Get Organized and Be More Productive
One thing we've noticed from working with a wide range of students is that top performers often seem to be the busiest - they are taking lots of classes, involved in athletics, and have taken on leadership activites in multiple on-campus organizations. This is of course counterintuitive on some level - you'd think that the busier you are, the less time you'd have to study.
In fact, being busy, in the right way of course, can have the opposite effect. It forces you to prioritze your time, be more efficient, and be more productive. It helps you focus on the task at hand, because you know your time to devote to that task is limited.
And, as competition for entrance to top colleges, great jobs and selective graduate programs increases, having leadership roles, community service, and athletics on your resume will increasigly become table-stakes. So, it's important to work on becoming more organized and a better manager of your time.
This page offers resources to help you do that, and of course we'll be adding to it over time.
Great books
Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity -this is a classic book that provides a framework and strategy for managing a series of "to do" lists that, together, represent a system for more reliably getting things done at school, at work, and in life. One simple but powerful idea in the book is that writing things down (i.e., using to-do lists) allows you to remove dozens of important but simple tasks from your brain, allowing you to focus on more important. bigger issues and ideas in your life.
Great “apps”
Audible -this is popular I-phone and Android app, and an Amazon-owned company, which offers downloadable audio books. We feature it here because, if you like or have to read, whether for pleasure, work, or school, being able to "read" while walking to school or driving to work can be an incredible boost to productivity.
Evernote - another popular I-phone and Android app, evernote enables you to write electronic notes, save pictures, record voice notes and videos, and most importantly, categorize everything so that you stay organized. It works well with David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system mentioned above.
Great web-sites, blogs, etc.
Thinking Outside the Classroom Blog - Thinking Outside the Classroom, one of MyGuru's key partners, is a provider of executive function coaching, which helps students through adults build the self-management, time management, goal setting, and organization skills to succeed in school and at work.
Time Management Ninja Blog - a great blog devoted to, as they put it, "helping you win the battle against wasted time, disorganization, and all other things evil..."