ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: fergusthefrog on December 12, 2021, 11:41:30 pm

Title: study planner
Post by: fergusthefrog on December 12, 2021, 11:41:30 pm
hi everyone !
i want to buy a physical planner but i'm not sure if i will end up using it during the year so not sure if its worth the money...but the satisfaction of having a completed journal is also quite tempting :D does anyone use a physical planner or a digital planner (like notion or an excel sheet) to plan out your week and which one do you recommend?
also how do you make your study schedule?
Title: Re: study planner
Post by: VCEStudent2034 on December 13, 2021, 08:06:22 am
hi everyone !
i want to buy a physical planner but i'm not sure if i will end up using it during the year so not sure if its worth the money...but the satisfaction of having a completed journal is also quite tempting :D does anyone use a physical planner or a digital planner (like notion or an excel sheet) to plan out your week and which one do you recommend?
also how do you make your study schedule?

Hi fergusthefrog!

Personally, I use a digital study planner, because it is so much faster and easier. You can edit it whenever you need to without worrying about leaving a mess. Microsoft Excel is great for the job!
Title: Re: study planner
Post by: ashmi on December 13, 2021, 10:26:24 am
hi everyone !
i want to buy a physical planner but i'm not sure if i will end up using it during the year so not sure if its worth the money...but the satisfaction of having a completed journal is also quite tempting :D does anyone use a physical planner or a digital planner (like notion or an excel sheet) to plan out your week and which one do you recommend?
also how do you make your study schedule?

Hey, fergusthefrog ;D

I actually have used both Notion and a physical planner this year! I find there are a few pros and cons about each one so I'll put them below.

Pros of Notion:
- As this is a digital planner which can sync to multiple devices (e.g. phone, computer, iPad) you don't have to carry the extra weight of a planner around with you. I personally found this to be super beneficial as I really didn't like carrying a heavy workload around.
- Can create as many different styles of pages as you want. You do not need to restrict yourself to a simple 'planner' but instead can make other things like a page for goals, budgeting, meal prep and any other side stuff that you do. You can also put widgets into the pages such as the weather or a Pomodoro timer.
-If you are someone that is always changing things last minute, Notion makes it super easy to change things and it syncs to all devices quickly.

Cons of Notion:
- It takes a lot of effort to completely change a page and lay it out in the way you want.
- If you put multiple things onto one page, there is a chance it might take a while to load.

In regards to a physical planner, I find them to be more useful if your schedule is very repetitive or if you have a lot to do. I used one of the Kikki K planners with dates inside and I found it to be easier as I could just write in it what to do (present + future) and there was plenty of space whereas Notion was a little bit harder to use in this area. Notion made it hard to plan out weeks in advance whereas having a physical planner was easier.

Overall, if you only plan to use the planner for study + small tasks and don't mind carrying around the extra weight, a physical planner might be better for you but if you want to use a planner for multiple tasks, I would consider trying a digital planner like Notion.

Hope that helps!