It’s cool because it rhymes. So, you might remember my very simple GMail Todo List which I still use daily. What if I don’t want to keep GMail open to see what I need to do? Well, if you have Vista or some sort of desktop widget/gadget you can subscribe to feeds. Luckily, GMail has Atom feeds setup for your labels:
Just keep in mind it only lists the unread items. But, once subscribed you can have a neat reminder on your desktop like mine.
Much like Lifehacker has featured some great geek toys lately, I had a neat toy come into my Inbox from ReviewMe (I was paid to review this labelmaker). I chose to play with this labelmaker because a) I needed an excuse to start re-organizing my file cabinet, b) I love to make labels, and c) this looked like a great product. I only want to write about things that you might find useful, too…
Actually, I think the title should read more like: “budget your time nearly the same way you should be budgeting your money”. If you know me then you I’m a) an accountant, b) a big fan of personal finance, and c) looking for new ways to be productive. I’ve found a secret I’ll share with you right now. When you “budget” your time, do it the same way you “budget” your money…
This week is the perfect storm. Apparently professors are very good at taking the number of weeks in a semester and dividing by three because they all decided this was the week. My projects, presentations, papers and exams won’t catch me off-guard though; I saw them coming thanks to some foresight (a calendar).
But, how do you make the best use of your time?
I’ve been asked how I keep my busy life on track. Honestly, it’s become second nature and don’t put much thought into it. But, now that I sit here I realize there are some tips I can share to hopefully keep you organized. But, first things first:
With over 10,000 songs in my iTunes Library (all legally acquired, I swear) I constantly find myself ‘discovering’ music. But, I’ve also realized there are a ton of albums I never listen to and would never want to in the future. Thus, the following are some of my methods to organizing the madness:
Is there anything out there that you guys have done that works especially well? I’m all about trying new “systems” and I definitely need to get this monster collection under control.
[tags]music, mp3, collection, itunes, organization[/tags]
To answer the question: yes, I did drop off the planet these last few days. Actually I’ve just been running all over the place. My roommate’s family came into town which meant lots of time not spent studying for my accounting test. Shoot, very little time to study! What do you do typically in those situations?
Personally, instead of stressing out, I decided to do the last thing most people probably would: I took a nap. Sure, there may be a lot to do but I figured I’d want to take care of everything once I was well rested. In short, it worked out for the best… the test was Monday evening (7:00pm) and I napped until 1:45am that morning. I proceeded to study my notes, homework and practice problems. I took a nap between and then one more at 6:00am.
Sure, I could’ve stayed up all night and read everything I could possibly find… but that’s a waste of time. When it comes to studying, tests, and school in general I’m a big fan of benefit-cost analysis. In other words I asked myself: How often do I see these people (roommate’s family)? Would the few hours spent with them be worth more than the extra time spent on practice problems? The answer was yes. How? Put simply: the few hours spent re-reading all the material would only earn a few more percentage points. Points which can easily be made up later…
So how do I go about studying for tests? Well, the first test in a class is always the best. It sets the pace for the rest of the year. So, I essentially do the (I know this will sound bad) bare minimum required to understand all the material. For example, I had a Cost Management test last week which I studied a little bit for. Why didn’t I dedicate a lot of time to it? I did pretty well on all the previous homeworks (which were largely problem solving). All I had to do then is re-familiarize myself with them. From there all I needed to do was read the chapter notes and slides. The end result was nearly a perfect score on the math problems. I had already spent the time mastering the material once or twice a week (through homework). The multiple choice questions? Those are a different story. I did alright, but, as I mentioned, this is the first test and those points tell me where I need to focus more energy next time.
My point is, I studied until I felt comfortable enough to go into a test with a decent understanding of all the material on it. Did I know each chapter in-depth? No. Did I know any chapter in-depth? No. Did I need to? My grade (a B) suggests I didn’t. Having never actually read a chapter from the book I feel this is a great way to set the bar for the rest of the semester. It’s quite obvious where I need to go from here. I need to read a bit more and make sure I’m familiar with multiple-choice questions. Simple as that.
How do I know this works? Why is it I don’t just end up with the same score as the first test? Simple: I change my study behavior. The first accounting class I took in college was the hardest thing I had encountered. I got a 73 on the first test. I worked smarter (not harder) and started to realize what would work best; I got an 85. By the final I had perfected my study routine and scored 107%. There was no curve, he just added 10 questions (worth 1-point each). That means I either missed one question from the test or 3 of the extra questions.
In short, spend the time ‘studying’ as the semester progresses. Sure, I understand the need to study for hours and hours before a big test. But, if you prepare along the way, it makes the act of studying that much easier.
Yes, I’m on the Dean’s List. I know I’m in (at least) the top 7 percent of the school. But that doesn’t necessairly mean I’m “smart”. You don’t have to be “smart” to succeed… look at the Fortune 500 CEOs. No, all you have to be is clever.
[tags]college, study, test, midterm, homework, personal, success[/tags]
I?d like to revisit my desk briefly while I show you my decorative space-saver. As mentioned, I call it my ?phone tree? and you can see it here:
The following elements are necessary to ensure a successful ?phone tree?:
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my ideas as much as I have. The tree is not only decorative but practical. If you decide to make your own tree be sure to leave a link in the comments.
I’m a firm beliver that organization is the key to success. I never see much of anything useful come from things of clutter or disarray. Sure, it often results in a ton of creativity, but it can also hinder any kind of implementation’ and as we all know ideas are worthless without implementing them.
