Study Hacks on Campus 17-Jan-17

Study Hacks on Campus

The Study Hacks on Campus Project is an offshoot of the Study Hacks student advice
blog. The goal of the project is to help students take control of their lives. It asks them to
form local groups and meet regularly to support each other in their attempts at self-
improvement. Each group maintains a blog that describes the strategies they
experimented w ith and their results. This transparency allow s the groups to learn from
each other, and it helps the best ideas rapidly disseminate through the community.

Brow se the list below and to the right to see if a group already exists at your school. If
you're interested in starting a new group, or have any other questions about the project,
contact Cal New port.

Groups Spring 2010

Group Leader's Guide
Everything you need to know to run a Study Hacks on Stanford
Campus group. Saint Mary's
Claremont McKenna
Discussion #1: Capture University of British
This first suggested discussion tackles organization. Columbia
The goal is full capture of everything you're responsible Utah State
for, coupled w ith regular review . University of Western
Ontario
Discussion #2: Control
Mills College
Now that you've w rangled the responsibilities in your
Washington University
life, it's time to decide w hat to do w ith them. This
in Saint Louis
suggested discussion overview s strategies for
University of Calgary
controlling your w ork hours.
Victoria University of
Discussion #3: Plan, Pt. 1 Wellington
This suggest discussion is the first part of a tw o part Johns Hopkins
series focusing on how you tackle academic tasks once Coe College
you've put aide time for their completion. In part 1, the UCLA
discussion covers notetaking and problem sets. University College
London
Discussion #4: Plan, Pt. 2 George Mason
Part 2 of the plan discussion picks up w here part 1 left University
off, covering tests and paper assignments. University of Chicago
Brigham Y oung
Discussion #5: The Big Picture
University
Now that you've gained control of the technical details
Boston University
of student life, it's time to take a step back and
University of Colorado
consider the big picture. This suggested discussion
Putra University of
introduces the Zen Valedictorian Philosophy -- the idea
Malaysia
that living a less cluttered, more relaxing, and more
University of Waterloo
meaningful student life can provide better post-grad
University of
options than trying to survive the most difficult possible
Pennsylvania
load of classes and activities.
Boston College
University of
California Santa
Barbara
University of Southern
California
Louisiana School for
Math, Science, & the
Arts
Michigan State
University
Utah Valley University
University College
London

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Study Hacks on Campus: Leader's Guide 17-Jan-17

Study Hacks on Campus: Leader's

Guide
As the leader of a Study Hacks on Campus (SHOC) group, you're responsible for recruiting
members, organizing the meeting times, leading the discussions, and posting meeting
summaries on your group blog. These responsibilities are detailed below . If you have any
questions, contact me (put "SHOC:" at the beginning of the subject line to ensure a
quicker response).

Before The First Meeting

You have tw o simple responsibilities before the first meeting:

First you need to launch a blog titled "Study Hacks on Campus: < your school name >"
and send the address to me. I recommend using blogger because it's free, easy, and
w orks w ith your existing Google account, but if you prefer something else, that's fine too.

Second you need to recruit the group members. From experience, I've found that it
w orks best to personally recruit a small number of people you know w ell by show ing them
Study Hacks and explaining w hat it's about. If you blast an e-mail list w ith a generic
invitation to "improve your study skills," you'll probably have a lot more drop-outs as the
semester continues.

During the First Meeting

During the first meeting you should decide on the meeting schedule for the remainder of
the semester. I recommend one meeting every tw o w eeks.

During Every Meeting

SHOC is experiment-centric: it believes the best w ay to improve your student performance
is to experiment w ith different strategies w ith regular breaks to evaluate how they're
w orking and decide how they can be improved.

W ith this in mind, the suggested format for an SHOC meeting is as follow s:

1. Members report on the results of their experiments from previous meetings.

They discuss w hat w orked, w hat didn't, and most importantly, w hat changes
they're going to make to the strategies going forw ard.
2. Members discuss the topic of the week. On the SHOC homepage, I've provided a
series of five suggested discussion topics. For each suggested discussion I provide
sample content to read and specific strategies to experiment w ith. You don't have
to use these topics, but if you're a fan of the Study Hacks Canon, they're a good
place to start. (Longtime Study Hacks readers w ill notice that they echo the
structure of the Straight-A Method.)
3. Each member then decides on a new strategy to experiment with in the
upcoming weeks. The group is encouraged to w rite me w ith any questions or to
solicit my feedback. (Start your subject line w ith "SHOC:" for a faster response.)
4. The group leader writes a blog post summarizing the results of the previous
experiments, and describing the new experiments...
5. ...he then breaks out some quality beer, and everyone puts aside thoughts of study
strategies for just a little while.

Back to the homepage...

