STUDY
1.Study for a while and then take a power nap (20 minutes are good, but no longer
than a hour. set an alarm!) before studying again. There are proven benefits!
2. Find the perfect place for YOU
2. Keep water handy to sip and keep you alert. Mints have also been known to help
you concentrate (mint gum is best as you are forced to keep alert with the
chewing)
4. If you are studying for a test, break the material up. Don’t leave large amounts
of reading for the night before. You need to be well-rested. Keep up with reading!
5. MAKE FLASHCARDS OF KEY TERMS!
6. Read a page (or a few paragraphs), cover up the page and summarize the main
points out loud in your own words.
7. Get a tutor or study buddy. Actually, I’ve found that explaining/teaching
someone else the material helps you understand it even better!
8. Read over the notes you took that day, at night. if you don't understand
something, you can ask the prof/teacher the next day.
9. If you are a college student, use your prof's office hours. if in high school,
schedule a time to ask your teacher questions.
10. Look into taking a speed reading class.
11. If you are given essay questions to a test in advance, by all means make an
outline! Don’t write out the entire essay as this will be much too difficult to
study/memorize.
12. Make a written schedule (I like using excel ). Put in time slots for school,
activities you're involved in, mealtimes, etc. then schedule in studying times and
stick to them. Make sure you also schedule in fun activities as rewards!
13. Always carry a school book with you (the smallest one, preferably). This
helps to study in any free short gaps.
14. Look into audio books.
15. I often get easily distracted with worries and the list of things to do (or
random ideas even) while I’m trying to study. so what I do before I start is take a
notebook and just write down everything that's floating in my head onto paper and
leave the notebook nearby in case something else comes to mind.
16. work/study/read for 45 mins (set an alarm). Then watch 1/2 of a FRIENDS
episode (or another 30 min show on DVD). Again, make sure you set a 15-min
alarm during the break. Then read/work/study for another 45 mins and then finish
the show! Taking breaks is really important. You can mix up watching shows
with taking a walk, getting a snack, stretching, etc.
17. Stay positive. I know it sounds really silly, but it has been proven: if you think
that you can do something, you really can. When you get stressed out, stop what
you're doing. Relax your limbs. Close your eyes and take deep breaths. Inhale for
5 seconds. Exhale for 5 seconds. Do this a couple of times and I swear you will
feel better.
speed revision when you learn a new topic, bullet point the key ideas and points so they
are ready for when you need then and also use mind maps as your brain actually thinks in
pictures so it is easier to remember stuff if you us diagrams.
I like to have all my notes and textbook around so I can flick through them. it helps to
take breaks from it and do something completely different then go back to it this helps
your memory as test have show your memory dips in the middle of a study session and
you remember most from the start and end and by having frequent short breaks you
create more starts and ends so you remember more.
It depends what kind of learner you are if you are a reader, writer learning then do as the
name suggests and use mind maps and bullet points, write the notes out a few times and
leave post it notes around the house with a few notes on. If you are a person who learns
by discussions and demonstration and doing it yourself try acting things out in your head
Time plan
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Step 1: Conduct a Time Audit
o Create a weekly schedule that shows all of your regular obligations.
o Count up the total number of hours you need to spend each week on work
outside of the classroom.
Step 2: Establish a Student Work Day
o Choose a start time for each morning and a cutoff time for each evening.
o Make sure the free hours during this workday are enough to accommodate
all of the work reviewed in your time audit.
o Every weekday, do nothing but work during the work day. Do nothing but
relax once it’s over.
When facing a class that presents a large amount of detailed information, using quiz-andrecall method on the raw facts can become overwhelmingly boring; not to mention that it
becomes easy to miss the bigger picture connections and ideas that will help you on an
advanced test. Try this instead: organize the information into idea maps that connect the
information to bigger concepts which in turn connect with each other.
Head to a library that is quiet and that has nothing to do with what you study. This
reduces stress and helps you relax. Once there, visualize yourself levitating in the air and
looking at the back of your own head. This exercise, when enacted in a calm
environment, helps you fall into a flow state.
Consider a quick 10 to 20 minutes of getting your zen on before class, before studying,
before working on a paper, before a big test, or, even if you’re just having a hard time
getting your motivation amped up. All you need to do is sit comfortably, on your knees, in
a chair, or cross-legged on the floor and focus on your breathing.”
Note taking tips
1. I will put aside 7-8 hours per week for reading. It’s a lot. But knowing, in
advance, how much time is really needed to gain a decent understanding makes
the needed scheduling easier.
2. I assume these reading hours will have to be realized in three chunks if they’re
going to achieve an optimal focus level. I’m assigning two chunks, semipermanently, to Friday and Monday morning. The third chunk can float — I’ll
place it in the most convenient scheduling hole for the current week.
Note-Taking Logistics
I’m fanatical about reducing wasted time in my note-taking process. I’ve learned from
experience that almost any type of extra work — re-formatting notes, creating a separate
file for definitions, transferring files between computers — can cause friction that will,
over time, grow in intensity until it ends up singeing my entire system. For this class, my
friction-free note-taking plan:
1. I will take notes for each reading in Google Docs to obtain location independence.
2. I will have a Google Docs folder defined for each week, making it clear exactly
where each doc should be placed and where each can be found. I will have a
naming convention for each note document. This sounds superfluous. But it
matters. The more decisions you can eliminate, the better.
3. Before each class, I will print the notes for the assigned readings. I will attach a
blank piece of paper to the front of each printout. I will have a plain manila folder
for each week’s course. In this folder I will place my printouts. In class I will take
notes on the blank sheet attached to the reading being discussed.
4. After class, these folders get placed in a plastic inbox I have on my shelf in my
office. Therefore, each week, a new folder is added that contains both reading and
lecture notes for the readings for that week.
Note-Taking Strategy
My approach for taming these beastly readings:
1. I will consistently deploy the system described in my recent article on tackling
hard readings. If you recall, this system involves looking for existing commentary
on an article before reading it yourself.
2. For the notes themselves, I’ll stick to the tried and true
Question/Evidence/Conclusion format. Processing and extracting conclusions is
exactly what class discussion demands.
Research Paper Strategy
The course culminates in an original research paper. Having written a similar paper in a
similar course last year, I have added the following rules to my paper research strategies:
1. Start the background research early (i.e., building an understanding the basics of
my topic). Push hard on it right away. This step usually takes longer than I expect.
I will use my simple excel-based research database. Perhaps something more
advanced like Zotero would give me more power. But I don’t want to learn
something new when something simple works.
2. I will explore several thesis ideas in depth. Again, this needs more attention and
needs to be done sooner.
3. Once a thesis is identified, I will spend the bulk of my time diving as deep as
possible. Seeking out untapped primary sources where possible — interviews,
datasets, etc. That’s what can help make research pop from “a student’s chore” to
“interesting in its own right.”
Paper work
(1) Capture Your Task Immediately:
Keep a piece of paper and a pen on your person at all times. Whenever
a new to-do or deadline pops into your mind, immediately jot it down
on the scrap paper.
(2) Plan Each Morning:
Each morning take 5 minutes to update your calendar and plan your day.
First, copy the items from the scrap paper you had been carrying
around the previous day onto your calendar. Put the deadlines on the
appropriate date and choose days on which to accomplish the to-dos –
writing each to-do under the day you plan to tackle it. Next, look at
what has been recorded for the current day. Come up with a simple
schedule for when and where you are going to accomplish each of the
obligations. If there are more tasks than you can handle, move the
extras to future dates on your calendar.
Paper research
(1) Getting tasks out of your head and into a “trusted system.” This
cuts down stress and prevents deadline creep (e.g., “Oh shit! I have a
paper due tomorrow?”).
