How to Create a Study Schedule to Manage a Busy Student Life and Get Results.

If you’re a student, like everyone else, you’re often juggling other activities such as leisure time, family commitments, and other forms of work. Time management and creating a plan or schedule are important to keep on track of your goals — whatever level of education you’re at.

Mapping out when, where, what and how you’re going to focus on study will help you get through the academic year and get those all-important pass marks at the end. Read on to learn how to create a PDF study schedule to help improve study skills that you’ll use and stick to.

What you’ll learn

• What you’ll get from creating a study schedule
• What to include in a study timetable
• Creating a study schedule
• Incorporating your learning style(s) into your study plan
• Following your study timetable

What you’ll get from creating a study schedule.

Spending a little time on developing a study timetable or plan will pay you back in no time. Some of the benefits of scheduling your time when you’re a student include that you’ll —

• Manage your time effectively and efficiently.
  Time management is a valuable skill to learn and practice. Creating a study plan will help you dedicate and allocate time into manageable chunks for when you study, relax, and go about your daily life.

• Create consistency and routine.
  If, and when, life becomes a little chaotic, it’s difficult to learn. Setting out a routine helps you to focus and concentrate on what you need to do, and when.

• Set goals and track your progress.
  Study schedules don’t have to be static documents. Make them interactive and include specific goals, milestones, and record your progress. This will help you to stay motivated and feel like you’re achieving what you set out to do.

What to include in a study timetable.

Creating a student planner is a personal process. No one size is going to fit everyone. However, the things every student should consider are —

• Your current schedule.
  Think about what you know your daily routine already involves. This includes allowing time for —
  • Class time — virtual, in-person, and block courses
  • Commuting/travel time — time to get to class, use public transport, etc.
  • Breaks — meals and shorter 10–15-minute intervals as needed
  • Work commitments — any paid or voluntary work that you do
  • Leisure activities — social time, exercising, sports, hobbies, etc.
  • Sleep!

• Your study subjects, activities, and goals.
  Consider the number of subjects or topics that you want to complete in a term, semester, or academic year. Along with regular daily or weekly time dedicated to each subject or course, think about time for essay and assignment preparation and studying and revising for tests and exams.

Create a study schedule.

Once you’ve thought through what you need to include in a study timetable, start mapping it out. Be specific and be realistic.

• Timetable templates.
  You can start with a planner or calendar template and customize it to match you and your study needs. You’ll find plenty of free editable templates on Adobe Express to get you started.
  
  You can also easily work with predesigned templates in formats such as Word and Excel, and then convert files to PDF online or in an application to add interactive features and open your schedule as a PDF across your devices.

• Start a study template from scratch in Adobe Acrobat.
  Feeling creative? If you haven’t already got a subscription to Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Pro through your academic institution, check out what you can do in the free trial download of Adobe Acrobat. Create a blank page, and use the tools and features at your fingertips to let your planning begin!

Know your learning style(s) and incorporate them.

We don’t all learn things in the same way. There are several different recognized learning styles — each reflects the ways a person may prefer to learn and process new information.

Identify your preferred learning style and incorporate allocated time dedicated to studying in this way in your study schedule. Be specific in your student planner about how you are going to study. Balance out the ways you find it more difficult to learn that may be compulsory components of your coursework with ways that you do find it easy and enjoy learning.

To identify your preferred learning style(s), consider how you naturally tend to remember information at school and in everyday life and at school. For example, are you more inclined to remember something when you hear it, see it, or read about it?

At the same time, be flexible. The more you do something, the easier it can be. So, include a combination of different learning styles as much as you can to increase your ability in each and develop study skills that you will still be using long after you finish your education.

Some common learning styles, and how to incorporate these elements in your study timetable PDF to keep you engaged with it, include —

• Visual learning.
  Visual learners prefer using images, diagrams, charts, and other visual aids to understand and retain information. They learn best by seeing.
  
  If you’re a visual learner, include images and diagrams in your study timetable. Along with inserting images and media content into PDF files, you can easily convert images to PDF as well.

• Social learning.
  Social learners thrive in group settings. They understand and absorb information more readily in environments that involve interaction, collaboration, and engagement with others.
  
  If you’re a social learner, form study groups and schedule time to spend with others. If you can’t meet face to face, use Adobe Acrobat to drop links to prescheduled Zoom or video call meetings into your student planner.

• Kinaesthetic learning.
  Kinaesthetic learners learn best through direct experiences, movement, and physical activities. They prefer learning by doing, touching, and manipulating objects.
  
  If you learn and engage by touching and doing, make your PDF study timetable interactive. Include elements such as checkboxes and dropdown menus to select what you are going to do. Use the online PDF editor to insert interactive elements into your PDF timetable.

• Read/write learning.
  Read/write learners prefer to process information through reading and writing. They learn best by taking notes, reading textbooks, and writing summaries or explanations.
  
  If you learn best by reading and writing, include text fields in your study plan where to summarize and reinforce that you achieved what you set out to in your study plan. Or make your PDF study timetable a body of work — add pages to a PDFwith updates and progress.

• Auditory learning.
  Auditory learners learn best through listening. They prefer spoken explanations, lectures, discussions, and audiobooks to understand and remember information.
  
  If this is you, use the Read Out Loud option in Adobe Acrobat Reader to have your study schedule talk to you about what you’re going to do on a particular day or week.

Tips for following a study timetable.

Once you’ve put all that hard work into creating a student timetable, follow it! Study skills include the ability to review and revise, so do that with your plan too.

• Stick to your timetable.
  Life does happen and there will be times when you need to be flexible and adapt. But if you regularly follow your timetable, it will become a habit and part of your everyday routine in no time.

• Take your timetable with you.
  The beauty of PDFs is in the name. Portable Document Format. You can send, share, and edit a PDF across your devices and in the cloud. If you’ve created a master plan for every month and week of the year, separate it. Use tools in Adobe Acrobat like the ability to extract PDF pages, and more, to take what you need with you for the day or week.

• Review and adjust your timetable periodically.
  Regularly evaluate how effective your timetable is and whether it’s working for you. Go easy on yourself if you do find that you need to make changes. Life happens. It’s easy enough to edit a PDF as and when you need to.

Related content

Learning is an ongoing process. A few of our other related articles to help with the student journey include —

• Get Smart — A Student Guide on How to Use PDFs
• How to Create and Organize PDF Study Notes
• How to Make a Customized PDF Study Guide
• How to Showcase Your Skills in a Student CV