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #1: Capture 17-Jan-17

Discussion #1: Capture

Before you can make decisions about the big picture direction of your student life you
need to first gain control over your day to day existence. W ith this in mind, w e're starting
w ith the seemingly mundane topic of w rangling your obligations. As you'll learn as the
semester progresses, this basic organization w ill be the foundation on w hich the rest of
your transformation is built.

The Main Idea

The capture philosophy promoted here draw s heavily on David Allen's Getting Things Done
(click here for a brief overview of his system w ritten by me, and here for an overview
w ritten by Merlin Mann).

Allen defines stuff in your life as anything that requires some action on your part. For a
student, this ranges from small tasks, like paying your cell phone bill or setting up a
professor meeting, to large responsibilities, like finding an internship or w riting a research
paper. Allen notes that most people keep track of their stuff in their head. The result is
stress generated by the mind's constant w orry that it's forgetting something important.

His solution is the same solution I'm going to preach here: have a trusted system in
which all of your stuff is captured and regularly reviewed. This provides tw o
advantages. First, it significantly reduces stress because you no longer have that nagging
feeling that you're forgetting something important. Second, you can't make efficient and
smart plans until you have a w ay of facing everything that's actually on your plate.

Related Articles
A Time Management System for Students W ho Are Terrible at Time Management...
Getting Things Done for College Students...Made Easy
A W hirlw ind Tour of Getting Things Done
43 Folder's Overview of Getting Things Done

Suggested Experiments
W e'll tackle the more complicated question of taking action on your stuff in the next
discussion. The experiment suggested here focuses on building trust in your system. I
suggest doing the follow ing (though the ambitious student might jump right into the more
involved GTDCS approach to capture):

1. Setup a calendar and a master task list. (This can be on your computer, your
iPhone, on paper -- w hatever makes you happy.)
2. Buy a small notebook that you keep w ith you at all times.
3. W hen you encounter new stuff during your day, jot it dow n in your notebook
immediately.
4. Every morning, before breakfast, transfer everything out of your notebook and onto
your master task list and/or calendar. If you jotted dow n a big responsibility (i.e., "I
need to find an internship"), reduce it to the next specific action you have to take
(i.e., "make appointment at career services"), so that it seems less daunting.
5. Take 30 seconds to glance over your the calendar for the w eek and your task list to
get some idea of w hat's on your plate.

Warnings
The most common problem students face w hen learning capture is falling out of the habit
of regular review . I know it can seem dumb to look over that list and calendar every single
morning, even w hen you know that there's nothing new on it since the last time you
looked. But you need to make it a ritual. At this early stage, you're more focused on
building trust than you are actually trying to prevent forgotten appointments (though you
w ill certainly enjoy this latter benefit).

Back to the homepage...

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #1: Capture 17-Jan-17

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #2: Control 17-Jan-17

Discussion #2: Control

Hopefully your experiments w ith capturing and review ing the stuff in your life has relieved
some mental unease. Now it's time to figure out w hat to do w ith these obligations. The
control philosophy has you decide in advance how to spend your hours. It rejects the
default approach of allow ing your days to unfold in a chaotic and inefficient manner.

The Main Idea

The control philosophy emphasizes the importance of assigning specific blocks of times to
specific tasks. This approach is significantly more effective than the to-do list method,
w hich has you constantly ask yourself "w hat should I do next?".

There are tw o good reasons w hy time blocking w orks so w ell. First, by assigning times to
tasks, you're forced to face the reality of how much w ork is on your plate. This prevents
stressful pile-ups and all-nighters.

Second, w hen you block your time in advance, you make more efficient use of your day.
For example, you're more likely to use empty stretches of time in the mornings and
afternoons (w hen your mental energy is high). Students follow ing the to-do list method,
by contrast, tend to w ait until the evening, w hen there is no more excuses for not
w orking, to start. The result is late nights and rushed results.

Related Articles
Don't Use a Daily To-Do List
How to Reduce Stress and Get More Done By Building an Autopilot Schedule
Follow a Sunday Ritual
How to Use Time Arbitrage to Maximize Your Productivity Profit

Suggested Experiments
1. Construct an autopilot schedule, w hich identifies regular times during the w eek for
tackling your regularly occurring w ork.
2. Each morning, w hen you're processing your capture notebook (from last w eek's
experiment), decide w hat you w ant to get done and setup a time block schedule
that assigns specific times during the day to these tasks. This schedule, of course,
should also include appointments and classes already on your calendar, and the
regularly occurring blocks from your autopilot schedule.
3. Adopt a Sunday Ritual, w hich is a block of time you put aside each Sunday to
prepare for the upcoming w eek. Use this time to tackle small tasks that you've
been avoiding and to review the major obligations in your life (research papers,
looming tests), reassuring yourself that you're on track tow ard their completion.

