How to build a daily study routine that you can keep

The short answer

A good routine is one that you can follow on an ordinary day. Fix the same study hours every day, give the hardest subject to your most alert hours, study in blocks of 40 to 50 minutes with a short break, and write down the plan the night before. Keep a rest day each week, and do not let one bad day end the plan.

Step 1: Find your hours

1. Write down the fixed parts of your day: school, travel, prayers, meals, chores and sleep.
2. Mark the free blocks that remain. Most students find two or three blocks of one to two hours.
3. Choose the block in which you feel most awake for your hardest subject. For many students this is soon after school or early in the morning.

Step 2: Divide the subjects

1. List your subjects and mark each as hard, medium or easy for you.
2. Give more blocks to the hard subjects, but touch every subject at least three times a week.
3. Put practice subjects, such as maths and physics numericals, in the blocks when you are alert, and reading subjects in the later blocks.

Step 3: Plan each block

1. Decide the exact task before you sit down, such as five questions from one chapter or one diagram from memory.
2. Start with the plan, not with the phone. Keep the phone in another room.
3. Use the last five minutes of each block to write what you finished and what remains.

Exam weeks

• Move from reading to testing yourself: use past papers and chapter tests under time.
• Review your mistakes each day and make a list of the ones that repeat.
• Sleep at the usual time. Lack of sleep lowers memory more than a little extra study can help.
• On the evening before a paper, revise your short notes and prepare your pens, documents and route.

When the routine breaks

• Do not try to make up for lost time by doubling the next day. Return to the normal plan.
• Cut the plan, not the habit: on a bad day, do one block instead of three.
• Review the plan every Sunday and change the blocks that did not work.

Mistakes to avoid

• A plan that is too full, with no gaps for meals, prayer or rest.
• Studying only the subjects that you like.
• Reading notes again and again without testing yourself.
• Comparing your hours with those of other students. What matters is what you do in the time.

Where this comes from

• General study methods used by teachers and students. Check your own school timetable and your board's date sheet when you plan.