preparing for university: creating a flexible timetable

This is another part of the 'Preparing for University' series in which I explain how I am timetabling my hours. When term starts, I will be balancing several things: uni work, netball, cooking, grocery shopping and some other more personal things. Because of this, I need to ensure I get a rough idea of how much spare time I will have and how much time I will devote to studying each week.

To do this, I have made a (somewhat ugly!) weekly timetable that I've printed out on A4 paper. In this, I will fill it in with the times I will be at uni, netball and other things that I know I will be doing for certain.

This is how Monday looks so far...

And with the week filled out:

The timetable is designed to be flexible and not a rigid thing that can't be changed. On alternate Saturday mornings, I may have a netball match and this hasn't been filled in but because of how I have arranged the study blocks, I can easily move that block to another day - or even get rid of it if I feel on top of my work.

Also, for the 'college' hours I have down, they aren't necessarily 100% contact times so I may have a block free for some study in the library while on campus. This can replace a study block that was originally intended for another day.

The number of study blocks for each week may be increased or decreased depending on how I get on with this timetable and the course; and that is what makes it 'flexible'.

One other thing is that this timetable can also be used for daily life and you could also use erasable pen or re-positionable sticky notes for it if you wanted.

However, I find this a good way to work out a rough plan of a normal week at uni - this way, I can be more realistic in terms of how many hours will be dedicated to each activity. For me, this isn't a timetable I will chop and change each week; it is a rough guide for estimating where my time will go. I will then review it at the end of the each term so that I will be prepared for the next term :)

I am aware that this system may not work for everyone - as some may prefer a more rigid schedule, but for me, this is enough.