Planning for Academic Success: Proactive Planning from Day 1
As an academic there are very few things that are as exciting as August and September, the start of a fresh, new academic year. It is an opportunity to start anew, to hit the reset on how we approach the year. No matter how well or poorly the previous semester was, a new semester is a time to re-evaluate and consider how we can be more ambitious and proactive in how we treat our studies. I say this as a student who went from a B to A student in my junior year of college. A big part of success is brushing off what we didn’t love about the previous semester and never feeling like we can’t become the student we want to be. Furthermore, this year we’re dealing with an unprecedented and new learning environment with many of us confronting hybrid or completely virtual (which means your material space is probably home which is its own brand of chaos) learning. Thus we have to be even more “self-driven” as the job ads like to call it. Today I’m going to take you inside of the planning strategy that turned me from a B to an A student AND carried me through my Ph.D. with plenty of honors and distinctions along the way. Whether you’re just starting high school or entering your final year of college, let’s talk about some planning steps that can help get you on track, starting with some tools.
Here are some of the items I recommend you have at the ready starting the new school year:
A planner. I recommend the standard weekly, monthly, or bullet journal. If you’re going to use the bullet journal method I recommend getting your bullet journal set up now with a future log and a monthly spread for your first month of school. If you like having a weekly and daily plan, make those spreads as well. For some inspiration on bullet journaling you can see my post).
Pens! I recommend having a black pen, a blue pen, and four distinct and eye-catching colors in addition to the black and blue. I use fountain pens, but any brand of pen is fine.
A highlighter: and it’s not a bad idea to have three to four distinct colors. I use Zebra Mildliners but you should pick the highlighters that appeal to you.
Additional tools just for starting the semester prepared:
A folder: I like to have one standard paper or plastic (the plastic ones are more durable) folder that I use as a catchall for syllabi, handouts, and any loose-leaf pieces of paper that accumulate in the day-to-day of attending class. I use one folder and then I bring these materials home and file them.
three to five files: At the beginning of every semester I make one file for each of my classes. When I get my syllabi I put these in their respective, clearly labeled files. Any time I receive handouts or accumulate any loose-leaf I endeavor to move that material from my catchall folder that I carry in my bag to my more structured home filing system.
A notebook per class. You pick what works for you. I always used composition notebooks and this is probably because I’m left-handed so spirals and 3-ring binders are painful, but, in addition to this, I find spiral notebooks are NOT durable and the spirals always either warp (metal) or break (plastic) over the course of the semester. Composition books are great because they lie flat, they are durable, and, I find, it takes extra effort to keep track of any looseleaf method of note taking. Whatever you do, you should NOT show up to your first day of class or any day of class with nothing to write on! If, like me, you use a bound notebook for notes, keep some loose-leaf in your catchall folder for pop quizzes or in-class writing assignments.
Something to write with! Pens, pencils, a stylus, your laptop keyboard. I recommend writing rather than typing; it is supposed to be more effective for your memory, but in either case, always have some way of taking notes.
So, now that you have the basic tools for academic success (pay attention to any other course specific tools listed on your syllabi), let’s move onto setting up your planner!
Sophia’s August monthly spread and task list. This is the basic bullet journal planning spread. I’ve been bullet journaling for three years and I still prefer to use the basic spreads. I think they’re simple and to the point. For me, they get the job done.
So, it’s the end of August or the beginning of September. You’ve put together your preliminary supplies for class, and the first day of classes have arrived. Usually the first week of classes is all syllabus collection and going over the course, and for many students this is one of the most stressful weeks of the school year because you’re going over the entire semester and facing all of the work that is to come. Usually this is the time when that first wave of overwhelm sets in, but, it’s okay! You’ve got this. Think of your syllabi as a large corporate project you’ve been given by your boss. Now it’s time to start breaking it down into smaller tasks and doing the day to day work to bring that larger accomplishment (passing the course) to fruition.
Step 1: Attend class. Whether it’s online or in person download or pick up your syllabi and attend the course virtually or in person to go over the syllabus! This is an intense day of each course and from the teacher’s side of things I get the sense that this is when a lot of students get overwhelmed and sometimes even decide to transfer classes. The hard part of transferring from one class to another is that you usually miss the first day of class, and I find many students do not realize this means they will need to be even more proactive by downloading the syllabus from blackboard; emailing the professor if the syllabus isn’t available; asking a fellow student if you can copy their notes from the first day; visiting your professor’s office hours to see if there is anything else they think you should know and to address any questions that you have regarding the syllabus once you’ve READ IT.