(2) Auditing your time. Students are notorious for significantly
over-estimating the amount of time they have available in a given day
to get productive work done. By forcing yourself to map out the time
during which you will be working, ensures that you gain a realistic
sense of how much you can actually get done, and, therefore, how early
you might have to get started.
With these annotated sources in hand, do the following before you type even a single
word of your paper:
1. Put aside at least one day to do no work on your paper except ponder the story. If
the paper is large, set aside more time.
2. Start with a high energy block early in your day. Use the time to browse through
your annotated sources. Start to swap in the information — get comfortable with
the different arguments, facts, and interpretations you have available.
3. Go walking. For a while. Somewhere quiet. Just walk and think. Let the
information sieve through the various processes of your mind. Play around with
different lines of argument.
4. Throughout the day, during little pockets of time — while in line or, even better,
the shower — revisit the story. Mentally manipulate the pieces. Begin to rehearse
the parts that seem to flow.
5. At the end of the work day, right before dinner, sit down to capture the results of
your efforts. Make a topic-level outline. This is simply a list of the topics you
want to cover in your paper, presented in the order that you want to present them.
In essence, it’s a skeleton of your story. Don’t get super-detailed yet. Keep things
at the topic scope (e.g., “Pre-war arguments against a European trade
agreement”, or “Evidence that Senator Jenson had influential ties to agriculture
lobby”, not “quote from page 6 of the Richardson article.”).
6. For every 10% of your final grade the paper is worth, talk to another person about
your story. Get his or her feedback. Refine the outline.
Proper guidelines
1. Attend every class. Take notes on a laptop.
2. Set aside a fixed two-hour study block for every weekday and Sunday. Use
this time to study, in a remote corner of the library, without exception, every
week of the term.
3. Make a study plan for every test in every class at the beginning of the term.
Decide what you are going to do and when.
4. Replace rote review with quiz and recall.
5. Attend office hours every single week to discuss the most challenging
material from lecture, or the hardest problems from the problem set. Inform
the professor that you are making a real effort this term to turn around your
performance.
Three Trivial Study Habits
1. Sketch a plan when you sit down to study
Spend 30 seconds to jot down what and how you are going to study during the
current session. Put time estimates next to each piece to confirm that the plan fits
into the time you set aside to work. Put nice checkboxes next to each piece as you
finish…everyone loves to check off nice checkboxes.
2. Drink three glasses of water and one healthy snack for every one caffeinated
beverage you consume
Self-explanatory. You’ll be surprised, however, by how big a role your nutritiondriven energy levels play in your ability to concentrate.
Taking lecture notes
This need for speed for typing notes using laptop, however, can conflict with the
Question/Evidence/Conclusion (Q/E/C) note-taking style. When the
information is flying, you might not have the time to write out the
full word “Question” or “Conclusion.” This problem becomes pronounced
if you like, as I do, to put them into bold face to better structure
your notes visually.
Here’s an easy hack for Microsoft Word users to bypass this issue:
(1) Type and format the word “Question” the way you prefer it to
appear in your Q/E/C notes.
(2) Highlight the text. Go to Tools –> AutoCorrect Options.
(3) The “AutoCorrect” tab should be automatically selected. In the
“With” field you should see your formatted text. Now, put the letters
“qq” into the “Replace” field and then click the “Add” button.
(4) Repeat this procedure for “Conclusion,” using the letters “cc”
Now, when typing your notes, simply hit “q” twice and press the space
bar and your formatted “Question” will automatically appear. The same
holds true for “cc” and “Conclusion.”
USING THE GRAPH AS QUESTION:
(1) Photocopy every figure in the reading that will be covered by the
upcoming exam. One figure per page.
(2) Integrate these figures into your study guide along with your
other sample problems.
(3) When doing Q/R studying, treat each figure as a question. The
appropriate answer is a full explanation of: (a) exactly what the
figure is measuring; and (b) the implications or explanations for what
it shows. For example, why are the two curves on a graph different.
Or, why do the numbers get larger as you move across the columns in a
table.
(4) You will likely find that a single figure covers the same
information also captured by several other sample problems in your
study guide. Feel free to consolidate by eliminating the redundant
questions.
Revising
Make it an inviolable habit that after every class you immediately head into your replay
booth to spend 5-10 minutes “locking in” your lecture notes. This process should include
three steps:
(1) Clean-up any spots where you got rushed before finishing your thought.
(2) Devise a two or three sentence summary of the day’s lecture.
Consider this an abstract for the notes that follow.
(3) Create a list at the bottom of your notes that contains the
questions you can later use to cover this material when studying with
the quiz-and-recall method
For fast reading
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I simply copied all the text from the journal article and pasted it into a Microsoft
Word document.
I then customized the margins of my word document so that I had 2.5” margins on
both the right and left side.
I then changed my font to a large, comfortable type (i.e. Calibri font/size 14) so
that I only saw about 7 words per line.
Note taking tips
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Summarize your notes in your own words, not the instructor’s. Remember: your
goal is to understand what the professor is saying, not to try to record, exactly,
everything he or she says.
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Mark ideas which the lecturer emphasizes with an arrow or some special symbol.
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When the teacher looks at his/her notes, pay attention to what they say next.
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Make your notes your notes. Take advantage of how you learn (visually, orally, or
actively) and write/draw your notes according to that style.
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Consider splitting your notes into two columns — keep lecture notes on one side,
and write questions that come up during the lecture on the other side. This will
ensure that you don’t forget any unclear points or questions that come up during
the lecture, and will enable you to associate the answer with the relevant material
when you find it later. Also, if you go to office hours, your professor will notice
that you were paying attention in class, which will pay off in the long run.
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Copy what’s written on the blackboard and transparencies, especially the outline.
To make sure that you get everything, get in the habit of skipping words like “the”
and “a” and make use of shorthand and abbreviations.
Paper writing
So here is my basic process on how I write my papers step-by-step:
Research Phase: Hunting and Gathering
This is probably the most time-consuming part of the research paper. I’m a research
hound, so I like to spend as much time as possible finding all the research possible. It’s
during this phase that I’m doing the following:
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Refining my research subject
Developing research questions
Consulting librarians for their insight on my research area
Reading journal article abstracts on the topic I’m interested in
Organizing Phase: Reading and Writing
As I’m reviewing journal articles, I’m jotting down everything I need from the article
before moving on; including: citation info, potential quotes, summaries, and any
referenced journal articles that look interesting. I’m also
 Developing a potential thesis statement
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Creating a meaty bibliography
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Outlining my paper
Inserting notes within my outline - and adding references
Drafting Phase: Writing
Once I’ve written my thesis statement and completed my outline, it’s time to begin
working on my first draft. Here are the steps that I take:
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Just start writing something (I typically start in the middle somewhere)
Make sure to cite everything (I go overboard just to be safe)
Keep refining the thesis
Keeping modifying the outline
Pretend the paper is due the next day and just finish it
Take a day off after the first draft is done - don’t look at it
Revision Phase: Editing Never Ends
Revising — as you know — means removing and adding content to make the paper
better - which means nobody is ever really done. We just turn in our last and best draft.
Here are my editing steps:
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Read it aloud and mark any areas that don’t sound right
Look at all the punctuation marks - especially apostrophes
Make sure every paragraph moves the paper along
Eliminate passive verbs whenever possible
8 tips to help you proof your own paper
1. Read your paper backward
A surefire way to find misspellings is by reading your essay backward to yourself. This
makes every word stand out. And this is a great way to focus on the punctuation of each
sentence.
2. Read your essay out loud
One simple way to proof is to read your essay aloud. This will help you focus on the
rhythm of your writing, your punctuation, and any glaring errors in your sentence
structure. If any sentence sounds confusing, you should revise it.
