#assignment schedule

Step 1: Take all of your assignments and mark them on a calendar, that way you can see which ones are closer, and therefore the higher priority, as well as how many days you have until each task is due. 

Step 2: Write out a to-do list for each of your assignments, detailing all of the steps you need to take to get it completed. That will likely look something like this: 

Research

Take notes

Organise into points

Create outline

Write first draft

Write second draft

Edit

Step 3: Now that you have a similar list for each assignment, seperate the points into daily tasks, spanning the days before the assignment. That’ll look like this:

Day 1:

Research

Take notes

Organise into points

Day 2:

Create outline

Write first draft

Day 3:

Write second draft

Edit

Step 4: Repeat that step with all of your assignments, spanning the days until the last one is due. Likely the first few days will be quite heavy workflow-wise, but it’ll even out pretty quickly, especially as the first due comes and passes. 

I would highly recommend approaching this process with the intention to finish all assignments 2+ days before the actual due-date. That way, if another obligation comes up and takes time away from your studying, or you’re working slower than you previously expected, you have spare days to fall back on. 

Hello everyone! I’ve had some questions about the assignment schedule I posted here.

The idea was born out of my desire to eliminate the “Oh shit is that due tomorrow?!?!” late night moments of panic. I knew I wanted to have one master list of all of the things I needed to get done. Something about having absolutely everything I need to do written down and in front of me makes a challenging semester seem less daunting and more doable.

The best part about this schedule is that you can tweak it until it works for you! I chose to use Excel because it was more flexible than writing it in my planner, and I could add/delete tasks as the semester went on (and as professors changed the due dates a million times). 

During syllabus week, I go through each syllabus and list every task, reading, assignment or exam from the beginning of the semester all the way through finals week. By the end of the week, I have a comprehensive list of what I need to do for every single class, all in one place. I’m getting ready for the new semester and thought I’d walk everybody through how I organize mine:

Completed: mostly because I like to mark tasks off as I complete them, but also because it made it easier to quickly scan and find where I’m at in the list.

Type: I used this to discern between assignments and tests or quizzes, which I put in bold. I also put in the readings I assigned myself, and projects assigned by teachers.

Due Date: Alternating colors to block tasks by due date, so you can see at a glance how many things you need to do for that day.

Assignment: Quick description of the task or assignment. I put in any information given by the syllabus about the material the test covers. 

Class: Color coded! Amazing!

WHY HAVE I NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE?