Looking for the best daily routine for students? Here are the tested and approved tips to make sure you get the best out of your university days.

Truthfully, creating a routine in college can be tricky! Each day will look different, with varying classes, and many random social events popping up, all while likely fitting in casual work around the clock. After being a full-time university student for too many years, I have tried it all, seen it all, and I’m ready to share the best tips for a successful student routine.

You are going to learn why routine is important (especially for students), the most important habits to incorporate, and how to make a daily routine that works for you.

After incorporating these tips, you are going to set yourself up for success. You’ll avoid procrastination, create a great balance between study and your social life, and spend time thinking only about the important stuff (i.e., your studies rather than what burrito to get for lunch !).

This post is all about the best daily routine for students.

Best Daily Routine for Students – Set yourself up for success!

Why are routines important? Especially for students?

Routines are consistent habits or sequences that just make your life easier. How? Because they allow your brain to think less. Without routines, your brain makes a lot more decisions throughout the day, which believe it or not, leads to fatigue. The actual scientific term is called decision fatigue, defined as the difficulty to make good decisions due to the number of decisions one makes throughout the day.

As students, reducing the load on your brain is even more crucial. You are expected to learn and take in new information on often daily which is extra fatiguing on your brain! Ideally, you want to save all that brain power on the important stuff, like writing essays, or revising for tests/exams, rather than wasting mental space on deciding what to eat (trust me I’ve been there – way too frequently). Creating a routine that works for you simply means you are saving your mental energy towards the more difficult and important stuff.

Good routines lead to less procrastination, more effective study sessions and greater life balance. Studies show that routines are linked to greater achievements, less stress, and higher academic success.

Now it’s important to note, there’s not one single routine that suits everyone. Some students work in the morning, and some work at night. Some live on campus, some live an hour away. Some students have university classes every day, others only once a week. In other words, these tips may be general in nature, and that is because truthfully the best daily routine for students is one that works for you. It needs to be something that is realistic to your situation, something you can consistently achieve, and that gets the most positive outcome for your situation. If you’re a bartender and often work until 2 am at night, waking up at 6 am is not going to be reasonable or realistic for you. Take these tips and adapt them in a way that suits you!

{READ: How to create a routine and stick to it! 11 Essential Tips }

Create a realistic schedule

The most successful routines are decided before they occur. Sit down and actually schedule your days. You want to be making these decisions at least the day before. If you’re a real keen bean, sit down on a Sunday or Saturday and plan out your whole week (woah look at you go)! Whether it’s the day before or the week before, time block your time. Get a calendar (I prefer google calendar) and write in everything on your agenda: your classes, your work shifts, any social events, your travel times, and even your lunch breaks! Ideally, you want to know what you are doing every hour of that day, leaving nothing up to your imagination (therefore reducing any decisions to be made on that day).

Once you’ve laid out your commitments for the week, you can see clearly where your time is being spent, and how much time around it you can dedicate to other things, i.e. study, exercise, NetFlix etc.

Scheduling makes you aware of your time which is the first step to creating the best daily routine for students.

Prepare as much as you can the night before

Now that you know what your day is going to look like, the next tip is to prepare as much as you can the night before. Our mental energy is sharpest in the morning (when we make the best decisions). We, therefore, want to do the easier things at night. Prepare your lunch (maybe even breakfast!), decide what you are going to wear for the day, pack your bag with your laptop or textbooks, and have everything that you might need ready. This means you’re less likely to forget something if you are in a rush to make a class or the train! Preparing for the day the night before means you will always be better prepared and less stressed when that morning alarm goes off!

Give yourself plenty of time in the morning

Now just because we have everything prepared the night before, doesn’t mean you get to sleep right until the last minute before class, you cheeky minx. I mean hey, no judgment, ultimately you do you, but rushing out of bed is not the calmest way to start your day (trust me, I’ve been there). Research shows that those that wake up earlier and give themselves more time before their daily commitments experience greater positive mental health benefits. Considering university has its stressful periods, keeping a calmer and happier mindset is of utmost importance. So whether you start class at 8 am or 12 pm, give yourself plenty of time prior. Check you have everything you need, and give yourself ample time for traveling. If you arrive early, even better! Read over the lecture notes or revise from the previous lesson. Don’t underestimate how much of a ‘feel-good’ it is to be early, punctual, organized, and ready to take in the information to be presented to you.

Prioritise the more difficult task at the start of the day

You’ve got the option of starting that difficult essay you’ve been dreading, or you can simply read over some articles. We’ve all been there. While you may convince yourself you’re still being productive, because “hey you’re still doing some kind of study !”, you’re still avoiding the more difficult task, and in essence still procrastinating. That is why you must always start with the most difficult thing. Remember when I was talking about decision fatigue? Well truthfully, our mind is always sharpest in the morning or at the beginning of our study session. Do your future self a favour and get that dreaded task out of the way as soon as possible. Even if you just dedicate 30 minutes to it, you will have moved it forward in some way or another and can try to do more the next day. Always get the tougher task done first, and then allow your study session to get easier as it goes, going with the flow of your mental energy.

Balance study with social

University or college life can be some years of great fun and many social memories! For some people, they are almost the reason you even go to university in the first place! Honestly, a balanced social life can bring a great amount of joy to your life, but balancing it all is the key to success. If you are out every night, which is then affecting your sleep and your ability to focus the next day, chances are you are going to be ill-prepared and stressed when the next assessment or test comes around. While I’m all for having fun, plan out your social events ahead, and think about important study times. If you have an essay due that week, perhaps limit your social outings to only one night so that you can really put your best foot forward, and concentrate during the day. The week after you may be free to go out and enjoy yourself a bit more. Practically look at your study schedule, the assessments that you have ahead, and schedule, schedule, schedule! You will have more fun being social when you don’t have any uni assessments lingering over your head. If you’ve been studying hardcore all week and been at the library every night, schedule some time with some friends to give your mind some relief. Every student is unique in what activity they tend to gravitate more towards, study or social time, so my main advice is to be aware. Find the balance between them both, because truly the ones that enjoy university the most are the ones that can find that balance!

Replace your usual social media time with study apps

This one is about auditing your current routines. How much time do you spend on your phone? or even social media? Studies show on average humans spend 4-6 hours on their phones, crazy! Imagine how much study you could fit in that time. It’s for this reason, that I highly recommend swapping some habits of checking social media with some study. There are some great apps and resources (quizzlet, anki, brainscape, cram just to name a few!).that allow cue cards to be easily accessible from your iPhone. On the train? Waiting for a friend? Sitting on the toilet (I know you take your phone into the loo you addicted millenial) ? Flick through and just get some extra study in. Study doesn’t always have to be sitting down in a library with complete focus. It can just be something you do for 5 minutes at any time of the day, anywhere. In fact the best kind of studying is truly when you’re using it to pass time anyhow. Make this switch from social to studying and you’ll be surprised how much more prepared you are for your next test/exam! What a great hack, I know.

So there it is. Some tips to really get the most out of your days. Now start planning out that new routine that works for you. Incorporate these ideas and you’ll be surprised how much more productive, efficient and happier you will be through these students’ years!