How to have a productive week as a UC Berkeley student
As this fall semester got started, the buzz around going back to classes and preparing for school made me reflect on what I learned about being a productive college student last year. It can often feel like time is speeding by, as our campus is electrified with academic and social bustle. Before you know it, another jam-packed week has passed. If you’re looking to make the most of your time as a UC Berkeley student, here are five tips that I use to help me feel more organized and successful throughout my week.
1. Plan in advance
A productive week starts with planning in advance. Everybody has their own way to stay organized, whether that be a physical planner, a digital planner like Notion, or your bCal (Google Calendar attached to your berkeley.edu email). Regardless of your chosen method, I recommend planning out your week in advance — noting down important dates, deadlines, and special events. By doing so, I know what my workload looks like for the next few days, and I can get a sense for how I will spread out my study sessions.
My bCal from last semester. Using bCal helps me keep my classes, club meetings, and other important events and due dates organized.
Set your semester up for success. Zooming out further, being intentional when you are selecting classes for the semester will facilitate a productive week. Of course, ensuring that you are taking the courses that you need for your major and college requirements is top priority, but I also recommend considering how you group your classes throughout the day. Personally, I prefer to have my classes clustered together, with breaks that are ideally two hours or longer. I find that a shorter break between classes isn’t enough time for me to chip away at a significant amount of work. Using the Schedule Planner feature (located in the “My Academics” tab of CalCentral) is especially helpful for previewing your semester!
I used the Schedule Planner feature on CalCentral to design possible schedules for the upcoming semester.
2. Break it down
Outline a plan for larger tasks. Speaking from experience — if you’re looking ahead to your week and you simply put “write paper” or “study for final” on your to-do list, you aren’t setting yourself up for productivity. Seeing an important, multi-stage project all on its own is daunting. It makes it harder for me to get started, and ultimately leads to procrastination. I find it helpful to create smaller “assignments” for myself, rather than setting one deadline for the big task. For example, instead of putting “study for final” on my schedule, I will break up the lecture content I want to review across the week, setting a goal to complete three reviews per day. Breaking tasks down in this way helps me get over that initial intimidating feeling, and transforms a big project into something more manageable.
3. Be intentional with your studying
How you study matters. Before beginning to study, it’s important to consider what you want to accomplish by the time you finish, and the method you will use to achieve that goal. It takes some time to figure out what study practices work best for you, and this also depends on the subjects that you are studying for. As an English major, the goal for most of my work sessions is to make progress on writing a paper or reading my assigned texts. To ensure that I am actively picking up the material of my readings, I like to use the method of physically annotating them. Writing down my questions, ideas, and notes right next to the text itself helps me actively work from confusion to understanding, rather than passively skimming through the text. However, depending on what you are studying, you may find yourself relying on different methods to make the most of your study sessions — physical flashcards to aid in active recall of key terms, writing down important content from lecture reviews, or going over particularly confusing problems.
I like to purchase used copies of my required readings so I can physically annotate the text with a pen.
Keep track of time while you study. As much as I don’t want to admit it amongst all of these tips about productivity, I’ve definitely found myself picking up my phone in the middle of studying, telling myself I’ll get back to work in five minutes, just to end up scrolling for, ahem, much longer than that. The urge to go on my phone intensifies when I’m feeling confused, bored, or facing writer’s block. This is why I would recommend implementing some sort of time-keeping strategy while working. I like to use a 50/10 method — I write, read, or study for 50 minutes (with my phone out of sight, in my bag!), and then take a 10-minute break. I will also set a goal for what I want to complete in each 50-minute segment, which helps keep me on track. The Pomodoro Technique is also popular (25-minute intervals with five-minute breaks in between). Experiment with different methods of time-keeping throughout your study sessions, and you will quickly find yourself feeling more focused and productive!
4. Utilize your resources
If you’re feeling stuck, Berkeley can help you! If you’re struggling with a certain course, feeling unmotivated and unproductive, or just overwhelmed by your workload, it’s important to remember that you aren’t alone. Everybody has gone through periods of academic challenges, and Berkeley has many resources available if you are feeling this way. If you’re confused about a certain class, I would recommend starting by attending office hours and chatting with your professor about the course material. You might also find it helpful to check out our Student Learning Center (SLC), which offers regular tutoring each week for certain courses, where you can receive help from fellow students. If you’re looking to be a more effective learner as a whole, the SLC also facilitates a Strategic Learning Program, which includes direct coaching and group workshops. Finally, studying with friends or classmates can help you feel less alone in your confusion, and having multiple perspectives allows you to further develop your understanding of the course material.
5. Remember to rest and recharge
Rest is just as important as work. My final tip for a productive week is to intentionally incorporate time to rest, recharge, and spend time with friends. In the midst of trying to be ultra-productive and meet all of your deadlines, it’s easy to forget that you have a life outside of school, too! It’s important to not let your schoolwork be all-consuming, and to be mindful of your mental and physical health by giving yourself time to rest. Also, I’ve found that when I catch up with a friend or spend time on an activity I enjoy, I return to my work feeling refreshed and more focused because I’ve given my brain a break.
You’ve got this!
Whether you’re about to start your first semester as a Golden Bear or you’re looking to make the most of your last year of college classes, I hope that these tips help your weeks feel more organized and your work feel more effective.
Shae Cogswell, Class of 2029, is majoring in English.
Want more?
- Learn about study groups, where you can study with peers.
- Check out these three habits of successful students for more academic advice.
- Discover more free academic and wellness resources available for UC Berkeley students.