Monday, September 15, 2008

Part 2: Get Organized: Your Space, Your Time, Your Web

Last Friday, I was the featured guest blogger on my friend's site, Hey Stephanie! I kicked off my 3-part series of college/productivity tools on the internet by exploring the social media-geared options. (Stephanie is a social media guru!) The response to the first post was really great - I was excited to see a lot of you started trying out new services and sites that you had never heard of before. I hope you continue to enjoy those resources as well as these, as we kick off Part 2! (Part 3 will go live - here on my site - on Wednesday, and if you missed Part 1, it's over at Stephanie's.)

And I can't help but tell you a little secret... I have so many research paper hacks I'm dying to share, so next time I have to write a major paper, guess what? ;-) And I have a few favorite note-taking tricks, too. See, I'm just all about the secrets.... I'm a school pro. That could be good or bad. lol But we all know that too much school = bad. So 1-2-3, series over, so don't expect them next week or anything. :) But here we go... Quick review:

Part 1: Social Media, College, and You

(Friday 9/12 Guest Post at Hey Stephanie!)

• Search Smart
• Notes & Documents
• Project Planning
• Questions & Answers
• Ultimate Interactions
• Cheap Textbooks

Part 2: Get Organized: Your Space, Your Time, Your Web

(Below, 9/15 on Crazy Miracle)

• Your Space
• Your Time
• Your Web

Part 3: Your Toolbox of Bookmarks

(Coming Wednesday 9/17 on Crazy Miracle)

• Math
• Internet Reference Sources
• Study Help
• Tools
• Printer Fun
• More Resources
• Articles
• Blogs to Subscribe to

YOUR SPACE

This really is not my focus, but I do want to touch on it because a few small things can truly make a huge difference...

• You need a quiet study space where you can focus without distractions, but you also can't make it so cold that you feel like you're locked in a jail cell. Keep the noise low (but non-distracting music has actually been proven to help concentration for some people so if it helps, keep it!)
• I like to keep all of my most important textbooks right on the shelf of my desk for easy access. If your major has any vital go-to books, keep those within an arm's reach at all times, too. Keep pens, pencils, highlighters... whatever you prefer, and make sure you have good lighting. (Trust me, this always works on moms - "But Mom, my eyes hurt and you always said doing work in the dark would ruin my eyes. I think I believe you now...." Play those cards, baby...)
• Take the time NOW to get your classes organized into binders with dividers (or whatever system works for you) in the beginning. Somehow it just doesn't end up being productive when, in November, you realize you can't study for finals with your notes somewhere between three stacks of random papers, so you head to Staples to buy a binder and some dividers.
• Do you have a calendar? Dry Erase boards are definitely fun for dorms, but get something that you can dedicate to yourself only, and make it something that you can easily take on the go or hang. My solution to this is to print a monthly calendar at ePrintable. I like to cut off Saturdays and Sundays, and then I write every single assignment on the day it's due. Each class gets a different color pen, and exams are a little bigger and get stars by them. Do whatever works for you, but having my school schedule in a nutshell at my access at all times is really great. I hang it on the corner of my desk where no one can see it but me, and if I need to, I can take it off and bring it to class, but I always have a special place for it when I get home.
  I can't believe it, but I'm showing you a top-secret peak at one of mine:
  
  
• As for making the most out of a small dorm room, check out this post over at Student Hacks.

YOUR TIME

Read these posts. Read them. I don't care what else you have to do. Read.

• Six Productivity Tricks to Put Time on Your Side
  - one of my faves!
• How to Earn a 4.0 with Only 1.0 Hours of Work
• Time Management Principles - Nothing new here, but don't forget the basics.
• And only because I like you. And you like movies. And probably being lazy. :) So now, I present, How to Pass the Test When You Haven't Read The Book

YOUR WEB

So your dorm's all tidied up, you know how to study in style, you have all these time hacks that have you done with tasks in no time. Plus, thanks to College Web Secrets Part 1, you are the expert on using the internet to get you answers fast. Perfect! Right? Wrong.

For one, you still need tomorrow's post which will give you a short and sweet run-down of links that you're going to wonder why you've missed your entire life. Secondly, is it really your web? Are all of your sites and services integrated to save you the most time? Are you using the most efficient browser and programs? For you blog readers, are you still checking your favorites by hand, or have you learned how to use a "feed reader"? On Friday, I went over several products and services that could very well fit under this category, but they mostly shared one trait: being somehow "social media"-related. Here's a few of my all-time favorites that will make your life easier, simply by simplifying. (And honestly, it would take hours to go into detail about all of these, so for a few, I'm going to link you to articles and reviews that I have handchosen just for you.)

• Feed reader - you need one! My favorite is Google Reader. Some like Bloglines. There are many others. This video is actually fun and it'll tell you all you need to know!
  


• Evernote - integrate your life on your computer, cell, internet, whatever. This document/image/hosting/whatever-you-wanna-call-it/does-it-all is amazing and free. Yeah I know, I didn't believe it either!


• I Want Sandy
  Oh, may I do the honors? Sandy is my personal assistant. See, anytime I think of something I should be doing or should do on a certain date, I just shoot her off an email, a text message, a tweet (on Twitter), etc. She gets it, confirms it (unless I want to turn off confirmations), and then I'm off on my merry way. So what's that? Part 3 of Amanda's College Tips goes up on Wednesday? Not a problem - you could whip out your phone, text Sandy: "r wed amanda's blog college post" and on Wednesday, in your daily digest (a run-down of the day's events), there it would be! Ahh, Sandy, she's my girl! I don't use her for actual calendar-type things, but for a to-do list of sorts, or especially "remind me every October 1 that Grandma's birthday is coming up" or "remind me in 6 months..."... you know, things you don't want sitting on your brain but you really want to trust that it's taken care of. I was skeptical at first, but Sandy's never let me down. I can send her the most abbreviated to-do list and she sends me back an exact confirmation run-down within seconds. Amazing. She's awesome! Don't You Want Sandy Too? (Another review)

HONORABLE MENTION

Looking for sites to integrate your entire school experience? They're new and not anything I'm ready to use yet (I've tried them both), but given the chance and a little more time, here are two up-and-coming sites you may want to check out. My Grademate and My SchooLog.

I hope you enjoyed it. Don’t forget to check back Wednesday for the last part, our Toolbox of Bookmarks. I'll sharing lots of other links plus my favorite free service-sites for doing things that would have taken a ridiculous amount of time or cost a pretty penny a few years ago! And there's a lot! :)

And as always, let me know what you thought. And final call for any perplexing school-web-college-studying-whatever questions. :) Do you use any of these sites already? Do you have other favorites you want to share? Definitely let me know and if they're not already on my list for Wednesday, I'll give you and your blog a shout-out!

And from me, to you.... (umm, or from that site on the bottom of the picture, lol)

Watch out for this:

You may laugh, but it happens to the best of us! Combat it with the productivity tips! :)