How to make a study plan/definition/7 steps on how to make a study plan

What is a study plan?

Overall, the study plan comprises the organization of all the tasks you need to do to achieve an academic goal.

In other words, it is the direction and planning of your effort to deliver an assignment or take an exam.

How Much Should You Read? What should you study? How much time do you need to write each chapter? What are all the stages of work? And how long do you need to deliver them?

Well, these are questions that the study plan will answer.

The study plan comprises 3 basic pillars: the tasks you need to do, the deadline you have to deliver them and your study and life routine.

From these three pillars, you will start to cross information and be able to organize your study plan.

How to make a study plan?

Well, the study plan can be an important tool to increase  productivity  and ensure compliance with deadlines for all tasks.

So, in general, the three most relevant pieces of information in the plan are:

• the tasks you need to complete;
• the time interval you must do each task;
• the deadline to complete each specific task.

The important thing is that you keep two organizations in mind: a daily and/or weekly organization and a broader organization.

The daily or weekly organization of your schedule is the most practical context. It should help you to know what you should do for the day and week.

And another larger organization that can provide you with an overview of deadlines for each stage of the work. Always keeping in mind the final deadline for delivery of the work, which is the most important deadline of all.

You can make a simple table with the execution order, task name, start date and due date.

7 steps on how to make a study plan

You already know that the study plan comprises 3 basic pillars, right?

Let’s remember them:

1. The tasks you need to do
2. Delivery time for each step
3. Your study routine – the time you study per day, for example.

Well then. The study plan is nothing more than the alignment of these three pieces of information.

But, some paths can facilitate this journey and increase the efficiency of your study plan. Let’s go to 7 steps:

1. Divide tasks into as many tasks as possible

It is important that when stipulating the necessary tasks – including the tasks for each academic work – you are as specific as possible.

This is because the less comprehensive the study plan, the more realistic it will be and, consequently, the easier it will be to fulfill it accurately.

Let’s think, for example, that you just put in the plan a task of “ theoretical framework ” of the work in general form and did not specify each activity within that step that you will need to do.

Thus, it is not clear that you will need to do all the readings, develop the  records , build the arguments, make the  citations  correctly, review the  bibliographic references … phew! See how much is implied in this step? Will the time you predicted be enough?

If, on the other hand, your plan has all these activities separate, it makes it much easier to predict how much time you will need for each of them.

Consider that  bibliographic research ,  theoretical foundations  and  data analysis  tend to take up more time. So, divide these steps into many tasks. For example, break the search down by main subjects and break the data analysis down to each  specific objective .

2. Avoid very long deadlines

Some tasks will take more time and that’s ok. But, in continuation of the previous tip, avoid stipulating very long deadlines.

If you have, for example, 5 months to complete task X, you can send the message to your brain that you can start it only at the last minute and lose all the organization you’ve done.

3. Check university deadlines

It is very important that you are sure about the rules and deadlines of the educational institution. After all, the university deadline is your ultimate goal, right? So he must guide your whole plan.

Only then will you be able to know the time you have to deliver all the works, such as the  monograph , for example, and what you will need to do.

4. Make a list of all activities

So, considering the previous tips, make a list of all the activities you will need to do. Don’t forget to separate them into as many smaller tasks as possible.

5. Distribute tasks over time

Then, considering the time you have, distribute the tasks over the months. Put first the tasks that do not depend on others and that should serve as a basis for future tasks.

6. Don’t forget the time you depend on other people

You should include in your study plan the time you depend on other people’s tasks. If you are doing a  TCC , for example, you should consider the time your  advisor  will have to review the work. Stipulate this deadline with a slightly larger gap.

After all, it’s possible that your  teacher  has a lot of commitments and ends up taking a little longer than expected to review.

6. Beware of unenforceable deadlines

Take care to set deadlines that you can meet.

It’s no use establishing in your study plan that in a week you will be able to finish all the readings and all the records. You are probably just fooling yourself.

Consider the other tasks you need to do, such as studying for other subjects and the time you spend at work or  internship .

Realize that an unachievable deadline is also useless, because the schedule won’t work for your organization.

7. Include presentations as a work step 

This might seem a little obvious. But it is not.

Many people spend all their time and energy preparing the written part of their assignments and skip the presentation. That is, they do not include the part of putting together the  presentation of the work  in the schedule of activities.

And putting together the presentation of a work does not mean just making the presentation slides. But also prepare the script and train the presentation, for example.

The result of this is that many times the defense of the TCC to the  board  does not represent the quality of the written work.

What points should be in the study plan?

At this point you should already know that the study plan should definitely include all the tasks you will need to do.

But let’s think about a study plan for a job. You must list all tasks to complete your work. And that, of course, depends on each job.

But regardless of the variation of each job, there are some tasks that every study plan should have. Come on.

Preparation tasks:

• Define  theme  and  object of study ;
• Stipulate  research problem ;
• Determination of objectives;
• Formulate  hypothesis  and  justification  of the work;
• Definition of the data collection instrument  ;
• Bibliographic searches  ;
• Theme readings;
• Make records;
• Develop bibliographic review ;

Development tasks  :

• Data collection ;
• Analysis and interpretation of data;
• Writing of the work;

Finishing Tasks:

• Review compliance with ABNT standards;
• Review text of the work;
• Check spelling;
• Advisor review;
• Make adjustments requested by the advisor.
• Print and bind;
• Prepare script for presentation;
• Make presentation slides;
• deliver work;
• Present the work.

Why is it important to make a study plan?

The study plan is a fundamental item to help you organize your academic life. It is through it that you will be able to control all the planning of the tasks.

So it’s important to:

• Organize the tasks you need to do;
• Increase labor productivity;
• Record the planning of tasks;
• Control activities and deadlines.
• Estimate time in  research development ;
• Plan the  completion  date of the work;
• Ensuring delivery of work on time.