Having a Daily Game Plan in College

This article discusses why you should have a daily game plan, and how it is different from simply having a schedule.

By Luke Stellick — January 17, 2023

Tags: daily routine, free time, organization, schedule building, time management

College life seems dull and repetitive. You wake up too early, head to your classes, get back to your room, and eventually sleep. There are many ways to fill in the time between classes and school work, and your free time can be a relaxing breath of fresh air. But why should you have a daily game plan, and how is it different than a schedule? There is an endless supply of articles talking about creating a concrete schedule for your college life. However, more written material about a daily game plan should be written. A schedule is something that is planned out from the future and is often ridged and stale, while a game plan is made from day to day. Much like a game of football, the game plan is there from the beginning. What makes it different is that it is flexible, changes often, and sometimes even fails.

Sleeping and Eating

We all wake up in the morning. Or in the case of many college students, they stay up all night and are forced to continue into the day. Regardless of the sleep you get, or lack thereof, one of the best things you can do to help yourself is to make a daily game plan. After waking up, spend some time looking at your schedule. You'll have classes, meetings, and even extracurricular activities. You will also have free time and time that you need to use to complete assignments. Looking at all of that, the best way to start a game plan is to determine when you'll sleep. Barring large projects or papers, starting your daily game plan with when you'll sleep is how you can gauge how much time you'll have that day. Pick something reasonable that will allow for the recommended eight hours of sleep.

Once you have laid the foundation of your daily game plan by deciding when you'll sleep, the next thing you need to plan is when and what you'll eat. Eating, next to sleep, is one of the best things you can do in college. While it doesn't seem necessary, missing out on the energy and benefits of eating can significantly impact your ability to focus and put in the effort to succeed. At the minimum, plan when you'll have dinner, and stick to that plan. Also, plan how long it will take to make and eat. This will act as a natural break from doing homework or projects and give you mini goals. Try to finish one whole assignment before the set dinner time. With sleeping and eating set in stone for your game plan, you can now start to fill in the gaps.

Coursework

The next step to creating a daily game plan is to plan around your schedule. You'll have classes, meetings, and other things you must attend or take care of throughout the day. When making a game plan, follow your schedule for the important stuff. It isn't about what is already decided but about the times between things still up in the air. If you have an hour break between classes, fill it in by starting an assignment or reading that boring chapter in your history book. Doing schoolwork will always be challenging, but filling in these holes through your schedule will help you manage your day.

Once you've filled in most of the holes, figure out what assignments are due and when you'll do them. Make your game plan efficient, so start to fill in the open spaces as soon as classes end, and you're free for the rest of the day. Manage your assignments, and be realistic with yourself. The game plan won't succeed if you're not honest about what you have due and how long it will take. This is equally the easiest and most challenging part of planning your game plan. Take time to assess what needs to be done and when you will do it. Plan to work on schoolwork until dinner and use dinner as a break. Then continue with school work until you have completed everything you had planned. You can move on to the fun part if you accomplish all this.

Free Time

If everything has gone well, you can now move on to planning your free time. This might seem a little weird at first, but keeping yourself within a plan is the best way to ensure that you don't become lazy or slack off, which would ruin everything you've planned. Planning free time is pretty relaxed and doesn't take much time. It's the last step in your daily game plan and can be the most impactful. Regardless of if you have a plan for the day, assignments will need to be done, and classes will need to be attended. So, when planning your free time, you have complete control over what you do and how long. You can plan to finish a video game, read for personal enjoyment, or hang out with friends. Use free time as a break between assignments or a way to close the day. Whatever you choose, planning what you'll do and how long gives you structure. We've all been there where we accidentally scroll through Instagram or TikTok for hours. Planning your free time, even loosely, will prevent this from happening.

The best part about a game plan is that it is not a schedule. Sometimes it goes exactly how you want it to go, and you have a productive day. Other times everything goes differently than planned. The game plan allows you to have a structured plan for each day, which you can change as the day progresses. If things don't go according to plan, you'll still have something you can back up on, such as when you want to sleep. A wrench in your plan is that you finish all assignments early and have nothing to do for the rest of the day. Game plans allow an easy way to plan your day-to-day life while using your schedule as a set-in-stone plan. They are flexible, easy to make, and give you goals to follow throughout your day, so you aren't mindlessly living day to day.

Luke Stellick

Born in Palos Heights, Illinois, Luke Stellick currently lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. A graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran College, he earned his bachelor's degree in history and continues to learn and read about history as a hobby.

View all posts by Luke Stellick