Getting Things Done For College Students

[and]

Hello, I've just published my post on Getting Things Done For College Students, and since there's many college/university students here, maybe I can get some feedback on this article.

You can also post your tips and tricks on GTD and being productive while in college.

[Cron]

A frequent criticism of that book is that it is larger than it has to be, that the system is gratuitously complex and that the system takes a long time to use.

To be fair, I have not read that book, only the reviews on Amazon.

This book can be read in 1 - 2 afternoons. The system is simple, doesn't require special material, and only takes about 15 min a day:

Book Review: "How To Get Control Of Your Time And Your Life" by Alan Lakein

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Cron

A frequent criticism of that book is that it is larger than it has to be, that the system is gratuitously complex and that the system takes a long time to use.

To be fair, I have not read that book, only the reviews on Amazon.

This book can be read in 1 - 2 afternoons. The system is simple, doesn't require special material, and only takes about 15 min a day:

Book Review: "How To Get Control Of Your Time And Your Life" by Alan Lakein

I havent read GTD, yet. I plan to this weekend, because I have been reading up on GTD, mainly because of this forum. The cool thing about it is that there are myriad ways to impliment a GTD system, and you can find the best ways that work for you. I read up on the GTD wiki at wikipedia and most of the concepts I love, especially getting all the stuff out of your head and into a place where you can better organize it.

I am experimenting with GTD in two ways, I am going to try and figure a system out using Google apps (since the personal google homepage it the center of my life) and I also am going to try the Moleskine hack, since I already have a molskine fetish.

[and]

Cron,
I've read many books on time management, including Steven Covey and Brian Tracy and many others. These are great books, but when it comes down to the actual mechanics of a time management systems the GTD book pretty much is in a category of its own, it's flexible enough to be applied to almost any fields/career/life, and takes care of all of the details and mechanics of managing projects, tasks, goals, etc.

Oh and Steve Pavlina uses this system too... I'll put the Alan Lakein book on my list to read.

[ticktockclok]

I tried to read Getting Things Done. That book pissed me off so much. Make a list. And another. And another. And another.....

[RT Wolf]

Sounds like this topic has gotten derailed.

I really enjoyed reading your article and I have a question you might be able to answer. I'm looking for a way to create a filing system without a filing cabinet. I know I can get some cheap ones from craigslist, but they tend to be heavy and transportation is an issue, plus i don't need a whole filing cabinet yet.

So, anyone have any ideas on creating a filing system without a filing cabinet? Right now I'm throwing aruond the idea of getting a storage box, but I'll probably browse around Staples to see if they've got something better.

Edit: May as well address some issues while I'm here:

Cron, Allen says this best himself (I'm paraphrasing), "Your systems have to be as complex as what you're trying to control, to simplify it. That's why to do lists don't work, because they're too simple." That means that if your life is that simple, you're trying to use a laser to drill a whole when a drill machine will do.

And it's true, GTD does require a little work to setup and get really into the groove with, but so does everything. It's like learning to walk, at the beginning you're concentrating on each step but soon it becomes automatic. And then you wonder how you could not know how to walk. I've been using GTD for a few months and only now do I feel like I'm really starting to get into the groove with it, that where the stuff I think of has to go comes automatically, such as thinking "I think I wanna read that book" and I automatically add it (physically, or mentally) to my Someday/Maybe - Books list.

I know that GTD can be made to work for anyone and everyone, but it's not necessarily for everyone. The only thing I can suggest is to give it a fair shot by reading the whole thing and actually implementing it step by step and see if it works for you. If it doesn't work for you, fair enough, but if it does, the benefits can be quite unproportional. GTD helped me to move from thinking about the little stuff and unimportant commitments to why I should be doing them in the first place. It gave me that mental space to hold the world back and think about the bigger issues.

HTH.

[Pat P.]

Great article. I think there is a need for students to get in the habit of being organized and the GTD philosophy is a pretty good starting point. I have read also the programs from Brian Tracy, and although they are good in theory, to do list some times just don't cut it. Of course a to do list is better than nothing, but it is harder to do a mental sweep in just one list.

I will add to the article the fact that you computer or digital storage must reflect your real or physical organization. College students tend to generate a lot of files (papers, complementary course material, class notes, etc), and you should be careful to keep them organized.

For example, I organize reference papers in alphabetic order by author, because it its easy to retrieve. I have a master file (spreadsheet) where I enter authors and title of the paper, so later I can easily find it.

Pat

[and]

RT Wolf, I've had this problem before, what I did was use one of those portable file boxes, kind of like what layers use, some of them have 5 folders and some as many as 50, I just took the one that had the 5 separations and filled it with my folders and it worked great for what I was looking for.

Something like this from Staples:
Staples.com®. that was easy®.

Good point RTWolf.... Another point is that if you are going through life currently where there's not much to keep track of, for instance you're taking a ********l or you're a student on summer vacation, than GTD would be an overkill.

Pat, you bring up a very good point, this is especially useful for liberal arts majors where you have to keep track of many references and sources (and some others fields or instances), in that case I would actually recommend getting specialized software and use that to manage the sources/references.

[RT Wolf]

^ Thanks and, I'll check that stuff out next time I go to Staples (goin on my Errands list ).

[Cron]

Originally Posted by and

Oh and Steve Pavlina uses this system too... I'll put the Alan Lakein book on my list to read.

I would be interested to read your opinion of the book.

[and]

Originally Posted by Cron

I would be interested to read your opinion of the book.

Cron, I've got the book ordered, I'll read it when it arrives and let you know what I think of it.


I'm still interested in hearing other tips on GTD that I might not have covered or that somebody finds useful....

[Waffle]

Originally Posted by Cron

A frequent criticism of that book is that it is larger than it has to be, that the system is gratuitously complex and that the system takes a long time to use.

To be fair, I have not read that book, only the reviews on Amazon.

This book can be read in 1 - 2 afternoons. The system is simple, doesn't require special material, and only takes about 15 min a day:

Book Review: "How To Get Control Of Your Time And Your Life" by Alan Lakein

Woot! I read it and definitely recommend this book!

[Cron]

Originally Posted by Waffle

Woot! I read it and definitely recommend this book!

Yay! I think this book's biggest problem is that it is old so that nobody makes any money marketing it, so nobody knows about it - otherwise contemporary time management authors would have some tough competition.

Lakein's book contains most other systems ( they are incomplete copies of his ideas from 40 years ago ), is more complete, is more simple, and briefer.

Lakein's book is mentioned by Bill Clinton in his biography as having helped him. That may or may not be a selling point given Clinton's behaviour However, Clinton got a lot done in his life .

[and]

Somebody might take this and make into an opportunity... by contacting the publishing house and possibly getting the rights to distribute it online..

My copy is on the way...

[Cron]

I took extensive notes on the book and made the notes into an HTML reader.

Does anyone know the copyright laws on posting your notes from a book?

[Pat P.]

I am not an expert on copyrights, but I can tell you this from my experience academic publishing: if you produce notes based on another work, you can publish them as long as it is for educational purposes.

Your notes may discuss ideas presented in the original work, but they must be expressed on your own words; remember that copyrights and intellectual property rights protect concrete objects or systems, not ideas.

Also, if you decide quote directly from the original work, use "" and make a direct reference to the original work (for example, pp. x in Y). Try to limit the number of such quotes to avoid problems.

Hope it helps,
Pat

[and]

Good points Pat, Cron maybe you can share your notes???

I'm still waiting for my book to arrive.

[Cron]

I will look into it this weekend. Based on what Pat said I think I am safe as these are real notes, my own words.