A blog about learning, living, and sometimes trying to do both.
Posted in Just For Learners, Organisation on Jun 22nd, 2008
Disclaimer: this is an obvious suggestion. Feel free to stop reading now. Of course, if you’re not organised, you may want to keep reading … The best way to get more organised is to spend time organising. It doesn’t have to be lots of time – just more than you do now. And it’s most [...]
Posted in Just For Learners on May 6th, 2008
A great post on keeping focus from Leo of Zen Habits: 16 ways to keep a razor-sharp focus at work – good for students, too.
Posted in For Everyone, Just For Learners on Mar 13th, 2008
I warn you – this is going to sound silly. But so many people have very reluctantly admitted how well this works that I’m pretty sure I’m on the right track. Here goes: If you’re procrastinating over something, start the very first, small thing. And only the first thing. If it’s a report, write the [...]
Posted in For Everyone, Just For Learners on Mar 4th, 2008
I have a looming deadline for a conference paper. When you’re working to a deadline, there are 3 options: start early, start as late as possible, or panic. Two of those are approved Project Management practices. Here’s a simple technique from Project Management for planning out your work to avoid panic. 1. Break the work [...]
Posted in For Everyone, Just For Learners on Feb 12th, 2008
Forgetting appointments and due dates? Have reminder notes everywhere? Spend your time firefighting? Need to get things sorted, quick? This post will show you how to use a diary to get stuff done on time. There’s more complex methods, but this is an excellent base for all of them – so get started now, and [...]
Posted in For Everyone, Just For Learners on Feb 8th, 2008
In part one I talked about doing what’s important, not what’s urgent. We’re now going to use the Urgency/Importance matrix to do that, starting with the easiest quadrant. Here’s the Urgency/Importance matrix again: Let’s start with Quadrant 4 – Not Urgent and Not Important Quadrant 4 tasks are timewasters. They are not important to us, [...]
Posted in For Everyone, Just For Learners on Feb 5th, 2008
The problem with having a goal is that somehow you have to find time to do what has to be done to achieve it. Getting fitter means finding time to exercise. Getting organised means finding time to create and mange a system. Getting straight A’s means finding time to study. But where? It’s not as [...]