Warnings
Time blocking is hard to get right. The most common problem is to fail to put aside enough
time -- leading to a schedule breakdow n. There are several w ays to address this issue.
First, be specific about your tasks. Instead of saying "start paper," you might instead say
"take notes on the first three chapters of book X." W hen you're specific, it is easier to
estimate how much time w ill be required. Second, w hen you do violate your schedule,
w hich will happen, simply adjust it at the next opportunity. Flexibility is key to making time
blocking w ork. Finally, be patient. From my experience, for example, it can take up to 6
w eeks to tw eak your autopilot schedule into something you follow regularly. W ith this in
mind, don't despair as you struggle w ith the control philosophy in the near future.

Back to the homepage...

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #3: Plan, Pt. 1 17-Jan-17

Discussion #3: Plan, Pt. 1

W e've tackled the what and when of your student obligations, now it's time to move on to
the how. This discussion is the first of tw o. Here w e tackle the development of smart
strategies for regularly occurring academic w ork such as notetaking and problem sets. In
the next discussion w e move on to test preparation and paper w riting.

The Main Idea

Most students tackle their academic w ork using w hatever random method first pops to
mind. If you ask students w hy they take notes or study the w ay they do, few w ould have
a reasonable answ er.

The plan philosophy argues that you can make your life much better by actually devoting
some time to thinking through your approach to academic w ork. It consists of the
follow ing three principles:

1. Y ou should always articulate a specific plan for tackling each type of academic
work you face. Reject ambiguous terms such as "study" or "take notes," w hich
describe a goal, not a process.
2. Y ou should challenge your plans by asking yourself "why is this the best way to
do this?". Often this simple question leads to tw eaks that generate great increases
to your efficiency.
3. Y ou should constantly evolve your plans based on how they perform. It can take
multiple semesters of active evolution to develop w ork strategies that are optimally
efficient for your situation.

There's no perfect strategy for a given academic task that w ill w ork for all students in all
situations. So long as you follow the three principles from above, how ever, you'll find the
perfect strategy for you. Below in the related articles I provide some suggested strategies
to get you started, but ultimately it w ill be up to you to figure out w hat w orks.

Related Articles
Problemset Strategies:

How to Solve Hard Problem Sets W ithout Staying Up All Night

How to Talk to a TA
How to Ace Calculus: The Art of Doing W ell in Technical Courses

Notetaking Strategies:

Streamline Your Notes

W hy Most Students Don't Understand the Real Goal of Note Taking
Question/Evidence/Conclusion Notetaking
The Morse Code Method
How to Read Hard Readings
To Go to Class, or Not to Go...there Shouldn't Be Any Question.
The Art of Taking Science Notes
The Story Telling Method
How to Take Notes on Pow er Point Slides

The Plan Philosophy:

The Danger of Black Box Studying

How to Perform a Post-Exam Post-Mortem

Suggested Experiments
Identify the different types of regularly occurring academic w ork in your student life. For
example, "math class problem sets," "English class assignment notes," etc. For each type
of w ork, articulate a specific plan for how you w ill tackle it. Don't settle for the first idea
that comes to mind, question these plans in search of even better w ays. Finally, as the
semester progresses, discuss w ith your SHOC group how the plans are performing, and
solicit feedback on how to make them even better.

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #3: Plan, Pt. 1 17-Jan-17

Warnings
Simplicity rules. Students abandon plans w hen they become too time consuming and
unw ieldy to consistently use. Focus on reducing time, not increasing complexity. And if
something about a plan doesn't feel right, change it. They key is to find something that
you trust is making your life better.

Back to the homepage...

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #4: Plan, Pt. 2 17-Jan-17

Discussion #4: Plan, Pt. 2

In the first tw o discussions w e tackled the what and when of your student obligations. In
the third discussion, w e advanced to the how -- focusing on efficient strategies for taking
notes and solving problem sets. This discussion picks up w here the last left off, turning
our attention to test preparation and paper w riting.

The Main Idea

The same general plan philosophy from part 1 holds here as well. I've repeated the key ideas
below...

The plan philosophy argues that you can make your life much better by actually devoting
some time to thinking through your approach to academic w ork. It consists of the
follow ing three principles:

1. Y ou should always articulate a specific plan for tackling each type of academic
work you face. Reject ambiguous terms such as "study" or "take notes," w hich
describe a goal, not a process.
2. Y ou should challenge your plans by asking yourself "why is this the best way to
do this?". Often this simple question leads to tw eaks that generate great increases
to your efficiency.
3. Y ou should constantly evolve your plans based on how they perform. It can take
multiple semesters of active evolution to develop w ork strategies that are optimally
efficient for your situation.

