I think it's important to have a flexible study pattern. I used to try to keep to a weekly schedule in which each day had its assigned study tasks and I almost died from sheer boredom.

Now I basically just do whichever activity I feel like, or whichever one I haven't done in a while.

This is how I study Mandarin these days:

1) Check Popup to see if anything new has come out.

2) Read the Chinese news. Make flashcards of the new vocab I pick up from the articles.

3) Translate English news into Mandarin (and get it checked by a Chinese friend).

4) Watch Chinese TV shows and note down any interesting/useful sentences (not individual words） as well as anything I don't understand -then ask a friend later。 Make flashcards of those sentences.

5) Review the flashcards.

I only started reading/translating news quite recently as before that it was a bit beyond me. I've watched a lot of Chinese TV shows though and it's really helped my oral Mandarin. I like it because a) it's more relaxing than bashing your head against grammar books/lists of vocab and b) it's more useful (if you live in China anyway). If I had to recommend one study method for intermediates, TV would be it. I must admit though, with the exception of 爱情公寓 Series 1 and maybe 3, I haven't found a Chinese TV show that I watched out of sheer pleasure...Anyone got any suggestions?