Step 2: Now that you’ve collected one or all of your syllabi, you’re ready to get started planning, right? Go to your ideal environment. If you’re like me you like to take your syllabi back to your dorm room for this next step, but this year we’re contending with the extra complication of COVID, so, if you live in New York and you like to work in public put that mask on and go to an outdoor cafe or park bench, or spread out a picnic blanket at a respectful social distance, whatever gets you feeling the most relaxed and excited for work. if you’re at home put your syllabi on your desk or sit on your bed, on the kitchen table, whatever environment you have access to where you can achieve maximum concentration. Finally, if you thrive on working socially you can organize a Zoom planning group session where you and your friends get together to do your planning if this will help make the process more fun and keeps you more accountable. Actually, the fun of zoom is that you can even incorporate your friends at different colleges and start learning from your colleagues at different institutions!
Step 3: get your highlighter out and go through every syllabus you have to highlight major due dates. Personally, because this is my method of planning, as a teacher I list all the due dates in one spot labeled Major Due Dates but not every professor does this, which is why using a highlighter is so useful. Really comb over your syllabi and make sure that you have highlighted every major assignment and its due date. Maybe even do a second pass tomorrow, just to make sure you didn’t miss a major assignment.
Step 4: Now that your assignments are highlighted assign each class a different eye catching pen color, red, green, blue, pink, whatever. One color per class. Take one syllabus, the assigned pen color for that course, now go through your planner and write down the assignments on their due dates. You could even mark pages with major assignment dates with a post-it tab or some washi tape so you can easily flip to upcoming assignments. Repeat this step with each course in your planner, until all major due dates are written down.
Step 5: Sometimes professors leave it up to you to schedule particular assignments like smaller papers or to choose what date and what text you want to give an in-class presentation about. Now that you have all your hard deadlines written down, this is a good time to find the free or more relaxed weeks and to schedule any flexible assignments for those weeks if at all possible. Of course, if there is a reading or subject you desperately want to present on, then pick that presentation. However, if you feel it’s more important to strategically pick a week or series of weeks where you have more time, then schedule your presentations for those periods when you do not have other major exams, papers, or research assignments coming due.
Now, many assignments require more planning than simply knowing the assignment deadline. For exams it’s best if we study in advance. (I can do a ways to study post in the future if that is something people are interested in). While, to write a good paper or compose a good presentation also requires time. If you have two deadlines on the same day or within days of each other, planning ahead is even more pivotal because it’s the difference between being prepared and being overwhelmed. I recommend picking out dates in advance (using the pen color that matches the course you are preparing for) as goal dates for when you will begin studying, researching, or writing. Creating signposts in your planner will help you to be more proactive about seeing upcoming deadlines and doing small daily work to achieve the best results. You can be more or less detailed with this roadmap. It can be a fine line between creating a helpful schedule and cluttering up your planner to the point that you can no longer tell where the important dates are, but you should definitely have a one week warning for yourself for big assignments like tests, exams, papers, and presentations so you know at least a week in advance that you have one or several assignments coming due.
This is my weekly spread for the month, with some smearing and flaws. Don’t let mistakes (or perfectionism) stop you from being a proactive planner. I know I don’t. I like simple spreads like this for bullet journaling.
Now you have all the important deadlines tracked and you can head into the semester with your planner doing the heavy lifting of keeping track of your work and deadlines for you. I hope this post was helpful and relieved some of the usual stress of beginning of the academic year, maybe got you excited to begin a new year, and also hopefully helps with planning for an unusual academic year when everything seems to be in flux, nothing is normal, and many of us are trying to figure out how to be self-motivated now that school or work is happening from home.
If you want to see more content like this, whether it is advice for writing, advice for how to study efficiently, or anything else I can help you with as a lifelong learner and humanities Ph.D. leave a comment or write me an email. The more feedback I receive on what kind of content you like, the more I can better understand what helps you. Also, if you have any questions about planning feel free to leave them in the comments!