Despite its brevity, this may just be the best time you spend all week,
because you will reap the benefits of it throughout the week and
beyond!
First, identify anything you need to do this week that is not yet
written in on your daily calendar. Look at your long-term calendar
to determine what tasks need to be completed this week for all of
your major school projects. Add any additional tasks that must be
done—from sending a birthday present to your sister to attending
your monthly volunteer meeting to completing homework that may
have just been assigned.
Remember to break any long-term or difficult projects into small,
“bite-size” tasks that can be included on your schedule. As Henry
Ford said, “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
Hence, the assembly line.
Once you have created your list, you can move on to the next step—
putting your tasks in order of importance.
Prioritize Your Tasks
When you sit down to study without a plan, you just dive into the
first project that comes to mind. The problem with this approach
has been discussed earlier: There is little guarantee that the first thing
that comes to mind is the most important.
If you find yourself forgetting to transfer data back and forth from
your long-term calendar to your daily calendar (or vice versa), or you
simply need even more help keeping the most important tasks in mind,
a Priority Task Sheet is another tool you can use. Its sole purpose is
to help you arrange your tasks in order of importance (not to record
them—that’s the job of your calendar). That way, even if you find
yourself without enough time for everything, you can at least finish
the most important assignments. You can’t effectively deal with
today’s priorities if you still have to contend with yesterday’s...or last
week’s!
86 How to Study