A layered decoder that uses a non-standard schedule, where a non-standard schedule is a schedule where the frequency of one or more layers in the schedule is greater than one. When the layered decoder converges on a near codeword using an initial schedule, the layered decoder identifies the layer Lmaxb of the near codeword, which layer contains the greatest number of unsatisfied check nodes, and selects a subsequent non-standard schedule from a schedule set. The non-standard schedules in the schedule set are sorted by key layer, where the key layer is a layer that appears in the non-standard schedule with the greatest frequency. The layer decoder selects a non-standard schedule from the schedule set where the key layer of selected non-standard schedule is equal to the identified Lmaxb value.