There's no perfect strategy for a given academic task that w ill w ork for all students in all
situations. So long as you follow the three principles from above, how ever, you'll find the
perfect strategy for you. Below in the related articles I provide some suggested strategies
to get you started, but ultimately it w ill be up to you to figure out w hat w orks.

Related Articles
Test Preparation Strategies:

Part 2 (of Straight-A) in 60 Seconds or Less

Drizzle Exam Prep Over Many Days
Studying is a Technical Skill
How to Study for Non-Technical Science Courses
The Definitive Guide to Acing Your Schedule
How to Ace Calculus
My W orld Famous Mechanical Exam Prep Process
The Art of Stealth Studying

Paper Writing Strategies:

The Paperback W riter Method

How Tw o Extra Hours Can Make Your Paper Tw o Times Better
Building a Fact Scaffolding
How to Edit Your paper in Three Passes or Less
The Most Important Paper Research Advice You've Never Heard
How to Use a Flat Outline to W rite Outstanding Papers, Fast
How to Build a Paper Research Database
How to Build a Paper Research W iki

The Plan Philosophy:

(Note: These are the same general links on the philosophy as those listed in last week's
discussion.)

The Danger of Black Box Studying

How to Perform a Post-Exam Post-Mortem

Suggested Experiments
Use the project folder method for the exams and papers you face in the remainder of the
semester. This method w ill force you to lay out a specific, step-by-step plan for tackling
these challenges.

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #4: Plan, Pt. 2 17-Jan-17

As w ith the experiment from the last discussion, don't settle for the first plans that come
to mind. Use the above articles to think through something smart. Compare it to the plans
devised by your SHOC group members, and solicit feedback.

Warnings
I have the same w arning as in last w eek's discussion: simplicity rules. Students abandon
plans w hen they become too time consuming and unw ieldy to consistently use. Focus on
reducing time, not increasing complexity. And if something about a plan doesn't feel right,
change it. They key is to find something that you trust is making your life better.

Back to the homepage...

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #5: The Big Picture 17-Jan-17

Discussion #5: The Big Picture

W hen it comes to tackling the big picture issues of college -- Why am I here? What type of
life am I trying to build for myself? -- you must first gain enough control of your life to
actually act on your answ ers. This is w hy I delayed this crucial discussion until the end.
Hopefully, by this point in the semester, your w ork on the technical issues that preceded
this discussion have built your confidence that you can make changes -- even hard ones --
in your life.

The Main Idea

My philosophy on maximizing your college experience is simple: do less; do better; know
why .

Do only a small number of things -- i.e., one major, an easy course load, and a small
number of extracurricular activities -- leaving an abundance of time in your schedule. Do
these small number of things extremely w ell. I mean this both on the small scale of using
smart strategies (like those discussed in the previous discussions), and the large scale of
pushing beyond simply getting the job done, and instead focusing on becoming excellent.
Finally, ground these efforts in a solid understanding of w hat you w ant out of life and how
your college experience is going to get you closer. There is no magic right answ er to this
final question. It's up to you to nail dow n one out of the many options that could w ork for
you.

There are two reasons why I love this approach:

1. It's sustainable. There's a real pleasure in having more than enough time to
handle a minimalist schedule, and few satisfactions are richer than that of building
true mastery. Students w ho are doing less and doing better tend to be engaged,
non-stressed, and happy.
2. It's generates outstanding opportunities. The w orld beyond college rew ards stars
more than it rew ards diligent grinds w ho juggled a large amount of hard things.
Students w ho master a small number of things tend to end up w ith fascinating
opportunities.

The final step tow ard taking control your college career is to ask yourself w hat you're
looking for in life, and then give serious consideration to my claim that doing less and
doing better is the best path to get there.

Related Articles
Do Less. Do Better. Know W hy.
How to Become a Zen Valedictorian
Resolve to Make 2010 a Year of Radical Simplicity
Diligence vs. Ability: Rethinking W hat Impresses Employers
The Unheralded Splendor of the A* Strategy
Does Living a Remarkable Life Require Courage or Effort?
On the Value of Hard Focus
The Steve Martin Method
Double Majors Don't Publish Novels

Suggested Experiments
First, give some serious thought to w hat you're looking for in life. (This article on lifestyle-
centric career planning should help guide you in this effort.)

Second, imagine w hat adopting the do less and do better philosophy w ould mean in your
ow n student life.

Finally, decide w hether you believe that this approach seems like a sustainable path to
achieving your life vision. If so, then it's time to lay out some serious changes for the
semesters ahead.

Warnings

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Study Hacks on Campus: Discussion #5: The Big Picture 17-Jan-17

These are deep issues. Don't rush the process of figuring out w hat you're looking for in
life. Discussing these ideas w ith your SHOC group members -- perhaps on multiple
occasions -- should help you start coming to grips w ith these big questions surrounding
college life.

Back to the homepage...

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