Tip #1: Make a drastic change in your life (for the better). Re-organizing one’s desk is just one example.
Anyway, as I was saying, organization is very important to me. Which is why I felt my workstation needed a drastic makeover. As you may or may not be able to tell, my desk is a corner desk with one side against a wall and the other adjacent a big window. I love looking out the window. Although my view is basically the alley and townhome behind me I can still see far beyond that. In fact, I can almost tell how much gas is at the Safeway across the street. Case in point, I like the window and my current setup has my LCD blocking a portion of that view. In addtion, the hutch against the wall is taking up a lot of space and not storing much of anything useful. Plus, the desk space under it is rendered almost useless. In short, I feel cramped. I needed to spread out.
Tip #2: Realize what you’d like to ultimately accomplish. Without something in mind you have no idea of telling whether or not you were successful.
First things first, I got rid of the hutch. It mostly acted as storage for a few magazines, CDs I never touched, my stapler and tape, etc. I threw all this stuff on my bed and moved the hutch out. Next, I took everything off my desk, unplugged all cables, and moved everything to my bed. I think a clean slate is best. Instead of reorganizing I feel like I was creating. I had a big empty “L” in front of me and I needed to make a decision on what was to be placed upon it. The following remains:
Tip #3: Start with a clean slate. Don’t re-organize; create. It forces you to make new decisions instead of shuffling around past (bad) ones.
This is a dramatic simplification of what will be surrounding me. Which leaves me with a lot of, you guessed it, workspace. Notice I said workspace not pilespace, or clutterspace. I don’t want to overwhelm myself with objects so it has come down to these simple, yet useful, things. *My phone tree is a decorative (fake) tree that I rest my phone on. I have the charger cord wrapped around the trunk and the hands-free headpiece laying on top of the tree. I feel like I should patent this attractive little tree. Plus, it brings some color to my desk.
Tip #4: Simple is usually better. The less, the better. It forces you to focus your attention or energy on a select few things and eliminates other distractions around you.
Next, was to clean out my 3-drawer filing cabinet. It had mostly acted as a black hole for anything I didn’t quite feel like throwing away. Oh, that and a printer stand. In any case, I figured I should use the cabinet for it’s intended purpose. With that said, I put some of my remaining objects (stapler, ruler, checkbook, envelopes, etc.) into the top two drawers. The bottom drawer (larger) is now a nice collection of hanging file folders (bank statements, bills, paycheck stubs, and other important paperwork).
Tip #5: Organizing by categorizing allows you to quickly know what can be found where. Piles, stacks and drawers do no justice to the papers, notes, and other important items you may have around.
At this point I’m beyond excited. Stuff is getting thrown out in the process, some things are being rediscovered. I already brought my trash can downstairs twice to be emptied. It’s feeling great. I also realized I should put this cabinet underneath my desk (on the side facing the window). This certainly freed up some more floor space.
Tip #6: Throw shit away. If you don’t use it, don’t need it, don’t look at it, then you probably won’t be missing it.
I bought a huge (71? tall) bookcase to put where the cabinet once was. I got a black one to match my desk. I’ll also point out it was only $28 at Wal-Mart and took 10 minutes to setup (including cleaning, etc). This bookcase just created another dimension to my workplace. Instead of having 1-dimensional (x-axis) piles, I can now organizing things vertically as well (y-axis). Shelves are your friend. On top is my cable modem/wireless router, CD spindles, can-of-air, etc. My top shelf now houses my ‘currently reading’ material and archived magazines. My second shelf is where I put stuff like my wallet, keys, sunglasses, reciepts, spare change jar, candy, etc. The third shelf is about level with my desk and has my printer, printer paper, photo paper, etc. The next shelf is for school materials (books, binders, paper) and the last shelf is empty at this point. This is good becuase my other small bookcase is out of space (and I anticipate having to put some books there).
Tip #7: Be thrifty, it allows you to do more. Wal-Mart has a plethora of cheap stuff to help you organize. They have drawers, files, cabinets, shelves, etc.
Tip #8: Keep organizing by categorizing.
Essentially I did nothing out of the ordinary here. I just organized things in a way that made more sense. You look at the shelf and you realize what kind of stuff belongs there. Categorizing makes it so much easier to find things. Just like the file-folders, each one is for a certain purpose. When I start making piles and laying paper in drawers it does me no good in the long run.
I’d like to point out that I put my laptop to the right of me (against the wall) which acts as my Vista testing machine. I used to use this laptop as my ‘desktop replacement’ in the dorms but now that I’m settled into a ‘workspace’ I’m finding I have little use for it. With that said, I’ll be selling it soon and using some of the money to buy a widescreen LCD (maybe 24?) to accompany my 19? LCD.
Oh think of the productivity!
I love a dual monitor setup. It, again, lets me categorize stuff into two screens. In my case, I have Windows MCE and can now put some TV on the 19? while emailing, blogging, etc. on the other screen. While I’m working, I put the distractions (email, instant messages) on the 19? while, again, working on the other.
Tip #9: Design your setup so it helps you eliminate distractions. Distractions aren’t always bad, but if you don’t want them, make it so they can disappear.
Frankly, I’m excited to see how this setup improves my life. So far I love it already! Does anyone think they’ve got a better setup than mine? I’d love to see someone top this.
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