3. Cut the fat
Eliminate passive verbs whenever possible.
4. Proof in stages
I always proof my papers in stages. This means that I’ll typically plan on proofing my
entire paper in a variety of stages. For example: (1) Focus on every word; (2) Focus on
punctuation; (3) Focus on subject/verb agreement; (4) Focus on argumentation; (5) Focus
on pronouns . . . etc. You get the idea.
5. Pay attention to apostrophes
Examine every word that ends in “s” and ask yourself if an apostrophe belongs there.
Remember that apostrophes should never be used to make words plural.
6. Focus your attention on every comma and semicolon
Scan your paper to find every comma and semicolon. Make sure you’re using them
properly in the sentence.
7. Proof headers and subheads
You’d be surprised how often headers and subheads get misspelled. This is because most
people who are proofing are focusing on the details, and they often miss the big glaring
error right in front of them.
8. Proof in the morning
You won’t catch as many errors if you’re proofing right after you’ve finished writing. So
take a long break before editing the paper.
Setup: Construct a Project Page
Using a single-paged document in your favorite word processor, do the following:
1. Make an Active Projects List
List 6 - 12 of the most important projects in your life. Pull from all three relevant
spheres: professional (e.g., school or work related); personal (e.g., home, family,
fitness); and extra (e.g., big projects like blogging, writing a book, starting a
club).
2. Label Each Project With A Completion Criteria
To quote David Allen, to finish a project you must “know what done looks like.”
Next to each project type a concise description of what action must be completed
for the project to be completed. (When you do this, you’ll notice how easy it was
for you before to think about projects in a much more ambiguous, impossible to
complete style).
3. Label the Bottom Half of the Page as a “Holding Pen”
This is where you can jot down new projects that enter your life while you’re
working on the active projects. They can be stored here until you complete the
current batch.
Example: My Current Project Page
Below is my current project page, just started, on October 12th. Excuse the wrinkles, I
keep it in my pocket all day:
Using the System: The Daily Check-In
Each morning, look at your project page and ask: “What’s the most progress I can make
toward completing this list today?” Your biggest goal should be to complete projects. If
you see a way to do it (even if it requires a big push, perhaps working late) go for it. If
you can’t finish one, think of the single thing you could do that would get you closest to
this goal over the next few days. Harbor an obsession for killing this list!
At the same time, of course, you should still reference your existing productivity system.
Outside of your projects you probably have other, more mundane tasks that need to get
done. Your goal here is to make as much progress on your projects as possible despite the
other responsibilities you have each day.
Finishing: Rest and Reload
Don’t start new projects until you’ve finished the projects on your current project page. If
you dynamically repopulate this list your are liable to let the least fun projects lie fallow
indefinitely. If you come up with new project ideas before you complete the current
active projects, simply jot them down in your holding pen.
Work as hard as possible to finish your projects as fast as possible. Once done, take a
break. For at least a week. Try to do a minimum of work during this time. Recharge.
Then, once you’re ready, build a new project page and start over again.
For better memorization
Recite As You Study
Recitation should first take place as you read through each paragraph or section. Quiz or
test yourself. This promotes understanding as well as faster learning because it is a more
active process than reading or listening. It also tests understanding, revealing mistakes or
gaps. Recite in your own words. Auditory learners should spend more time in reciting
orally what they are learning than visualizers. Read aloud passages you find difficult.
Take Fuller Notes
Visual learners should take fuller notes during lectures and their readings, as they learn
more readily by visualizing than hearing. Auditory learners should take fuller notes
perhaps on their readings. Notes should be in your own words, brief, clear but succinct.
They should be legible and neat. Writing notes better reinforces memory than mere
underlining, which is frequently done mechanically , often to excess and does not check
understanding.
Study the Middle
The best time to review is soon after learning has taken place. The beginning and the end
of material is best remembered, so pay close attention to the middle which is likely to be
forgotten. The peak of difficulty in remembering is just beyond the middle, toward the
end. change your method of review.
Sleep On It
Study before going to bed unless you are physically or mentally overtired. Freshly
learned material is better remembered after a period of sleep than after an equal period of
daytime activity because retroactive interference takes place.
Connect Ideas Whenever Possible
There are two ways to memorize: by rote (mechanically) and by understanding.
Multiplication tables, telephone numbers, combinations to safes, and the like are better
learned by rote. Ideas, concepts, theories and significances and the like are learned by
understanding. Sometimes they work simultaneously.
The more association you can elicit for an idea, the more meaning it will have; the more
meaningful the learning, the better one is able to retain it. Always note similarities in
ideas and concepts, and put them in their proper place in a larger system of ideas,
concepts and theories. A bare literal understanding is often of little valuable. Never be
satisfied with a hazy idea of what you are reading. If you are not able to follow the
thought, go back to where you lost the trail.
Steps for better lecture notes
Before the Lecture Begins
1. Prepare for the lecture so that you will be more likely to predict the organization
of the lecture. Check the course outline to see if the lecturer has listed the topic or
key ideas in the upcoming lecture. If so, convert this information into questions to
be answered in the lecture.
o
o
o
Complete outside reading or reference assignments.
Review the text assignment and any reading notes taken.
Review notes from the previous lecture.
2. Sit as near to the front of the room as possible to eliminate distractions. And don't
forget to turn off your cell-phone.
3. Have a proper attitude. Listening well is a matter of paying close attention. Be
prepared to be open-minded about what the lecturer may be saying, even though
you may disagree with it.
During the Lecture
1. Have your lecture paper and pencil or pen ready. The last thing you want to do is
have your pen run out of ink, or your pencil break, without a backup (or a
sharpener) ready.
2. Write down the title of the lecture, the name of the course and the date.
3. Listen carefully to the introduction (if there is one). By knowing this outline, you
will be better prepared to anticipate what notes you will need to take. Decipher
this outline by listening for:
o
o
A topic for each section.
Supporting points or examples for the topic.
4. Copy what's written on the blackboard and transparencies, especially the outline.
To make sure that you get everything, get in the habit of skipping words like "the"
and "a" and make use of shorthand and abbreviations. Summarize your notes in
your own words, not the instructor's. Remember: your goal is to understand what
the professor is saying, not to try to record exactly everything he or she says.
5. Recognize main ideas by signal words that indicate something important is to
follow. See the tip on signals below.
6. Jot down details or examples that support the main ideas. Take down examples
and sketches which the lecturer presents. Indicate examples with "e.g." Give
special attention to details not covered in the textbook.
7. If there is a summary at the end of the lecture, pay close attention to it. You can
use it to check the organization of your notes. If your notes seem disorganized,
copy down the main points that are covered in the summary. It will help in
revising your notes later.
8. At the end of the lecture, ask questions about points that you did not understand.
After the Lecture
1. Revise your notes as quickly as possible, preferably immediately after the lecture,
since at that time you will still remember a good deal of the lecture. Also it is a
good idea to reread your notes within 24 hours of the lecture.
2. During the first review period after the lecture, coordinate reading and lecture
notes.
3. Review your lecture notes at least once a week. Also, review the lecture notes
before the next lecture.
Tips
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Remember that taking notes is not the primary reason for attending a lecture,
trying to make your notes too perfect is a pitfall.
Collect notes for each course in one place, in a separate notebook or section of a
notebook.
Write notes on one side of the paper only. Use a pen -- pencil will smear
eventually, which is bad if the final test is cumulative or if you want to save your
notes.
Use a loose-leaf notebook rather than a notebook with a permanent binding. See
the pattern of a lecture by spreading out the pages.
