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However, as an engineer I do have a heavy course load and don’t know if it is wise to return to the band. I noticed that I was rushing to complete homework and was very stressed about school during marching season (though the marching band activity, itself was very enjoyable). Band pretty much took over my life during the Fall. Time-wise the commitment was about 3 hours a day, 3 days a week on weekdays, and my entire Saturday if it was a game day. On the contrary, this quarter, I do not have marching band, and I have been able to indulge myself in the the material, study more effectively, and explore more of what my school has to offer.

Do you think it is best to leave marching band, as heart-wrenching it is for me, and pursue a different activity that is less time-demanding?

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[...] Cal Newport advocates ruthless elimination of un-neccesary classes or commitments in a smart, motivated college student’s schedule: He realizes that the relationship between reward and skill level is not linear, but, instead, exponential. A corollary of this truth: being excellent at one thing can yield significantly more rewards than being good at many. Even though the former requires much less time than the latter. [...]

Prioritizing does partially overlap both with undershcheduling and focusing, and may even be considered just an implicit, though necessary, prerequisite step to focusing, but it does make all the difference in the world.

Prioritizing helps both in keeping the schedule not stuffed up (with insignificant garbage), as well as in choosing which subject to focus on next. In a sense, underscheduling, prioritizing and focusing can get anyone afloat, even those who are not good at innovation.

Innovation, however, is the cheery on the top of the proverbial cake. One can make a cake without it, but it won’t be as impressive-looking.

Let me give you a clean example of what my decision cycle used to look like in my school daze (not a typo ).

1. Underschedule: Never have more that 3 things on your schedule, but do allow for special circumstances to suddenly and unexpectedly add a few more.

Ideally, keep your schedule completely clean and with nothing on it.

If your schedule is clean, you have all the time in the world. It’s only when you are overwhelmed by problems that you will feel the pressure of never having enough time. That pressure is just an illusion, and your cleaned schedule will remind you of how illusive it is every time you clean it.

2. Prioritize: This may be a tricky part. Use two main criteria for prioritization:

a) Time involvement: Finish the things that take least time first. This will help you with cleaning up your schedule in a timely manner, before those sudden and unexpected things show up (and sooner or later, show up they will).

b) Urgency: Some things just can’t wait, so regardless of how long they will take to finish, start working on them immediately.

But also, don’t take priorities as a given by thinking that, just because you’ve just decided on what to focus on, that decision is now set in stone. Be fluid in your priorities (we may even have another principle here – fluidity in prioritization).

Priorities change all the time, so while you’re not working on that long-term problem, don’t forget to clean up those short-term matters that are still waiting to be finished.

3. Focus: Not much to add here, except one small matter that many keep forgetting — some problems are simply unsolvable.

Most people believe that once we set our minds to something, it’s only a matter of time and hard work before we can turn our decisions into reality. Reality, however, frowns upon such simplifications.

It may seem simple enough, but it’s worth repeating to oneself — not everything one can imagine can be done.

Know thyself, know the problems you are facing, keep realistic expectations of what you can and cannot do. But from time to time, don’t be afraid to improvise and cross the boundaries of your expectations.

As you move through life, your boundaries expand, and what seemed impossible once may have become possible in the meantime.

Seize opportunities as they appear. Right timing can, only sometimes, take you further than any hard work could possible have.

In short, don’t waste your time on unsolvable problems. Some of them may be completely unsolvable, while some may be unsolvable only temporarily. Either way, take those off your schedule, write them down someplace else, and take another look at them when you feel bored and have too much free time on your hands.

4. Innovate: A matter of many headaches, broken hearts and sleepless nights.

Something that can’t be put in a simple algorithm and fed to a computer. Something that no real and useful advice can be given on. An elusive abstraction of a realm unknown. Even worse — a realm unknowable.

It can’t be defined, it can’t be measured. It can’t even be talked about, and yet, one can do it all the time, even without realizing it.

‘Only this, and nothing more.’

[...] how overcommitted your schedule is. Everyone at Brown does too much. I recently read Cal Newport's Zen Valedictorian Strategy, and I think he's on to something. If we have a reasonable number of tasks on our plate, we can [...]

[...] happiness and success. His nuggets of advice includes tactics on avoiding deep procrastination and keeping course-loads small. I’m sure not all of his advice will apply to me so I must be critical about whatever I read, [...]

[...] been thinking a lot about his quote this past week, which I’ve spent reading through the Zen Valedictorian articles over at Study Hacks. The articles are a better-expressed version of a life outlook that [...]

[...] once and a while I like to share examples of this Zen Valedictorian strategy in action, just to remind my student readers what school could be [...]