, but if you don’t take action to follow through with your plan, you’ll still be stuck at square one. Below are helpful tips to stick to your plan:

Tip #1: Write Down To-Do Lists the Night Before

The night before, review your time-blocked schedule and write down the tasks you have scheduled for the next day. This helps refresh your memory of what you need to do.

That way, when you wake up in the morning, you can hit the ground running.

However, it’s also important to account for unexpected events. You might not be able to get to everything on your to-do list.

Therefore, it’s important to set aside one priority task. You should tackle this task first thing in the morning when your willpower and mental clarity are greatest.

Tackle the hardest task first thing in the morning, when your willpower and mental clarity are the greatest.

In the past, I often neglected to set aside a priority task. As a result, I would gravitate towards finishing the easiest tasks on my to-do list first. If something unexpected happened during the day, I would fail to get to important tasks on my list.

Now, I always take a moment to identify my most important task and mark it with an asterisk.

Tip #2: Don’t Multitask

Multitasking is the ultimate killer of productivity, quality of work, and long-term memory retention. According to some studies, it can even cause long-term brain damage.

(For more on how harmful multitasking is, check out this article on increasing attention span, where I discuss it in more detail.)

With a time blocked schedule, you should already be less likely to multitask. However, if you catch yourself multitasking, remind yourself to choose one task to focus on.

Pro tip: If you often find yourself distracted by communications (emails, messages, etc.), set aside a daily time block to review and respond to everything. After that, turn off all notifications. Trying to respond to communications while doing work is extremely inefficient and prevents you from doing either task to the best of your ability.

Create a time block for responding to communications, so you don't get distracted by them later in your work session.

Tip#3: Reward Yourself for Staying on Task

As you’re working, make sure to take breaks. Particularly if you set aside work/study blocks of several hours in length, it’s essential to take several breaks.

Applying the Pomodoro method can help you remember to take breaks. If you’re unfamiliar with what it is, it involves:

  • Working in 25-minute blocks
  • Taking 5-minute breaks in between
  • Taking a longer break of 15-20 minutes after 4 work sessions

I enjoy keeping a Pomodoro timer on because it reminds me to take breaks. However, if I’m in a state of flow and the timer goes off, I’ll continue working to not disrupt my momentum.

The timer mostly helps as my mental energy starts draining (after about the hour mark).

My Pomodoro tracker in Notion

Also, remember to reward yourself after a long workday. I always give myself time to wind down at the end of the day. I find that doing so helps me go to bed with a calmer state of mind. Also, it prevents mental exhaustion that accumulates into burnout over time.

Some activities you can do to reward yourself include:

  • Reading a good book
  • Calling a friend
  • Watching a movie

Tip #4: Don’t Create an Overly Rigid Schedule

A common reason people fail to stick to their plans is that they’re too rigid. If you have your week planned out with no breathing room, you’ll probably start straying from it very soon.

When I first started planning my weeks in advance, I set extremely rigid time blocks, down to the last minute of every day. Needless to say, I stopped following my schedule pretty soon. It was overwhelming, and I scheduled so many tasks at unrealistic times of the day that I quickly burned out.

Scheduling too many tasks to times of the day when you're energy levels are low will leave you exhausted and burnt out.

As a result of this, I started being more conscientious of my energy levels during the day. I stopped scheduling so many tasks to times of the day when my energy levels were lower. Realizing that I often underestimated how much time it took for me to complete tasks, I added catch-up blocks to my schedule. Lastly, I left some parts of my schedule free of scheduled events, in case something unexpected popped up or I just wanted to relax.

Even now, I’m constantly modifying my schedule to optimize my productivity while giving myself enough time to relax. That leads me to the next tip”¦

Tip #5: Reflect on Your Progress

To optimize your schedule, you need to regularly reflect on your progress. At the end of each day or week, reflect on whether you managed to meet your goals.

I like to write up a daily entry in my Notion:

My daily journal template in Notion

However, if daily entries are too frequent, you can also opt for weekly reflections. This is the weekly reflection page from the undated monthly planner:

This is the weekly reflection page from the undated monthly planner.

To help you reflect, ask yourself these questions:

  • How many items did I check off my to-do list?
  • Was my schedule too rigid or was it flexible enough?
  • If I strayed from my plan, what happened, and how can I prevent it from happening again?

