Study Hacks Blog

Monday Master Class: Getting Things Done for College Students…Made Easy

Complicated GoodnessSchedule

In July of 2007, the first month of Study Hacks’ existence, I posted an article introducing Getting Things Done for College Students (GTDCS). This time management system was a modification of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD), tweaked for the college lifestyle. It was meant for students who needed something more than the simple system described in Straight-A or in this infamously titled post.

Here’s the problem…

Though the original article has become a cult classic among some GTD aficionados, it has also been described as…well…long and boring and complicated and hard to follow.

There. I said it.

In this post, I want to provide a much more simple summary of GTDCS — something that doesn’t require monastic concentration to understand. Below I hit the highlights you need to get started. If you crave the obsessive details, check out the original post.

GTDCS Made Easy

The GTDCS system is built of five pieces. The first three match GTD almost exactly. The last two contain the extra magic I threw in to fit the college lifestyle.

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Update on Laptop Contest

A quick update on the Freshman 15 laptop giveaway contest. As of this afternoon Monday morning, I’ve received 72 120 entries, so your chances of … Read more

A Conversation with Ben Casnocha

An Interview ExperimentBen Blog Photo

My friend Ben recently pitched an interesting idea for a blog post. He proposed that instead of a formal interview, we just have a conversation, drifting from topic to topic as we find things interesting. Ben’s a fascinating guy. His blog is well-trafficked, he commentates on NPR, he writes professionally, and is, relevantly enough, a college student. So I jumped at the chance.

Below are excerpts from our conversation. Check out Ben’s blog for his version of this post which will include different excerpts.

A Conversation Between Cal Newport and Ben Casnocha

Ben: So Cal, here we are on instant messenger. You have expressed concern about how email can be distracting. You don’t use Twitter because you say you don’t need yet another short-text distraction. Do you IM?

Cal: Not intentionally. Though people occasionally find me on gchat. I don’t like the slow pace and partial attention. Do you?

Ben: No. Same. Slow pace, partial attention. I wonder whether I will flip to other windows during this chat, or just watch the screen say “Cal Newport is typing…”

Do you adopt 4HWW habits with email?

Cal: Not really. I don’t do auto-responders, and I check more than twice a day. The big thing I’ve done with my e-mail was move from a single inbox to multiple “mono-typic pigeon holes.”

Ben: WTF is that?

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The Freshman 15 Contest: Enter Now to Win a Free Laptop

The Contest BeginsHP dv7

Last week I announced the Freshman 15 Contest. If you’ll recall, Study Hacks is one of 15 different student blogs that are each giving away a brand new HP Pavilion dv entertainment laptop, plus a 500 GB external hard drive, and a docking station, and a PhotoSmart printer, and lots of software, and…well, let’s just say it’s a contest worth winning.

Today, our contest begins! The official rules are below:

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A Simple Method for Developing an Innovative Activity

Innovation ConfusionClassroom

Judging by reader feedback, “innovation” is the most beguiling of the Zen Valedictorian principles. If you’ll recall, it states:

Activities that are hard to explain are more impressive than activities that are hard to do.

This principle holds great appeal because hard to explain activities don’t have to be unduly demanding of your time or talent. In other words, knocking the socks off an admissions officer might not require getting to Carnegie Hall or winning a national competition.

Many students, however, have trouble applying this principle to their own life. They often ask: “how do I find an innovative activity?”

In this post, I want to offer a specific activity innovation strategy targeted for high school students. It’s just one strategy of the many possible, but I hope its concreteness will help get your own thought process rolling. I should note: it’s not my idea. It was explained to me by a student who used it to get into Princeton. After I explain the details, I’ll tell you her story…

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