I urge you to plan a weekly schedule using the form provided in this workbook. For it to be a worthwhile project, you must be honest with yourself. Don't plan a schedule for an ideal person without any weaknesses. For example, don't plan to get up at six every morning if you know from experience that it's tough enough just getting up by eight. The best schedule for you is one that isn't very different from what you're already doing. Remember that you can always plan a new schedule after you have lived with this one a while.
The first decision is when to get up in the morning. As I said, be realistic. However, you should know that the adage about early to bed and early to rise has a lot of merit. The reason is important to understand. öCognitive capacity varies during the day.ò By "cognitive capacity," I mean the speed and efficiency with which you can process verbal information. Your thinking is sharper and clearer at certain times of the day. For most people who have a regular get-up time at somewhere between six and seven in the morning, peak mental ability occurs during the middle hours of the morning. It usually takes well over an hour to reach this peak, and it begins to wane an hour or so before noon.
In many cultures, midday is siesta time as cognitive capacity is somewhat diminished. It reaches a second peak during the middle of the afternoon although not as high as in the morning. Another period of diminished capacity occurs during early evening, with a third and still lower peak during mi-evening. The lowest level of cognitive functioning is during the hours one normally sleeps.
Insofar as possible, you should take this up-and-down cycle of cognitive capacity into account when planning your weekly schedule. Try to put as many of your mentally demanding activities into times when you are likely to be at your best. Although you are constrained by the available class schedule, you can adjust your own sleeping and eating schedule to accomodate to things you can't control.
Begin by entering into your weekly schedule all known obligatory events. These will be your class hours, your work hours, and perhaps other regular commitments such as attending church services. You may wish to darken the lines around those hours to make them stand out in the schedule. Then set a regular get-up time that is at least an hour before your first regular commitment. Your get-up time establishes a normal bedtime to allow for eight hours sleep. You now are ready to make tentative plans for the remaining time periods.
Assuming that being a student is your primary obligation, you should next identify potential study times. Follow the rule-of-thumb that schedules twice as many study hours as you have class hours. If you complete your assignments in fewer hours, you will have more time to play; if your assignments require more time, you'll have to borrow from your play time. Remember that the weekly schedule is flexible and you're only setting some general guidelines.
In identifying potential study times, I urge you to take into consideration a very well-established principle of learning, namely:
Accordingly, there are two things to keep in mind when locating study times in your weekly schedule: Try to choose times when you are likely to be in high mental gear, and distribute your study times throughout the week. Right before and after classes are particularly appropriate times, but include other times that are separated by lots of play time. Times of high cognitive capacity on Saturday and Sunday mornings are also good (except when you party on Friday and Saturday nights!). Most importantly, set a schedule that is reasonable.
Many students stop filling out their weekly schedule after they have completed their obligatory class and work hours, and their study times. However, I recommend that you continue with the exercise such that you very clearly set aside some time for other activities that are important in your life. One such activity is day-dreaming. Many students have been caught day-dreaming in class and have been led to believe that doing so is wasting time. To be sure, one should listen attentively in class but one also needs time for day-dreaming. In my own personal experience, my favorite private time was when mail was delivered. Even when I didn't get a letter, I'd re-read an old one and let my mind enjoy thoughts of family, friends, and hopes for what the future would bring.
In addition to body-maintenance activities, there may be other things that you may want to plan in your weekly schedule. Television shows that you like to watch, time to read poetry or fiction instead of textbooks, practicing sports/hobbies/talents, and time for social activities. As you get closer to filling each minute with the "sixty seconds worth of distance run," there really is enough time to do all those things you want to do.