Use two pieces of paper, one as a draft, and one as your final notes or use the
Cornell Notetaking Method to organize the revision and review of your notes.
Enter your notes legibly because it saves time. Make them clear.
Box assignments and suggested books so you can identify them quickly.
Mark ideas which the lecture emphasizes with an arrow or some special symbol.
When the teacher looks at his/her notes, pay attention to what they say next.
Trade your "draft" notes with a classmate after each lecture. A scanner and email
works great for passing these notes.
Incorporate different colors of ink, diagrams, drawings of your own. Make your
notes your notes. Take advantage of how you learn (visually, orally, or actively)
and write/draw your notes according to that style.
Watch for signal words. Your instructor is not going to send up a rocket when
He/she states an important new idea or gives an example, but she will use signals
to telegraph what she is doing. Every good speaker does it, and you should expect
to receive these signals. For example, she may introduce an example with "for
example" as done here. Other common signals:
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Consider splitting the page into two columns -- keep lecture notes on one side,
and write questions that come up during the lecture on the other side. This will
ensure that you don't forget any unclear points or questions that come up during
the lecture, and will enable you to associate the answer with the relevant material
when you find it later. Also, if you go to office hours, your professor will notice
that you were paying attention in class, which will pay off in the long run.
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If you have an MP3 player, see if it has a built-in microphone and recording
capabilities. Most iPods don't, but many other brands do (e.g. Creative Zen
Micro). Like a digital micro recorder, you can transfer files easily to your
computer or a web page.
If feasible, consider using a laptop computer (even an old one) and a note-taking
program such as OneNote or BasKet or an online wiki to take outline-style notes.
This doesn't work for every student or every course, but has many advantages:
faster typing means more complete ideas are recorded, it will always be legible,
and it is easier to edit and share your notes. It does not work so well for courses in
which the notes include many pictures or diagrams, but you still may find it
worthwhile. Be sure to backup your notes regularly if you do this!
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How to Get Things Finished
Here are a few tips for finishing your projects. I’ll use the example of writing this blog
article to illustrate the points.
1. Write your tests (objectives) first
An objective is simply a statement of what you want to accomplish from your project.
You set objectives precisely so that you know when you’ve finished your work. Without
a well-formed objective, you won’t know when to stop, and you might keep tweaking
unimportant things endlessly.
To help write well-formed objectives, we can use the SMART system:
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Specific: Precisely what do you want to accomplish?
Measurable: You must be able to measure whether you have accomplished it.
Achievable: Is this objective possible to achieve?
Realistic: Can I achieve this objective with the resources I have available?
Timely: Set a deadline.
Example:
I have many objectives for writing this blog article. Here is a malformed objective:
“Write a good article about using extreme programming techniques for any kind of
project.”
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This objective is not specific. What will go in the article? What is the scope?
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This objective is not measurable. What does “good” mean?
This objective is achievable and realistic. But I won’t know if I have achieved it.
This objective is not timely. When does it need to be accomplished?
Since our objective doesn’t meet the criteria, we should reform it: “The article must lists
these 5 principles: Test first, One Test at a time, Do The Simplest Thing, Don’t break
your tests, and Stop when you’re done; deadline: 1 pm.”
Now it is SMART. And notice that my deadline is for that objective, not the whole,
finished article.
2. Set only one objective at a time, starting with the most important
Often, we’ll bog ourselves down with too many objectives. Each is achievable on its
own, but they’re not all equally important. So I try to find the most important objective
first.
I ask myself “What is the next most vital thing that I want to accomplish with this
project? If I could accomplish only one more thing with this project, what would give the
most value?”
Don’t just start from the beginning, start with the most valuable part of the project. What
is the meat of the thing?
When you’ve accomplished that, then add a new objective.
Example
The objective I wrote in the previous step was my most important. Without that list of
things, there’s not content. After I accomplished that, I set another objective: “The article
must give one brief explanation of each point listed in the first objective by 1:15pm”
3. Do the simplest thing possible to achieve the objective
When there’s only one objective, it’s easy to figure out what the simplest thing to do is.
Too often we try to accomplish too much at a time, and wind up not accomplishing much
at all. It’s important not to look too far down the road, because you can’t predict how
things will change. So don’t anticipate other objectives in the future. This, along with
Principle 2, is equivalent to focus on one thing at a time.
Example
For my first objective, I just listed out the descriptions of the principles. They are still
visible as the numbered list of descriptions in this article. I did nothing more. This created
a skeleton for my post. For my second objective; I filled in one explanation for each
principle. This fleshed out my post a bit.
4. Do not break your achieved objectives
Even when you add new objectives, don’t backtrack by undoing previous work. At the
end of accomplishing each objective, all objectives must still remain accomplished.
Example
After I added an explanation to each principle, I made sure that my first objective was
still accomplished, and it was, so I could move on and add another objective. One of my
objectives is to list all of my objectives in the article. I make sure not to break that
objective when I add new objectives.
5. Stop when you’re done
You set your objectives precisely to know when you’re finished. Don’t waste your time
working on a project if you have no more objectives.
Example
One of my objectives was “Link to at least 10 other pages in the article by 2pm.” Once I
had 10, I stopped. I can always add more objectives later, and there were more important
objectives to add first.
My Objectives
As an added bonus, here are my objectives for writing this article. Remember, I wrote
one at a time, and accomplished it before moving on.
1. The article must lists these 5 principles: Test first, One Test at a time, Do The
Simplest Thing, Don’t break your tests, and Stop when you’re done; deadline: 1
pm
2. The article must give one brief explanation of each point listed in the first
objective by 1:15pm
3. The article must give an example that touches on each point listed in the first
objective by 1:45pm
4. The article must contain a 30 line introduction that explains why productivity
doesn’t accomplish projects by 2:10pm
5. The article must list all of the objectives I used to write this article at the end of it
by 2:15pm.
6. The article must link to at least 10 other pages in the article, with descriptive title
attributes, by 2:30pm.
7. The article must use heading tags for titles, the principles, and the examples by
2:40pm.
8. The article must not have any noticeable formatting problems by 3:00pm.
9. The article must have at least 10 tags by 3:05pm.
10. The article must trackback to 5 related articles by 3:15pm.
For better memorization
If you simply read a textbook passively, you will probably remember less than a third of
what you should within a few days. And you will probably remember a lot less two
months later.
However, if you’re actively reading and reciting key concepts back to yourself it will
help connect these ideas to your core memory.
And if you’re able to attach these new ideas to subjects you already know well, this will
help the new ideas stick in your mind much longer - and much easier.
So talk to yourself after you’ve studied.
Memorization Tips
Here are some different techniques I use to help store information.
1) Link or Peg
One of my favorites is the link technique. The ideas behind this are fairly simple:
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We remember in associations.
We are more likely to remember uncommon rather than ordinary details.
The link technique has three basic steps:
Step One - Convert Data to Images
Convert all data you need to memorize into images as this is the only type of information
that can be encoded. In a management class I memorized Henri Fayol’s ten principles of
management. But since they were all abstract ideas, I first had to convert them into
symbols. “Division of labor” was represented as a knife cutting things apart.
Step Two - Exaggerated Linking
The next step is to form mental images that combine each base image in a ridiculous
fashion. To link “division of labor” with “unity of command” I took the base images
(cutting knife, hand pointing in a commanding fashion) and combined them. The
resulting image was a giant hand with tiny knifes chopping it into segments. The more
ridiculous the mental image, the stronger the link.
Step Three - Run Through and Test
The final step is simply to close your source and mentally run through the list. Any weak
links should be replaced with more memorable imagery. Any weak symbols, or places
that you can’t convert the image back to data, need to be re-examined.
