I know, I know. Who likes to sit around and plan what they’re doing every second of the day? As college students, we want to live life day by day and use the freedom that we didn’t have in high school to do whatever we want, even if that freedom is used to drive an hour out of town just to eat at Whataburger. But trust me when I say that planning out your schedule is key to doing well in school. Finals are coming up very soon for most of us, and with the end of the school year seems to come every event that could possibly be squeezed into four weeks.

Planning out your schedule, including time in class, extracurricular activities, and even study time helps you to manage your time wisely. It helps you to be honest with yourself about how much time you’re going to need writing that research paper or studying for that test. It also helps you to see all the little gaps of free time and encourages you to use them wisely instead of scrolling through Instagram for that hour break between classes.

I recently started planning my schedule using Google calendar and it has worked very well for me. I color code each type of activity so that I can see what I am doing that week at a glance. For example, all of my classes are dark blue, and all of the activities I do with my social club are dark green. You can set things like classes to repeat every other day until the end of the school year, which takes much of the work out of planning your schedule since the things that you do every week are already there for you to see. Then you just have to fill in the gaps.

So how does this make you a better student? When you see how much time you have to study or do homework for a class, it motivates you to actually do that work. For example, if a paper is due Friday and it is only Sunday, most of us will think, “Oh I have plenty of time to work on that, it’s not due for four more days!” However, when you look at your schedule and see how much time you really have, you might find out that you actually only have the equivalent of two days to work on your paper. Knowing this and having your schedule in front of you allows you to use the time you have left and plan exactly when you will work on your homework or write that paper. This keeps you accountable and motivates you to use your time wisely.

Not only can planning your schedule help your grades, it can help you do well in other areas of your life. I am busier now than I’ve ever been before in college. The strenuous classes require a lot of time to prepare for them. Other activities, such as being in a social club, a leadership team, or having a part time job can also consume your time. If I didn’t schedule out my week I would no doubt forget important events and activities. Scheduling helps you keep track of these things. I like to have a list where I can write everything I have to do down. Even if I don’t schedule the things I have to do yet, I at least know that it is written down on that list and that I won’t forget it. I can then use this list to plan my week and figure out when I am going to complete each task.

So where do you start? I am a perfectionist and will spend forever planning my schedule and organizing where I’m going to be and when, but I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea. You do not have to plan every second down to, “I am going to walk to the science building from 8:50 a.m. to 8:55 a.m.” to effectively manage your time. To get started I would either use Google calendar or even just write it out on a sheet of paper. Fill in your class schedule first. Next, fill in any event going on that week. Do you know that you have to go to a Peer Instruction meeting for a class at least once that week? Go ahead and fill it in. Have intramural water polo at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night? Write that down too. Just having that much of your schedule planned out and in front of you to see will show you how much time you really have that week and when you will need to make time to complete assignments.

All that being said, it is still very important to schedule time for yourself. Time to do absolutely nothing. Time to hang out with friends or watch Netflix. If you do nothing but study and go to event after event every week, you will become tired and run-down very quickly. We need to remember to actually enjoy the things that we are involved in and not waste our time worrying about doing everything on our schedule. I’d be the first to admit that my schedule does not usually happen as planned. That’s just how life is. However, having that schedule that I can go to and see what needs to be done guides me in the right direction and helps me to not totally waste all of the time that I am given.