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Nobody plans to fail their university course or degree. You come to university because you have a specific goal and vision in mind - you want to walk out of here, knowing that you gave it everything to successfully graduate from UCC. This section serves as a first step towards turning your vision into reality by guiding you in learning how to develop and implement a solid personal Study Action Plan (SAP) for yourself.

What is a SAP?

An action plan is generally defined as a checklist for the steps or tasks you need to complete to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. It is a crucial part of your overall planning process.

A Study Action Plan , in more detailed terms, can thus be referred to as a checklist for the steps or tasks you need to complete to achieve your specific academic goals that you have set for a certain test, exam or even a semester. Aspects of your SAP include:

- A well-defined description of the academic goal / goals to be achieved

- Tasks / steps that need to be carried out to reach this academic goal / goals

- When will the tasks be completed - deadlines and milestones

- Resources needed to complete the tasks

- Measures to evaluate progress

What’s great about having everything listed down in one particular place, is that it makes it easier to track progress and effectively plan things out. Your SAP is not something that is set in stone. As the semester progresses, and your surrounding circumstances change, you will have to revisit and make adjustments to your plan to ensure that you stay on track and still achieve your academic goals.

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Why do I need a SAP?

Failing to plan is planning to fail - this saying really is true. Planning helps you prepare for the obstacles ahead and keep you on track of your studies. And with an effective SAP, you can boost your productivity and keep yourself focused to get the most out of your studies.

Below are some benefits of drawing up a SAP for yourself:

It gives you a clear direction - As an action plan highlights exactly what steps to be taken and when they should be completed, you will know exactly what you need to do.
It increases motivation and commitment - Having your goals written down and planned out in steps will give you a reason to stay motivated and committed throughout your studies.
You can track your progress - Having a SAP in place, will assist you in tracking your progress towards your specific academic goals.
It will help you prioritise your tasks - Since you are listing down all the steps you need to complete in your action plan, use it to prioritize these based on effort and impact.

Below are 6 steps explaining how to personalise your SAP. For each step there is a template to download and create your own personal Study Action Plan.

① Define End Goal

Make sure that your goal is SMART

- Specific – well-defined and clear.
- Measurable – include measurable indicators to track progress.
- Attainable – realistic and achievable within the resources, time, money, experience, etc. you have.
- Relevant – align with your other goals.
- Timely – has a finishing date.

You can download a SMART Goal Worksheet at this link.

② List Steps To Follow

Now that you have a SMART goal. What exactly should you do to achieve it?

List down all the tasks you need to perform, together with the due dates. Make sure that each task is clearly defined and is achievable. If you come across larger and more complex tasks, break them down into smaller tasks that are easier to execute and manage.

You can download a Task Sheet at this link.

③ Prioritise Tasks & Deadlines

It is time to reorganise the list by prioritising the tasks. Some steps, you may need to prioritise as they can be blocking other sub-steps.

Add deadlines, and make sure that they are realistic.

You can download a Task Sheet With Deadlines at this link.

④ Set Milestones

Milestones can be considered as mini goals leading up to the main goal at the end. The advantage of adding milestones is that they give you something to look forward to and help you stay motivated even though the final due date is far away. Start from the end goal and work your way back as you set milestones. Remember not to keep too little or too much time in between the milestone you set. It’s a best practice to space milestones two weeks apart.

You can download a Milestones Sheet at this link.

⑤ Identify Resources

Before you start working on a specific task, it is crucial to ensure that you have all the necessary resources at hand to complete the tasks. For example, text books, your laptop, etc. If these are not currently available, you need to first make a plan to acquire them.

This should also include your budget. You can assign a column of your action plan to mark the cost of each task if there are any.

You can download a Task Budget Sheet at this link.

⑥ Visualise

The point of this step is to create something that you can understand at a glance and something that motivates you when looking at it.

Whether your action plan comes in the shape of a flowchart, Gantt chart, or table, make sure that it has all the elements so far – tasks, deadlines, resources, etc.

You can download a Personal SAP template at this link.

Developing a personal SAP