2) Compression
The next method of memorizing is to compress information into a single source. Then
from the source point you can easily reference individual facts associated with them. This
is used in statistics all the time as graphs or charts compress down the information of a
data table.
I tend use mostly pictures when compressing information. My notebook is filled with
doodles I use to connect ideas together in a visual format. The point is to draw something
quickly that can serve as a compression point for multiple ideas.
Another example from my management class, I compressed the information of Michael
Porter’s five-forces model by making it the five horsemen of the business apocalypse.
Then I drew quick sketches of each of the five horsemen (30-45 seconds each) and the
mental image remains.
3) Blunt Force
When creative techniques like the ones mentioned above failed, the best solution is to use
blunt force. The best way to use blunt force techniques is to test yourself. This way you
can make sure that your efforts to fill knowledge into your head aren’t being wasted.
.
Extremely powerful memory aid.
The process of writing things down aids in the mental memory retention. The
combination of having the confidence in knowing the information is on record and easily
retrievable combined with the improved retention from the process of writing it down,
creates a winning combination when it comes to memory.
 Any useful or important development was recorded so that no effort was wasted in
repeating experiments or efforts unnecessarily. Combining hard working and hard
thinking methods with an effective record creation and retention system is a very
important aspect of work.
 Forward-looking. Edison’s notes included the forward-looking things we tend to
incorporate in many of our modern personal planners. Things like lists of contacts,
appointments, “to do” lists, and actionable items for follow up or later review were all
contained within his comprehensive system.
 Rearward-looking. The ability to go back and check his written record was useful in
several ways. He was always able to review past work and avoid repeatedly going down
dead-end roads. He could always review whatever he had said or was told. He never had
to remember most things as long as he could remember how to look it up later.
 The record system was searchable. Sometimes, from among millions of pages, there
would be a key document that would prove invaluable. He did however have a fairly
good system of archiving his records by a combination of chronological and subject
matter based systems. He created numerous groupings, files, folders, etc. which helped
him to get to the right part of his records in a reasonably short time.
 Who, what, where, when and how much. These details could be fairly easily retrieved
from Edison’s system in relation to any aspect of whatever he was involved with.
 How and why. Edison’s research laboratory work was a focal point for much of his
record system. Patent applications and reviews were based in large part on his notes that
needed to include the how and why aspects in sufficient detail so that the patents
themselves would be complete and able to withstand any legal challenges
Getting to Contentment
So if contentedness is so great, how do you get there? That’s not always easy, but here
are some things that have worked for me:
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Count your blessings. When you find yourself unhappy with something, or with
what you don’t have, take a moment to count all the good things in your life. It
puts the focus on what you do have rather than what you don’t.
Stop, and remind yourself. When you find yourself unhappy with someone, or
trying to change them, stop yourself. Take a deep breath, and remind yourself that
you should try to be happy with that person for who he/she is. Take a moment to
think about the good things about that person, the reasons you love that person.
Then accept their faults as part of their entire package.
Stop, and consider why you want something. When you feel the urge to buy
something, think about whether it’s a need or a want. If it’s a want, take a pause.
It’s good to wait 30 days — keep a 30-day list … when you want something, put
it on the list with the date, and if you still want it in 30 days, you can buy it).
Consider why you want something. Are you not content with what you already
have? Why not?
Take time to appreciate your life! I like to reflect on my life, and all the good
things in it, on a regular basis. I do this when I run, or when I watch the sunset or
sunrise, or when I’m out in nature. Another great method is a morning gratitude
session — think of all the things and people you’re thankful for, and thank them
silently.
Show people you appreciate them. It’s good to appreciate people, but it’s even
better to show them.
Breathe, and smile. Once again, advice from one of my favorite monks, but it
works in this context. Sometimes when we take the time to breathe, and smile, it
can change our outlook on life.
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Learn to enjoy the simple things. Learn to enjoy stuff that’s free. Conversations
and walks with other people. Spending time outdoors. Watching a DVD or
playing board games. Going to the beach. Playing sports. Running.
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Zazen is basically the center of Zen practice. It’s simply sitting. It’s a form of
meditation, but really it’s just sitting. You don’t have to contemplate Zen koans or
the meaning of the universe or chant anything. You just sit, and focus on sitting. I
haven’t done this much recently, but when I have, it has been very useful practice
for me.
Reviewing techniques
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Start carrying around a 3x5 notecard for the day in my pocket with a list of the 13 most important tasks for the day, along with other little notes for myself
(calendar items, small tasks that come up throughout the day, etc.).
Tips for staying productive
1. Morning Ritual. The best way to reclaim a large chunk of time is to reorganize
when you are awake. Early morning hours usually won’t be filled with events, so
you can squeeze extra project time at the start of each morning.
2. Plan to Work. If you see an unused 15, 20 or 45 minutes in your schedule, plan to
use it ahead of time. Working when you feel like it isn’t an effective strategy if
your day is fragmented. By planning ahead you can save time that would
otherwise be lost.
3. Say No. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you need to commit to an
event. Project work can often have a longer impact than going to unimportant
meetings and events people expect you to attend. The easiest way to survive a
fractured schedule is to not make one in the first place.
4. Make the Important Work Louder. Carry around a to-do list for work on your
major projects and include deadlines. I’ve found that watching my to-do list is a
good way to remind myself of tasks that would otherwise be pushed aside.
5. Nuke the Procrastination Temptations. When you only have twenty minutes
between tasks, it is tempting to just let the time slip away. Unplug the internet,
phone or whatever your vice happens to be when you’ve saved a few minutes.
6. Don’t Close Your Work. If I’m working on a project when I need to go
elsewhere, I don’t close any of the windows, books or devices I’m using. This
way I’m immediately reminded of my project when I get back. (Although this
isn’t a good idea in a public place where your valuables could be stolen or
copied.)
7. Declare a Project-Kill Day. Clear your schedule for one day of the week and use it
to make headway on important projects. If you can’t take down an entire day, at
least try to secure a whole morning to devote to your projects. If you don’t make
the time, who will?
8. Don’t Multitask. One temptation to deal with pre-planned events is to work on
several things at once. Writing an e-mail when talking on the phone, trying to
finish a report during a meal or squeezing in work where it doesn’t belong.
Multitasking is dangerous because few people are good at it. Instead of doing two
things in the time it takes to do one, you end up doing two things, poorly, in the
time it would take to do four.
9. Be Portable. Depending on the nature of your projects, you might not be able to
carry them around with you. However, just about everyone can take a book or
laptop with them to get minor work done outside their office.
10. Find Your Sweet Spots. A “sweet spot” is the area on a golf club or baseball bat
that produces the perfect distribution of force for the ideal hit. When your day is
scattered, you need to determine the “sweet spots” in your schedule. This could be
longer stretches of uninterrupted time, or times when you have more energy. Once
you find these sweet spots you need to make sure they aren’t wasted by
procrastination or unimportant tasks.
The Post-Exam Post-Mortem
After you get back your first exam, set aside 15 or 20 minutes to soak up its lessons and
adjust your habits accordingly. Begin by asking yourself the following questions:
1. What did I do right? What note-taking and study strategies served you well on the
exam?
2. What was a waste of time? Which strategies took up time but did not help?
3. What did I miss? Where were you caught off guard? What type of question were
you not prepared for? What type of material did you miss in your review?
Next, lay out, in detail, the rules for the study system that you’ll follow for the remainder
of the semester. Make sure this system includes the tactics you listed in your answer to
(1) and excludes the tactics mentioned in your answer to (2). (This sounds obvious, but
many students get so comfortable with certain study rituals that they have a hard time
abandoning them, even after they’ve identified them as not helping.)
