4.3 Making a plan

How you respond to this suggestion will depend on what sort of person you are. Many of us are great planners with timetables and lists for every part of our lives; others just get on with the priorities and everything else follows in due course. Planning is no guarantee everything will get done or that deadlines will be met, but the process of making a plan makes you focus on what the task entails and gives direction and purpose to your study. Studying does demand that most students need to plan their work and there is evidence that target setting and appropriate planning can enhance performance.

Plans can be as general or as specific as necessary depending on your purpose and preference. Remember to take into account any awareness you have of your preferred ways of working - your learning skills, styles and strategies. The aim is to help you begin to understand what approach to learning really works best for you, in the context of the course you are currently studying and your personal circumstances.

An action plan can be just a list of things to do, a chart giving deadlines, a diagram showing how the various parts of your plan interact, or a set of post-its on a sheet of card that you move around when each task is done. If you break down the overall task into a series of smaller targets, you can chart your progress in more detail. It's useful to have a way of recording your progress as well as a way of listing any sources of help that you need. You can even customise one of the more sophisticated electronic planners - if that is your preferred way of working. But do remember that your original plan may well have to be modified as you work towards your final target.