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4. Pulling It Together
Open your monthly calendar and take out your
course syllabi.
Record all of your course-related deadlines (es-
say deadlines, midterm dates, exam periods and
so on). For each one, include both the percent-
age it is worth and the course it’s for.
Using a different colour, record other regular
dates and deadlines (e.g. birthdays, medical
checkups, job commitments). Include the sea-
sonal activities and events that you identified in
section 3.
Post your monthly calendar in a prominent spot
in your room. This will allow you to see what’s
coming up well in advance, so you can prepare.
Transcribe the dates and deadlines from your
monthly calendar into your daily agenda planner.
Mark down all of your fixed commitments for the
coming week, such as lectures, tutorials, labs,
volunteer shifts and job shifts.
Refer to the map of natural tendencies that you
created in section 2 and then look ahead to what
projects are due within the next four weeks. With
the assistance of the Assignment C
alculator
,
break those projects down into smaller stages
on a separate piece of paper and then allocate
your most intellectually fruitful hours (the ones
you flagged in green) to these smaller stages
on a daily basis (e.g. every morning from 10:30
a.m. – 12 p.m., you’ll work on a specific step of
a research paper, and at 12 p.m. each day you’ll
break for lunch).
R
epeat this for each upcoming deadline. You
may not have enough “green” hours for all of
your intensive work, but the value of knowing
when they are is that you’ll be less likely to fritter
them away on passive tasks.
Refer again to the map of natural tendencies
that you created in section 2. For the next week,
mark off your projected bedtimes, meal times,
and windows for completing errands, chores and
passive work.
Refer to the wellness activities that you identi-
fied in section 3. Allocate at least two hours to at
least one of those activities in the coming week.
At the end of each day, take a few minutes to
assess what worked well for you and what didn’t
work well. It is always a good idea to prepare
for the following day the night before (e.g. make
your lunch, pack your backpack, charge your
phone) so that you can make the most of your
mornings.