Most important, think hard about your answer for (3). Then ask yourself what’s the most
efficient habit you could add to your study arsenal that would fill in those gaps. Add this
to your system.
Focus On Performance, Not GPA
Smart students treat each class like an individual challenge. Your goal should be to find
the most efficient possible way to really learn the material. You might not always get this
right. Sometimes, you’ll make stupid mistakes on a test or bet on the wrong thesis, but
that’s okay. So long as you’re getting better at being a student, over time, most (not all)
of your grades will be great. By ignoring your GPA, you’re simply cutting out a lot of
stress along this journey.
Stay relaxed tips
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As much as possible, engineer your student life to make the source of your actions
intrinsic — that is, freely chosen and connected to an honest interest.
Run fast as hell from any large commitment that you feel like you’re expected or
have to do. Over time, these will keep draining your vitality until you spiral into a
burnout.
Be careful about asking for advice from authority figures. Hearing, for example, a
parent telling you that you should follow a certain path can have the effect of
making the related actions feel controlled — even if you might have arrived at the
same conclusion on your own. Mentors are safer as they exist outside of an
existing framework of control in your life.
Spend the time necessary to figure out what’s important to you and what’s not.
Without real values, almost any activity will be arbitrary or controlled by outside
forces.
Leave your schedule open enough that, on a regular basis, you can pursue
random, interesting opportunities as they arise. These provide the vitality
equivalent of booster shots; keeping your zest for life strong.
Cal’s Patent-Pending Mechanical Exam Preparation Process
I’m not usually so formal with my habits, but, for the sake of exposition, I’ve clustered
the main ideas into clean bullet points. As usual, I expect you to customize, challenge,
and experiment with the system until it best fits your situation:
1. Gather and Plug.
Spend 20 minutes on each course. Gather together all the material you need to
review. This might require printing your notes off your computer. If there are any
holes in this material — a missed lecture or, perhaps, an important reading you
didn’t get to — make plans in the immediate future to plug the gaps.
2. Construct Battle Plans.
Once you fill the gaps you’ll be left with complete collections of information to
review for each course. Spend some time to come up with a review battle plan for
each of these piles. These plans should consist of — and only of — specific
review actions with well-defined endpoints. I can’t stress the latter part enough. I
don’t want to hear about you blindly flipping through your book for hours. You
need to specify exactly how you are going to review and how you’ll know when
you’re done.
3. Take a Break.
If you don’t have time to step away for a day or two, then you started too late.
You need time to clear your head before the next step.
4. Make Your Plans Less Dumb.
Look back at your battle plans with a fresh eye. Ask yourself: where can I make
this more efficient? Most likely, you’ll find several strategies that are redundant
or could be replaced with something more streamlined. It’s easy, in the heat of the
pre-exam moment, to get overzealous with your planning. Always assume things
will take longer and your schedule will be tighter. Be prepared by cutting, cutting,
and then cutting.
5. Schedule Your Battle Plans Using the Two Day Rule.
Assign the different pieces of your battle plans to specific days leading up to the
exams. When doing so, I suggest the following simple rule which, if followed,
will provide a significant stress reduction: schedule each battle plan to finish two
days before the relevant exam. There is something magical about never having to
study the day before the test. It’s like a whole different (relaxed) experience. I
know, I know, you’re probably saying right now: “I can’t finish a day early! I’m
such a wild and crazy procrastinator!” Sigh. Here’s my response: “Man up.”
You’re not starring in a National Lampoon movie. No one is impressed that you
can put off work.)
6. Execute.
Notice I’m avoiding the “s”-word here. “Studying” is for pseudo-working grinds.
You’re executing a specific plan custom-designed to minimize time and stress.
A better way to conduct paper research
1. After identifying a useful book chapter or journal article, photocopy the relevant
pages. Make sure you also copy the citations and the title page (if a book), so you
have the information you need to later cite the source.
2. Open a document in your word processor. Skim quickly through your photocopy.
As you proceed, type in annotations of the form: page number — quick
description of what type of info is there. These are not notes. They are pointers.
For example: pg. 124 — discussion of impact of NAFTA on American auto ind.
3. Print the annotations and staple them to the front of your photocopies. Return the
book or journal to the shelf.
4. When outlining your argument or actually writing the paper, use only these
annotated copies to find the material you need.
5. If possible: batch the above steps. For example, in one library trip, you might
make photocopies of several sources. In a later session(s), you can provide the
annotations. Like any good, efficient study technique, it decomposes naturally.
Introducing the Topic
Forget hierarchies. Your outline should capture the topics you want to discuss in your
paper. A topic is more general than a specific fact or observation, but less general that a
multi-argument discussion. For example:
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“Letter to Philip Johnson suggesting chapel idea” is too specific to be a topic.
“The conception and construction of the Rothko chapel” is too general to be a
topic.
“Rothko’s Courting of Philip Johnson” is a perfect topic.
Topics are what you’ll capture with our outlining process. You do so as follows…
Step 1: The Topic Skeleton
During the story crafting stage of the paper writing process (discussed in detail here),
you’ll start determining, based on the sources you’ve discovered so far, what topics you
want to cover in your paper. Start recording these in a word processor document.
As you work on your argument, you will begin to order these topics into the order that
you want them to appear in your paper. Once this ordering is complete, you have
constructed a topic skeleton. It describes, at a rough granularity, what you want to talk
about and in what order.
Step 2: Fill In Research Gaps
Once you’re happy with your topic skeleton, consult the sources you discovered during
your research process. Make sure you have solid sources for each of the topics in your
topic skeleton. If you discover a topic that is lacking in information, go back to the library
to find more information to fill in this gap. (Remember, make personal copies of your
sources for easier handling.)
Step 3: Dump the Quotes
Here is where our process really challenges the outline orthodoxy. Stick with me here.
This works…
In the document containing your topic skeleton: start typing, under each topic, all of the
quotes from your sources that you think are relevant. Label each quote with the source it
came from.
We call the final document a topic-level outline. Unlike the compact, hierarchical
outlines promoted by the orthodoxy, a topic-level outline is huge (close the size of your
finished paper), and flat in structure (no reason to use 18 different levels of indentations
here.)
Step 4: Transform, Don’t Create
When you write your paper, don’t start from a blank document. Instead, make a copy of
your topic-level outline and transform it into the finished paper. For each topic, begin
writing, right under the topic header, grabbing the quotes you need as you move along.
Remember, these quotes are right below you in the document and are immediately
accessible.
Over time, each topic gets transformed from a collection of quotes into solid writing
using those quotes. During this writing process, there is no need to ever leave this one
document. This approach allows you too:
1. Write much more efficiently, without the delay of consulting sources.
2. Craft better arguments, because the raw material is already in front of you,
reducing your task to simply to employing it in your rhetorical assault, no seeking
it out.
3. Avoid the pain of facing a blank screen. The writing task is now one of
transformation, not creation, which is much easier to tackle.
In Summary
To summarize the advice:
1. Don’t build a hierarchical outline. Instead, list the topics you want to tackle in the
order you want to tackle.
2. Revisit the library to find sources for the topics that still need support.
3. Dump all relevant quotes from your sources under the topics.
4. Transform your topic-level outline into your paper. Don’t start from a blank
screen.
This process is different from what most students are used to. But it works. It is
optimized for exactly the steps needed to write an outstanding paper. If you face a lot of
writing assignments in your classes give this approach a try. You’ll never look back…
Tips for writing good papers:
Take your readings and go for a walk. Wander campus asking yourself questions such as:
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“What do I really think about these topics?”
“What did this writer really mean?”
“What are different things she could have believed instead, and why did she
choose this particular angle? “
“What would I have said?”
“What do I really think about this? Why?”
