3 posts tagged “work”

I have decided to join the forces of people spreading the news of how they work best.  I don't use crazy applications to organize my time, and some people may disagree with my work ethic/methods, but hey, I have a 4.12 GPA so stop complaining.

The following are in no particular order:

1. Never do projects way ahead of time
Yes this may sound weird, but I don't do projects as soon as they're assigned.  I allow the assigned task sink in for a few days, and then I begin.  I feel that the pressure of time is the greatest motivator.  No, this is not procrastination, but rather a method I employ in order to do a better job.  When I do a project too far ahead of time, I end up doing a lackluster job because I am simply not as motivated to do it yet.  On average, I finish projects about a day before they are due so I can compare with friends and see what I need to fix up.

2. Always take notes...a lot of them
Lectures are boring, and I'll admit to that as somebody who has fallen asleep on numerous occasions in classes.  Falling asleep in class sucks by the way, so make sure to sneak in sleep whenever you can.  If you fall asleep, you don't learn jack shit and it sucks doing the homework.  As I was saying, take LOTS of notes.  You don't necessarily have to understand them as you write them down.  However, I rely more on my notes than reading the textbook because that damn thing is incredibly boring.  The more detailed your notes, the less you have to rely on your textbook.  It doesn't matter if you don't understand them when you're writing them down, but combined with tidbits of the teacher's talks and hints from the homework, you'll quickly understand what the notes are explaining.
    If it's a history or religion class, I usually do notes hierarchically.  If the teacher starts on one topic and then delves deeper into it, I'll indent and write the details underneath the topic.  In Chemistry and Calculus, the teacher usually writes down problems and walkthroughs on the board as well as diagrams and graphs.  COPY THOSE DOWN.  Finally, in English, I don't generally write notes unless the teacher goes over definitions and terms.

3. Multi-task like there's no tomorrow
I'm usually doing at least 2 subjects' worth of homework at the same time.  You spend a couple minutes working out a math problem or reading a few paragraphs and then switch over to answering questions about history or memorizing some details for Chemistry.  This way, your mind keeps fresh.  I have the attention span of a hyperactive squirrel on some hybrid of LSD and coffee so I end up doing more work.  It's tricking my mind!

4. Do as much work as you can as quickly as you can
This sort of contradicts my project thing.  But that's for projects.  This one is talking about busy work that teachers give you.  At my school, we have off periods.  I have 1st and 8th periods off.  During those periods, I do as much work as I can so I don't do anything at home.  At home, there are so many distractions that I end up doing a crappy job at home.  At school there are little to no distractions.  Yes I have friends, but I have the capability to talk and work simultaneously.  If I don't finish all the work, I assess if it's short enough that I can do it at home (reading for example) or something that requires a little more focus so I can offload that to the next off period or the weekend.

5. Time is no object
Time is no limiting barrier if you're talking about one single day.  I don't give a crap if I'm working slowly at home.  If it's work I have to finish, I can stay up as long as I need to: even if it means an all-nighter.  Regardless, I am committed to my work...sort of.  If I'm working at home, I'll admit that I'm very distracted, and that's why it takes longer than normal.  However, I can stay up as long as I need to in order to finish the work.

6. If you start something, don't stop till you're finished
I have a problem, if I start something, I can't stop until I'm completely finished.  Again, I'm really distracted, but if given the right conditions, I will work my ass off until its done.  What's the main goal here?  I just want more free time.

As you can see, my work flow is based around getting more free time because I'm a really lazy person.  I have to trick myself to get things done.  No organization application will motivate me to do my work.  These are workarounds to my life pretty much.  So there you go.

P.S. If I figure out anything else to add, I will.

I'm teaching myself to become more organized on my Macbook Pro (who's, I should mention, battery is slowly dying and Shooby is in need of a new one)!  As a student, I realize I should be more organized with my work.  But hey, screw organization, I've got Spotlight right?  Wrong.  Yes Spotlight is an amazing tool for searching through my computer to find files like notes I typed during class, but what about archiving and even easier access?  For that, I've developed a little system to keep me organized as a student.

1. Journler - Note taking for school (and maybe soon TWiT/Radio shownotes)

Journler uses, literally, a journal type interface that will organize everything by date and such.  Also, smart folders keep crap organized for me when I'm too lazy to tag things.  Oh it also has the ability to record video (using the built-in iSight) and also audio recording and easy integration with iLife content.  Yes that means I can put content that's on my computer into notes.  Awesome, just awesome.

2. QuickSilver - Quick streamlining of small tasks

At first I believed this application to be rather worthless and just another app launcher.  Finally, after a few moments of tinkering, I've realized it is quite a bit more.  There are all these plugins that will add application compatibility from which I can choose files or apps to open, then I can tab to the next area for what to do with it (ie. moving it, copying it, FTPing it, etc).  You can create a huge chain of events and commands, and with a simple hit of the return button, they'll all happen immediately.

3. Yojimbo - Quick notes/simple archiving

Hit F8, copy a link, serial #, quick note, etc, and it's automatically saved into Yojimbo.  Freaking awesome!  You can encrypt any data you wish.

4. Xpad - Shownotes taking
   

It has a neat drawer on the right in which I can label things (by color bubbles) by podcast.

This application will darken the entire background, and then you can choose an application that will be the single illuminated app.  I use this to do homework in Microsoft Word, and ANY window that pops up is hidden, or at least taken out of focus.  Incredibly useful to focus on the task at hand.

Now I used to use Schoolhouse to keep track of homework assignments.  However, if I don't do it right after it is assigned, I end up not doing it at all.  Besides, my school provides us with planners in which to write down homework in.  Bringing out the laptop isn't always practical in class.

Anyways, if you're interested a bit in how I work, there you go.  I'll probably make a screencast one day.

Well it's a lazy sunday afternoon in the wonderful city of San Jose, CA.  It's 4:35pm and I'm still in my pajamas (and wearing my really old Alaska shirt mind you).  I woke up like any other weekend morning around 10:30am to get ready for Leo's KFI show in order to take shownotes, and my God the first call of the morning was by the most oblivious woman on the planet.  She just would not allow Leo to speak.  Why the hell did she call then?!

That went on normally, and then I e-mailed Leo about a microphone he said he'd give to me.  It's a really nice MXL microphone that he had laying around.  I'm really grateful to have such a nice employer and I couldn't thank him enough.  However, it's a really heavy microphone (that even comes with an aluminum case) and he would rather give it to me in person.  As of now, I'm trying to set up a date to go up to San Francisco and do that.  I'm sooooooo giddy!  Within the next couple weeks, I'll have a nice mixer (Alesis Multimix 8USB) and a nice microphone for my podcast.

Yesterday, my little brother threw a tiny early-birthday party because all his close friends are going on vacation next week.  As I sat on the side making snide comments about the stupidity of 10-year olds, they ate pizza, went to Blockbuster (and rented some Spongebob videogame...blech), and ate ice cream from Marble Slab.  While they played videogames, I managed to play some minesweeper...good times.

There you go, my blog entry for today.  Here's a picture from the party to leave you with.

Pizza Eating