Dear reader,

I apologize for the one day delay: I couldn’t get round to posting yesterday. Well, here is tip number 3!

Tip 3: Making to do lists and homework schedules.

Section 1: Making a to do list.
It is always handy to make a to do list while studying. This will enable you to see in one glance what is that needs to be done for this week. Also, by making such a list the chances of you missing a deadline, because you ‘did not know you had to do it’ decrease rapidly. (I would really advice you to do this: I do it myself as well).
How do you make a to do list? Well it is very easy. You open a word document and fill in the days of the week on which you have school. Under each day you add the assignment and homework that needs to be done for that week. If you have several subjects on the same day, it is advisable to add what homework needs to be done for what subject. Here you will find a (fictional... and rather optimistic lol) example of what my to do list usually looks like.


Tuesday:
Literature and meaning:
Online article on Willem Frederik Hermans (a Dutch writer): p. 9-54

Cultural analysis:
Theory and Critcism page p. 12-60.
Prepare for oral presentation in two weeks.

Wednesday:
Literature between present and past:
Online article: the life of Oscar wilde p. 6 – 40

Thursday:
Classics: Death and Mourning:
Tolstoi’s, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Don’t forget to delete whatever part of homework you finish from the list. If you do this then your list will belong less long, which will visualize the fact that you really are making progress. And trust me: if you have a lot of homework, it feels wonderful when you only have one or two things left on the list (whereas at first it seemed to be endless).


Section 2: Making a homework schedule.
For those of you who are quite disciplined already, just making a to do list might suffice. All you have to do is to get yourself to stick to it (more on that in the next post). However, for those less disciplined it might be useful to also make a homework schedule next to the to do list. In a homework schedule you decided how much time you will spend on what homework each day of the week. In order to do this you have to estimate the amount of time that you think the homework of each subject will take up. It is advisable to start with the homework that needs to be done, rather than the homework for the subject which you like best, because else you might get into trouble later on. Also it is advisable to use the weekend as your starting point to start working on the homework for the next week.
What the homework schedule will eventually looks like greatly depends on your reading/ writing speed and your concentration span. If you can only hold your concentration for a short while (which really is nothing negative ^^) you might want to study for about an hour, then take a small break, study for another hour, small break etc. When you finish your homework for a subject give yourself a slightly longer break (of course only if you have not only yet started). However, if you really do not like to be interrupted once you are busy and just want to get it over with (like me), than you might want to chose to study a bit longer; like for two or three hours, and then instead of several short breaks take a few longer ones.

Homework schedule with many short breaks:
Saturday:
12.00 – 13.00 Literature and meaning article p. 9 – 25
15 min. break.
13.15 - 14.15 Literature and meaning article p. 25 – 41
15. min. break.
14.30 – 15.30 Literature and meaning article p. 41 – 54
(Well that was Literature and meaning; up to the next subject!)
30 min. break.
16.00 – 17.00 Cultural analysis T& C p. 12 – 28
15 min. break.
17.15 – 18. 15 Cultural analysis T & C P. 28 – 44

Dinner time!!! You have been working so hard and diligently... you can take the night off and do something fun!

Sunday:
12.00-13.00 Cultural analysis T & C P. 44 – 60.
(yeay! We finished cultural analysis. You are now fully prepared for Tuesdays class!)
15 min. break.
13.15-14.15 Lit. between present and past Wilde. P. 6 – 22
15. min. break.
14.30-15.30 Lit. between present and past Wilde. P. 22 – 40
(yeay finished another subject)
30 min. break!
16.00-17.00 Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 1 – 20
15 min. break
17.15 – 18. 15 Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 20 – 40

Dinner time.

You might want to chose to finish the last 10 pages of Toystoy’s story after dinner or do it tomorrow.

Monday:
If not done yesterday evening:
12.00-13.00 Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 40–50.
(done with all the compulsory homework!)
15 min. break.
You can now start some work to repair for the upcoming oral presentation.
13.15-14.15 Cultural analysis Gather information.
15 min. break.
14.30-15.30 Cultural analysis Gather information.
15 min. break.
15.45-16.45 Cultural analysis Start work on article.
... etc. Etc. You might decide to finish the bucket load of your presentation on this Monday so you will have some extra spare time during the week (after class) so you can hang out with your friends ;).


Homework schedule with longer breaks:

Saturday:
12.00-14.00 Literature and meaning article p. 9 – 41
30 min. break
14.30 – 16.30 Literature and meaning article p. 41 – 54
(well that was all for literature and meaning. Yeay one subject down!)
Cultural analysis T& C p. 12 – 28
30 min. break
17.00 – 18.00 Cultural analysis T & C P. 28 – 44

Dinner time ;) Take the rest of the night off, for you have done well!


Sunday:
12.00-14.00 Cultural analysis T & C P. 44 – 60.
(yeay! We finished cultural analysis. You are now fully prepared for Tuesdays class!)
Lit. between present and past Wilde. P. 6 – 22
30 min. break
14.30 – 16.30 Lit. between present and past Wilde. P. 22 – 40
(yeay finished another subject)
Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 1 – 20
30 min. break
17.00 – 18.00 Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 20 – 40
Dinner time.

You might want to choose to finish the last 10 pages of Toystoy’s story after dinner or do it tomorrow.

Monday:
If not done yesterday evening:
12.00-13.00 Classics: death and mourning Tolstoi p. 40–50.
(done with all the compulsory homework!)
You can now start some work to repair for the upcoming oral presentation.
13.00-14.00 Cultural analysis Gather information.
30 min. break.
14.30-16.30 Cultural analysis Start work on article.

30 min. break.
... etc. Etc. You might decide to finish the bucket load of your presentation on this Monday so you will have some extra spare time during the week (after class) so you can hang out with your friends ;).

Well, now that wasn’t so bad was it? ;)
Well so much for the lists and schedules. I hope that they will be useful to you. I would advise you to actually use tables when making homework schedules: I have not been able to do it in the example as blogger does not support tables, but as you can see, it is not as clean and tidy as it could have been when using tables.

Tomorrows entry will be on the most difficult part of all (and the one that you have probably all been waiting for): how to get yourself to actually stick to the to do lists and homework schedules! It will be another somewhat longer post ;).

Love,

Blacky.