Allow the first, obvious thoughts — the type that fuel writing-centric papers — to come
and go. Then push deeper. Keeping asking hard questions. Dig out a tiny gem of thesis
that fits your personal take on the material. It doesn’t have to be brilliant. But it should be
both: honest and nuanced; something you actually believe. This might take a while. Let
it. Enjoy being outside and spending time with your mind. (This is a good step to
combine with an adventure studying expedition.)
Once you think you have something, settle down in the most inspiring possible room in
your college’s library system. Bonus points for plush chairs, old wooden book cases, and,
of course, tarnished old oil painting portraits old solemn looking white men. (See, for
example, the Darmouth Tower Room image at the top of this post; courtesy of Susan
Simon.)
Settle in and go back through the relevant readings. Start fleshing out some of the details.
Take some notes. Maybe sketch out a simple topic-level outline.
When you finish, you should be at a point where you can give a convincing little speech
about your idea. Indeed, in a perfect world, you would take your idea vacation right
before office hours, so that you could immediately pitch your idea to your professor.
Time Alone With Your Mind
One of the biggest surprises about the experience of the modern liberal arts student is
how little time they actually spend just alone with their thoughts, sifting through, in a
complicated inner monologue, what they believe and why. Essays and small papers offer
you this opportunity. Most students ignore it and instead just blaze ahead blindly in their
comfortable, “I hate papers!” writing-centric approach.
I’m suggesting that you try something new. Take a 1 - 2 hour idea vacation before your
fingers hit the keyboard. Not only will you produce the type of paper that can pull a
professor out his low-grade despair, it actually has the possibility of making paper writing
something that, if not anticipated, is, at least, no longer dreaded.
Advice for writing good paper
If you are a student — here are some simple rules for emulating the habits of the
professionals:
1. Spread out work on an assignment over several days. Coming at it fresh increases
its quality.
2. During these days, get up early. Probably earlier than you are used to. Say, around
7 or 8 am. (This means these days will be weekdays, probably early in the week
so you can avoid temptations to party the night before).
3. Have a mini-ritual to jump start the day. It should probably involve coffee.
Breakfast. Maybe the morning paper. Don’t take too long.
4. Go to the most isolated place possible.
5. To get your mind ready to think, review the last pages you wrote.
6. Work for two or three hours. Then stop.
7. Follow this habit regularly. Don’t write during other times. Don’t write in public
places. Don’t start writing the day before.
Writing papers in another style
Step 1: Construct a Source Table
Most students don’t have Microsoft Access. But they do have Excel. So that’s what we
will use.
The first step is to create a table for the sources you consult. Create a new workbook for
the project. On the first worksheet label the following columns:
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ID :: A unique number you use to label each source.
Year :: The year the source was published.
Type :: The type of source; e.g., book, journal article, interview.
Citation :: If possible, add the full citation for the source in the style required for
your paper. This will save time down the line when you’re writing the paper as
you won’t have waste an afternoon formatting citations.
The screen shot included here is of my source table from an Art History research paper I
wrote last spring about the husband and wife artist/designer team, Charles and Ray
Eames.
Step 2: Quote Tables
Taylor Branch had one giant table for all of his quotes. This is fine. I found it more
useful, however, to have one worksheet in Excel for each major type of information I
needed to look up during my research. For example, in my paper on the Eames, I had a
worksheet for quotes about a particular installation piece I was focusing on. I had another
worksheet for quotes on chronology of the Eames involvement with the film world
(which was relevant to the paper). Etc.
You should label each quote worksheet with the following columns:
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Source ID :: This is the number that describes what source, listed in your source
table, this quote comes from.
Date :: What date does this quote refer to, or, depending on the information, what
date was it made on.
Pages :: The pages where the quote was found.
Type :: It’s helpful to describe what type of quote it is. Does it clarify
chronology? Is it a primary source? Is it a secondary source doing an
interpretation? As you’ll notice in the screen shot to the right, I introduced a
numeric coding system for the relevant types.
Quote :: The information itself.
The screen shot included in this section shows the headers used in one of the quote
worksheets from my Eames paper.
Step 3: The Research Process
The research process begins with the construction of a source queue. This is a list of
sources you need to review for your paper. At first, this list will be small. Maybe a few
obvious books and articles that popped up from a simple search.
The process proceeds as follows:
1. Pop a source off your queue. Add the relevant row to your source table.
2. Begin processing the source. As you read through the relevant sections, mark
quotes that seems important. After each section, go back and enter these quotes
into the relevant quote worksheet.
3. As you read, you will probably come across new sources that seem like they will
be relevant. Add these to your source queue.
4. Repeat until the source queue empties.
The screen shot to the right shows the population of one of my quote worksheets during
my research process. At first, this process can be frustrating. Your source queue will
grow faster than you can process its elements. But, eventually, you’ll stop encountering
sources you haven’t seen before and the queue will, slowly, drain to empty. At this point
you’ll have gained comprehensive coverage of the field.
This is time consuming! So start early. This work is best accomplished in little 1-2 hour
chunks spread over multiple weeks. I know it’s a pain. But it’s a prerequisite for writing
an outstanding research paper.
Step 4: Writing
When you write, it’s just you, your word processor, and your paper research database.
The big advantage this tool gives you is a comprehensive understanding of all the
relevant issues. You’ll be astonished by how this legwork will change the feel of your
writing process. You’ll approach the page with confidence — which is a novel sensation
for most non-professional writers. This confidence allows you to write strong, declarative
sentences. It removes that sense of straining to connect paragraphs and eat up space that
plagues undergrad papers and disappoints professors. And it allows you to make wellreasoned, original arguments.
In Conclusion
This is how real non-fictions writers work. If you follow their lead, you can produce
writing that will blow away your professors. For research papers that matter, give this
advanced tactic some serious consideration.
Paper writing
With these annotated sources in hand, do the following before you type even a single
word of your paper:
1. Put aside at least one day to do no work on your paper except ponder the story. If
the paper is large, set aside more time.
2. Start with a high energy block early in your day. Use the time to browse through
your annotated sources. Start to swap in the information — get comfortable with
the different arguments, facts, and interpretations you have available.
3. Go walking. For a while. Somewhere quiet. In a park (if you attend an urban
university), in the woods (if you attend a rural university), on an iceberg (if you
attend a university inexplicably located on the Antarctic continent). Just walk and
think. Let the information sieve through the various processes of your mind. Play
around with different lines of argument.
4. Throughout the day, during little pockets of time — while in line or, even better,
the shower — revisit the story. Mentally manipulate the pieces. Begin to rehearse
the parts that seem to flow.
5. At the end of the work day, right before dinner, sit down to capture the results of
your efforts. Make a topic-level outline. This is simply a list of the topics you
want to cover in your paper, presented in the order that you want to present them.
In essence, it’s a skeleton of your story. Don’t get super-detailed yet. Keep things
at the topic scope (e.g., “Pre-war arguments against a European trade
agreement”, or “Evidence that Senator Jenson had influential ties to agriculture
lobby”, not “quote from page 6 of the Richardson article.”).
6. For every 10% of your final grade the paper is worth, talk to another person about
your story. Get his or her feedback. Refine the outline.
When you put in this time — which, by the way, is not that painful, unlike writing,
creative thinking is generally an enjoyable activity — the result is a solid story. This is
what the professor wants to see. Even if your writing is, ultimately, imperfect, he will
reward the thoughtfulness of your arguments.
The Secret
If you want to know how straight-A students perform so consistently high in humanities
courses, this is a big part of their secret. By taking just a little bit of time to figure out
what you want to say, you immediately vault past the majority of your classmates in
terms of the quality of the thinking you capture on paper. And this, in the final
assessment, is what the assignments is really all about.
