Weekly Schedule Template (Page 2 of 2) in pdf

How to Create Your Weekly Schedule

Step 1: Fixed Commitments: Enter all your fixed commitments into the schedule –when you need to be in a certain place at a certain

time. This can include classes, team practices, club meetings, your work schedule, family dinner, and other appointments.

Step 2: Health Habits: Next, enter your health habits into the schedule – when are you going to eat, sleep, and be physically active?

Be realistic: you may take a shorter lunch, but need an hour at dinner to walk to the cafeteria, eat, chat, drink tea, and walk home.

Also, block off 7-9 hours each night for sleep – getting enough sleep allows you to be a functioning, efficient student!

Step 3: Estimate Hours of Homework: Estimate how many hours of homework you’ll need to stay on top of your courses and meet

your goals. Write down all the things you need to do on a weekly basis for each of your courses. On average, for most courses, for

every 1 hour you spend in class, you should be spending a minimum of 1 hour outside of class doing homework. This means that if

you have 15 hours of class each week, expect to spend a minimum of 15 hours a week doing homework; labs and other assignments

will take additional hours depending on the extent of the write-up. School is a full-time job!

Step 4: Assign Homework to Blocks of Time: Input these hours of homework into your weekly schedule. Look for blocks of time (1,

2, or 3 hours) that are open in your schedule: these may be your homework times. Using a coloured marker, outline the blocks

during which you can commit to doing homework, aiming for the hours you estimated in Step 3. Be specific: assign a specific task for

a specific course to a certain block. For example, ‘on Tuesdays from 9-11am, I do my weekly readings for Psyc 100’ .

Step 5: The rest of the schedule: The schedule is flexible, so add in whatever elements you want:

• Add time on Sunday night to look ahead at the upcoming week and make a new To Do list and weekly schedule

• Some people like to identify more hours for study than they need, to give themselves flexibility to choose when they study.

Others build in a 2-3 hour ‘reserve bank’ of time that is only used if they don’t do homework during a scheduled time and

need to ‘pay themselves back’ for the missed time.

• Schedule other life activities: grocery shopping, laundry, hanging with friends, calling home.

Try this method of designing your weekly schedule, and if you find that it’s not for you and you are looking for alternative ways of

managing your time, or if you would like to talk with someone to help you refine your weekly schedule, you can book a 1:1 advising

appointment with a friendly Learning Strategist by calling 613 533 6315.

Learning Strategies, Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON

sass.queensu.ca/learningstrategies/

Weekly Schedule Template Page 2