by Nathaniel Paradise

Created on: September 09, 2007   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

They call it a day planner, but the name is misleading. This tool, indispensable for success in college, is really a semester planner. Sure, you use it to structure your days, but the real benefit comes from using a day planner to keep control of your time and energies over the long haul.

Why use a planner? Think about how many hours per week you have to study to be successful in college-for most students, about 35 hours per week or more. Add that to the 15 hours you spend in class, the 15-20 hours per week you may be working, exercising time, eating time, socializing time, and-oh yes! sleep!-and you can see how things can get out of hand, fast.

Start putting your planner to work for you the first week of the semester, as soon as you have all your syllabi. Work through the entire semester, writing in your planner the due dates for every major assignment, paper, or exam. Then go back and write in a warning to yourself one week before each due date: "Exam next week! Start preparing now!" Do this, and you'll never be caught off guard in class.

Write in your study times as well. Studying is a commitment, one that is easier to stick to if you treat it like any other scheduled obligation. Having your study time recorded in your planner makes it easier to manage one of the biggest challenges of college life: saying no to friends who want to do something with you. If friends invite you to go hang out, catch a movie, or grab a coffee, but you have homework to do, it's much easier to face their pressured invitations if you can check your planner and tell them you're committed until a particular time (which you have set aside in your planner for studying) but can join them afterward.

Of course, all this assumes you actually look at your planner after writing things in it. Make a habit every Sunday of reviewing the upcoming week in your planner. Obviously, you'll also want to check it every morning since, after all, it is a "day planner."

Get a day planner and use it. Without a doubt, a day planner is the single most useful tool for assuring success in college.

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