If you’re reading this article, it’s a good bet that you or someone you know is interested in getting a whole lot of good study work done in a very short period of time. To a large degree, the key to making the very most out of your day lies in knowing when you get your best work done and then acting on that knowledge. All of this boils down to a single question, is your “kick-back” time scheduled at the wrong time? You should develop a sense for when your own peak times the times when you are likely to be most effective, most enthusiastic and most detail-oriented typically arise.
So, take a brief moment now to chart what you feel to be your most productive and satisfying time periods during the course of an average day.
On a separate piece of paper, write down, from memory, a rough guess at what you did when over the last couple of days. (If you prefer, you can jot down the details of a period of time that seems more relevant to you, such as a volunteer job or an extended period of study at the library.) Just for now, focus on both study and work issues and your other activities. Write down everything you did, as best you can recall.
As a general rule, when were you happiest and most upbeat during the course of the day? When were you “stuck in neutral”? When did it seem as though you couldn’t manage to get much of anything done? If you’re like most people, you’ll find that you have good times and not-so-good times for tackling projects.
If you are an evening person, the hours between 4 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. are usually your prime time. It’s not that you can’t take on a project at 2 in the afternoon, but it so happens that, thanks to your own particular body chemistry, mind-set and accumulated habits, evenings are the time you feel best about doing what you are doing. That’s when you get the most done. That’s when the quality of your work tends to be the best. That’s when you have to be most careful about pointing my energy toward “leisure activities” (like surfing
the Internet) that have an unpleasant habit of sucking all the initiative out of a day.
If you’re trying to get a lot done at the last minute in your studies, it is absolutely imperative that you know and, whenever possible, take advantage of your own personal “prime-time” patterns.
Many a poor grade can be traced back to poor personal scheduling. In this case, I’m not talking about the type of poor scheduling where someone scolds you about how you should have started a paper a couple of weeks ago. I’m assuming you’ve put off whatever you have to do until just before it’s due and because this state of affairs has brought you to this article, I’ve got no problem with that looming deadline! (Personally, I think a lot of people get their best work done when they are forced to focus their attentions just before a due date.)
If you’re a “morning person” that is to say, if you generally feel strongest, most in control and most active before the noon hour you are doing yourself and your grades a disservice if you spend that time on non-study activities and then try to “buckle down” in the afternoon, the evening or, God forbid, past midnight. If you don’t schedule your day in a way that allows you to focus on your studies during your peak hours, you’re trying to do your best work at the wrong time. You’re likely to remember less, write more poorly and make fewer of the critical connections necessary to attain a good grade.
If you’re a “midday person” that is to say, if you generally feel strongest, most in control and most active after noon but before 5 p.m. you are doing yourself and your grades a disservice if you spend that time on non-study activities and then try to make up for it by downing a few cups of coffee to pull you through the sluggish evening (or morning) hours. You must work to schedule your study day in a way that allows you to focus your efforts during your peak hours otherwise you’ll be trying to do your best work at the wrong time.
It’s important for you to manage classroom and work commitments in a way that allows you to take advantage of whatever portion of peak time you can claim during the course of the day. If you don’t, your memory won’t be working at peak efficiency, your writing skills will suffer, and your ability to draw conclusions and make connections will be less impressive than it should be.
If you’re an “evening person” that is to say, if you generally feel strongest, most in control and most active after 5 p.m. or so you will not be performing up to your full capacity unless you find some way to take advantage of your ability to do study work at this time of the day. For you, the occasional late-night session may make a good deal of sense. If you let work, classroom or social commitments affect your schedule in such a way that the bulk of your study and research time is concentrated in the morning hours or the first half of the day, you will be trying to get your best work done at the wrong time. Know your cycles and peak performance times, and schedule accordingly. If you don’t, you’ll likely have problems remembering key points, your ability to compose text for reports won’t be as strong as it should be, and you won’t be making the key connections and parallels that will help you win good grades.