Time Management System

work accomplished = time spent x intensity of focus

Pseudo-work features a very low intensity of focus.
The uncertainty vanishes: When you work, you can fully concentrate on the assignment in front
of you, and when you relax, you can do so without any anxiety.
Keep a balanced life.
A calendar with to-dos and deadlines, update it regularly.
A list (diary) for remembering to dos and adding new tasks.
Run errands in one time. And set time intervals for each task in hand.
YOU MUST KEEP YOURSELF RELAXED AT ANY COST AND BE REALISTIC, MAKE IT
FUN IF YOU CAN.
Procrastination
Keep a journal or diary to keep you motivated to do the tasks mentioned over the diary.
Take good nutritious food, drink a lot of water, and eat at regular intervals to give you energy.
Go to some refreshing place to complete unwanted or boring assignments.
Develop a routine on fixed hours in a day when you will never be distracted by others.
Know your hard days and give yourself refreshment before or after that day.
Give yourself gentle rewards.
When, Where, and How Long.
Early in the morning because you have more energy.
Exaggerated isolation.
1hr at maximum - 50-10-50-20 rule - Eben Pagan,
Study Hard, Play Harder.
Take Smart Notes
Save all your quizzes in one folder; take notes of each class.
Identify the big ideas.
Exams in nontechnical courses focus entirely on big ideasthey require you to explain them,
contrast them, and reevaluate them in the light of new evidence.
Question, Evidence, and Conclusion.
Ask professor after class to rectify your notes.
For technical courses, record as many sampleproblems and answers as possible.
Work in groups on problem sets.
Demote Assignments
Do work on assignment constantly every day, rather working one day before the deadline.
Dont read everything on the syllabus,of course.
Past papers and syllabus with key terms highlights important topics for exams.
Readings that make an argument>describe an event or person>provide context (i.e.,
speechtranscripts, press clippings).
Because you are reading fast, you may miss some pointsdont worry. Just get the gist of the
authors message and how he is supporting that message with evidence, then move on, explains
Jason, a straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania. You dont need to capture
everything. Your goal is simply to mark a few solid examples that justify the conclusion as the
answer to the question.
Find the Question, supportive Evidence, and Conclusion.
Once you have skimmed through the entire reading, go back and find your check marks. For each
mark, record in your notes a concise summary of the corresponding point. Label each point in
your notes with the page number where you found it. 1 page summary 25m per chapter.
As Matthew from Brown puts it, your goal should beto read for arguments, not facts.
Marshal Your Resources
If you are studying hard that means you are doing something wrong.
Exam with A grade is passed before exam, as smart students always have identified big ideas,
extracted arguments from books, and solved exercises way before the exam along the way.
By the time of the exam, you only need targeted review of the big ideas that you have already
mastered and internalized.
Before review Simon from Brown suggests: You need to know what kind ofinformation the
professor wants you to know.
Organize material: Pile each topic lecture/book notes, readings, or any supplemented material
in one chapteras per theme/topic that is expected to come or has been on papers.
Remember chronological dates by using flash cards or excel.
Build mega-problem sets for technical courses.
Conquering the Material
*Active Review/ not Passive Review*
Review the material and explain it in your own words BY giving lecture to an imaginary audience
and take a quiz on paper.
Quiz and Recall Method.
Spread out memorization over several days.
Invest in Academic Disaster Insurance
Eliminate the question marks for topics covered in class or from the reading that you dont
understand.
Reviewing all the material to insure for disaster in not a good practice, just prepare for all
expected questions of a particular topic. Thats it.
Providing A+ Answers
Exam issues: Lack of time, detailed answers but not explaining all parts of the questions.
Read all the exam questions before answering.
Build a Time Budget
Proceed from easy to hard.
Outline Essays: usually an essay question can be divided into 3 to 5 mini questions. Then outline
the paper to answer all the mini questions. Write all the points that you can recall that are
relevant to mini-questions, make sure each mini question is addressed by the points, and then
number these points on how they will be presented.
Double check your work, add where needed, as neatness doesnt count in exams while content
is valued.
Essays
To develop arguments read newspapers and journals as they already contain strong discussions.
Watch documentary, books, and talk with friends, if you have to develop arguments/opinions.