In a stroke of procrastination today, I very ironically googled a TLA (three letter acronym). It was GTD, or Getting Things Done. Turns out there is quite a cult around the action management method created by David Allen. It is one solution for not having enough hours in the day, a form of time management.

If you are a process person, and love having a good system to work from I strongly suggest looking into GTD. While you don’t require software to implement the method, I’m 66% geek and 23% dork, so I do.

After a short burst of research I turned up some OmniFocus. Omni makes some great products for osx that I have previously used. While there are some great free alternatives. I decided to stick with what I know, (for once), and focus on GTD. Since I work in the computer field, I was particular taken by the fact that OmniFocus lets you import emails as tasks into projects, then have them organised by context! Yes, there is a little learning curve involved in setting up a new process, but the results will probably be worth it.

After an an hour and a half I’d collated all my lists, into OmniFocus. I’m still having trouble getting Mail.app to work, I never thought I would have a reason to revert to it from Thunderbird, but alas here I am. I’ll have a go at reinstalling Mail and get back to you. But it is all looking very promising.

I now feel like I am well on the way to developing a universal actions workflow. This will tie all my projects and far flung ideas into one system. Whooo hooo! For a person with more ideas than he knows what to do with, this could be a big break through. This way I’ll be able to do a weekly review of all my projects in the same place. I’ve just had so many things on my plate lately that things have been falling out the back of my head. Keep you posted. I’ll leave you with a few “productivity sites” that I stumbled across. Zen Habits speaks to me the most.

p.s. I’m still sticking with a pen and notebook for when I’m not near the computer.
p.p.s. Here is a sexy flow chart that gives you a feel for GTD action method.

Just about to start studying for a mid-semester exam and dug up these tips from when time management was critical. Here is my time management techniques and tips for exam study. It helps me learn, but is a constantly evolving system. The human mind craves changes, so changing your system should be part of your system!

Please be sure to share your study techniques, and comment on how this system goes for you.

Before you start spend a little bit of time getting phyced about how you will feel when you finish, and what you will have achieved and will do then.

See if you can get someone (usually family) to sponsor you, better rewards for better marks.

Divide allocated study block between subjects. Divide available time based on:
1. Load of subject, i.e. 1/2 load of full load subject
2. Weighting of exam to overall subject worth.
3. Personal perceived difficulty

Make up study roster in Excel.

- Three 40min session for Subject 1, then Three 40min sessions for subject 2.
- Separate study sessions by 30min gaps
- Use a timer that pops up on the screen when finished.
- Reward yourself after each study session… chocolate or something.
- Also have some dried fruit and nuts around so if you get peckish you don’t have to get up and break the session.

Every time you finish a session / half day (3 sessions for subject per day) then highlight the cell as green in Excel.

For Each Subject:

1. Outline the structure and weighting of the exam. Also useful to list types of questions.
2. In the first couple of sessions for each subject spend time prioritising the subject matter as it is likely to appear on the exam.

Have three columns: Priority, Weighting & Topic (Subtopics should be indented under Topic)

1. In the topic fill out the Topics / Subtopics from the past exam.
2. Leave a couple of rows, then list the Topics from the course outline.
3. Fill in the priority section. Start of with something your interested as the first priority, as long as it is likely to be on the exam. Then prioritise the rest based on:
- number of times in past exams
- number of times talked about in lecures
- how much time was spent on the topics in lectures
4. Sort based on topics based on priority
5. Select Topics Row (& Subtopics) copy, go to word and from the edit menu Paste Special>Unformatted Text.
6. Using the styles give Topics as Heading 1, subtopics a Heading 2, etc…
7. Insert a Table of Contents based on Styles
8. Start filling in the blanks. – I find it useful to take screenshots of relevant pictures in the lecture notes, and paste them in the document. Try not to copy and paste from the lecture notes. Take the time to rewrite in your own words the key points. It’s often possible to condense the lecture notes considerably.
9. Print and reread.

Don’t stress if you only finish the lecture notes a day or two before, you have been learning as you make them.

Go back over the past exams and check you didn’t miss anything, and that all the answers come to you,

Chill Out, watch a movie, get laid…. and do more than PASS.