JumpStart Your Learning Tutorial: Develop a Weekly Routine

   At the end of this section, you should be able to develop a weekly study schedule.

Now that you are aware of a simple 5-step process that will help you become a better learner, it's time to plug each step of the process into a weekly calendar. This will give you a visual representation of how much free time you have in a week but more importantly, how much time should be dedicated to studying. Keep in mind, this is your own personal study routine so everyone's calendar will look a little different.

Organize Your Study Time

 The next video describes how the 5-Step Study Cycle can be used to organize your study time and plan your weekly schedule. Listen to Dr. Saundra McGuire describe the five steps of the study cycle in a little more detail. Pay close attention to the length of time she recommends spending on each step. When you are confident about when each step should be completed and for how long, complete the Weekly Study Schedule activity below.

This video can easily be watched at 1.5 times the speed and will pause at regular intervals to test your understanding. You cannot skip ahead but you can rewind in ten-second intervals .

Getting to know the features of the calendar in Canvas will help you complete your weekly schedule.

The picture below is of a student calendar as it appears in Canvas. All the courses you are enrolled in and the assignment deadlines that are set by your instructors will appear in your Canvas calendar. Note, however, that not all instructors will enter assignment deadlines so it is up to you to double check the syllabus of all your courses and enter the missing deadlines yourself. The next section explains how to enter events into your Canvas calendar.

Canvas Calendar Hotspot Activity

The calendar in Canvas allows you to see all of your assignments from all of your courses in one place. To learn more about the benefits of using the student calendar, click on the information hotspots in the picture below. In addition to all the course calendars in the right sidebar, take special note of the student calendar that always appears at the top of the list. This is where your own personal calendar will be. When you are done exploring the information hotspots, complete the Weekly Study Plan activity that follows.

Build Your Weekly Schedule

Photo by Jazmin Quaynor on Unsplash

To complete this activity, open your Canvas Calendar and, using the steps recommended on this Create a Weekly Schedule that Works page, create your own weekly schedule. Remember to start with your must-do's, adding the activities with the least flexibility first, and the most flexibility last. This printable weekly schedule can be used for your draft.

This exercise might seem trivial, but you will be amazed at how much more productive your week will be if you plan ahead. For an example of just how busy your weekly schedule can be as a full-time student, see the calendar on the bottom of the Create a Weekly Schedule that Works page.