By asking yourself these questions, you can figure out what elements of your schedule or working and which aren’t. For instance, if (like me) you do your best work in the early morning, schedule your most mentally rigorous tasks then. If you’re too tired to work effectively after 4 pm, don’t schedule mentally rigorous tasks after then.

Reflection is key to capitalizing on things that are facilitating your progress and getting rid of things that are hindering your progress.

Tip #6: Consistency Matters More Than Perfection

We all have days when we don’t feel particularly motivated. However, as counterintuitive as it sounds, what matters is not the quality of your work. What matters is that you simply show up.

Ever wonder how legendary authors like Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain managed to write so many great novels throughout their careers? The answer is consistency.

Many authors set a daily quota for how many words they need to write daily. Then, whether they feel like it or not, they sit down and start writing. It doesn’t matter whether the writing is bad or not. What matters is that they do it.

If you want to get better””or even great at something””the key is not striving for perfection. It’s striving for consistency.

Consistency leads to progress. Strive for consistency, not perfection.

I used to be a victim of the perfectionist mindset. I would procrastinate work for fear that it wouldn’t be “perfect”. However, now, I realize that showing up everyday is what really determines future success””not the quality of my work on any single day.

Tip #7: Use Resources That Streamline Your Planning

Using resources that make planning easy is essential for making planning more enjoyable and for helping you stick to your plan.

I used to do pen-and-paper planning””again, you can check out all of the spreads I used in my undated monthly planner:

Spreads for planning, habit tracking, mood tracking, self-reflection, and more that you can use any month of the year.

However, I’ve since transitioned to digital planning. I personally find it more flexible and portable. As I mentioned, I do time blocking in Google Calendar and all other planning and organization in Notion.

Not only does Notion make it super easy to plan, but it also motivates me to stay on track.

(Learn more about why Notion is such a powerful planner app here. Also, check out how to create a student Notion setup here.)

Overview of How to Plan Your Week as a Student

Although planning your week in advance may seem like a hassle, it has numerous benefits that make it well worth your time:

  • It saves energy and reduces stress later in the week.
  • It prevents procrastination by forcing you to focus on priority tasks.
  • It makes you realize that you have more time than you think.

To plan your week as a student, here are the steps you need to follow:

Planning your week as a student will improve your productivity and well-being.
  1. Create a planning ritual.
  2. Schedule obligations (i.e. events you must attend).
  3. Schedule daily routines (e.g. eating, exercising, breaks).
  4. Create a master to-do list. The tasks in this list should be split into two categories: priority tasks that you must finish in the next week and flexible tasks that you want to get to.
  5. Rank the tasks in your master to-do list by priority.
  6. Create work/study blocks in your schedule.
  7. Assign tasks to each work/study block. Start with the highest priority tasks and move down to the lower priority ones.

Finally, to stick to your plan, make sure that you:

  1. Write down daily to-do lists the night before to refresh your memory on what you need to do.
  2. Don’t multitask””this is the ultimate killer of productivity.
  3. Reward yourself for staying on task. Take breaks while working, and take time to wind down at the end of every workday.
  4. Don’t create an overly rigid schedule. Leave breathing room for unexpected events and relaxation.
  5. Reflect on your progress at the end of each day or week. Figure out what’s working and what’s not to optimize your schedule.
  6. Focus on consistency, not perfection. Success is determined by how often you show up, not the quality of work each time you show up.
  7. Use resources to streamline your planning. If planning is difficult and tedious, you won’t want to do it. (I currently use a combination of Google Calendar and Notion.)

I hope this article helped you understand how to effectively plan your week as a student! For planning spreads that you can start using immediately, make sure to check out my undated monthly planner (if you prefer pen-and-paper planning) or my free student Notion template (if you prefer digital planning):

Learning With Angie is a place to share honest, unfiltered advice to promote student success. So if you’re a student (high school, college, or beyond) looking for tips on productivity, studying, personal growth, and more to reach your potential, this is the place! To read more about Learning with Angie, click here.

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Learning with Angie was founded by Angie, a college student from Florida in 2022. Now we have a team of writers who are passionate about lifelong learning and the pursuit of continual improvement.

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