How to Edit Your Paper in Three Passes or Less
The Argument Adjustment Pass
The first pass of the three-pass system focuses on your arguments. You’ll fix low-level
mistakes later, so don’t worry about those for now. The pass works as follows:
Read your paper on your computer screen. As you proceed paragraph by paragraph, ask
yourself the following questions:
1. Is the argument I’m making here compelling? If not, cut the paragraphs. Be
ruthless. At least 10 - 20% of this initial draft is probably bloat: the result of
trying on arguments for size and worrying about reaching the page limit. This is
your chance to atone for your sin of lexographic abundance.
2. Is this the right place for this argument? If not, move the paragraphs elsewhere.
Often, when you first encounter the full flow of the paper, some rearrangement
makes sense. Be ready to shuffle to maximize impact.
When this pass is complete, your paper should consist soley of important, compelling
arguments, presented in the most effective order. Some significant cutting and shifting
probably took place. If it didn’t, you’re probably not doing the process justice.
The Out Loud Pass
Now that your arguments have been whipped into shape, it’s time to ensure that the paper
reads like the erudite scholarly effort you want it to be. When you see students obessively
reviewing their paper again and again, this is typically the goal they are trying to achieve.
Here will explain how to accomplish this in just a single pass through the paper. How is
this possible? The key is using your voice…
The out loud pass works as follows: Print out a copy of your paper. Lock yourself in your
room. Begin reading your paper out loud, with careful articulation. As you move through
the work, sentence by sentence, keep your ears tuned for the following:
1. Clumsy sentences. Is the wording awkward when you read it?
2. Bad transitions. Does the movement from one line of reasoning to another seem
abrupt or strained?
3. Mistakes. Is a word spelled wrong? A word missing? A grammer mistake?
4. Lack of clarity. Is a sentence labored? Is there a simpler way of saying what you
are trying to say? Can it be cut all together?
Every time you notice one of these red flags, make a mark on your print out and then
keep going. After you finish a major section (e.g., around one or two pages), stop, return
to the document on your computer, and fix all the places you marked. Rewind and reread, out loud, each of these fixes to make sure that the new version reads smoothly.
Then continue.
The key to this phase is to ensure that every word gets read out loud in its final fixed
form. Something about the act of articulation can root out those subtle mistakes and
awkard complexity in a way that reading silently — even dozens of times — will fail to
do.
The Sanity Pass
The final pass allows you to answer the key question as you finish up the paper-writing
process: “Am I insane, or have I put together a damn good paper?” The goal of this final
pass is to experience your work in one uninterrupted flow. To savor your arguments. To
experience the work in the same way your professor will.
Print out a copy, settle into a comfortable chair, and read through the entire paper. If you
stumble across the occasional stubborn mistake, just make a quick mark and keep
moving. Enjoy your efforts. After this pass is complete, return to your document and
make any small edits you encountered. You’re now ready to hand in a stand out work.
Timing the Three Phases
The key to the three-pass editing process is to seperate the out loud pass from the other
two. The out loud pass takes time. It takes energy. If you do it right after the argument
adjustment pass you’ll be too fatigued and sick of your writing to accomplish the out loud
portion correctly.
With this in mind, quarantine the out loud pass to its own day. The sanity pass can be
done close to the deadline. Indeed, some students do it the morning of the due date to get
excited about the paper before handing it in. So the out loud pass can occur as soon as the
days before a deadline, with the argument adjustment pass happening two days before.
Just be sure to keep the out loud portion isolated from the others and the whole process
will transpire with a minimum of pain.
Productivity purge
A simple strategy for coming as close as possible to satisfying the principle without
giving up a quest for the unexpected next big thing. It’s called the productivity purge.
And it works as follows:
1. When it feels like your schedule is becoming too overwhelmed, take out a sheet
of paper and label it with three columns: professional, extracurricular, and
personal. Under “professional” list all the major projects you are currently
working on in your professional life (if you’re a student, then this means classes
and research, if you have a job, then this means your job, etc). Under
“extracurricular” do the same for your side projects (your band, your blog, your
plan to write a book). And under “personal” do the same for personal selfimprovement projects (from fitness to reading more books).
2. Under each list try to select one or two projects which, at this point in your life,
are the most important and seem like they would yield the greatest returns. Put a
star by these projects.
3. Next, identify the projects that you could stop working on right away with no
serious consequences. Cross these out.
4. Finally, for the projects that are left unmarked, come up with a 1-3 week plan for
finalizing and dispatching them. Many of these will be projects for which you
owe someone something before you can stop working on them. Come up with a
crunch plan for the near future for shutting these down as quickly as possible.
5. Once you completed your crunch plan you’ll be left with only a small number of
important projects. In essence, you have purged your schedule of all but a few
contenders to be your next Theory of Relativity. Here’s the important part: Try to
go at least one month without starting any new projects. Resist, at all costs,
committing to anything during this month. Instead, just focus, with an Einsteinian
intensity, on your select list.
The productivity purge is a necessary piece of project gardening. By doing these
regularly, you keep yourself focused on whats important. You get at least one month after
every purge in which serious work gets done on a small number of projects. It’s during
these focused months, when the Einstein Principle comes into play, that you’ll end up
making the progress on those activities that might end up becoming life changing.
What makes flow?
1. You’re challenged by the task at hand. This seems to be the ‘prime directive’ to
achieving Flow and can actually prevent you from being in a state of Flow. The difficulty
of your task has to be “just right”. If the task is to easy, you’ll get bored and eventually
stop. If the task is to difficult, you’ll get frustrated and eventually stop. Either way, you
loose.
2. The ability to concentrate is key. If there are to many interruptions or it’s noisy, you
won’t be able to concentrate on your task. No concentration, no Flow.
3. You have clear goals to achieve. Goals establish a mechanism to measure your
progress and provide a sense of achievement. People in Flow achieve their goals.
4. You receive immediate feedback. Either your ball landed in the cup or it didn’t. You
know immediately if your goal was reached or not.
5. Your worries and frustrations of everyday life recede into the background. This
perhaps is one of the greatest benefit of Flow. You’re busy concentrating on your task
and the rest of your world just “goes away” for a short while. Even though you’re
challenged, you end up relaxed, satisfied and you achieved something meaningful (all
this, and it’s legal too).
6. Your sense of self disappears (only for a while). When it re-appears, you’re
refreshed with an even stronger sense of self.
7. You have a level of control over your actions while performing your task.
8. You loose track of time and feel great when you’re done with your task.
5 tricks for making your study sessions flow
1) Set aside time and place to study
If you don’t have time, make some. Don’t study in between customers at work, or during
commercials for American Idol. Study in a quiet place free from distractions.
Decide how long you’re going to study for, and then stick to it. If you set aside an hour,
study for a whole hour. The best thing you can do is set a time to finish at, e.g. “I will
study until 6:30.”
Try to limit your breaks.
2) Listen to music before you start studying.
There has been a lot of hype about classical music boosting brain power. Maybe it does,
maybe not. But listening to classical music can help you get into a highly focused state
before you hit the books. Of course you can listen to any kind of music you want, but
classical music is great for 2 reasons: It is very highly structured, and doesn’t have
vocals, which can be distracting.
The key here is to actually listen to the music, not have it on in the background. If it’s just
background noise, it’s a distraction. When it’s time to study, turn the music down or even
better, off.
3) Turn it into a game by setting goals and creating fun challenges.
Dr. C says that the purpose behind most games we play is to get us into the flow state. So
try to make your study sessions fun! Creating goals and challenges will help you get
focused while keeping a light-hearted approach.
You want to create a challenge for yourself that’s hard, but not too difficult. How long do
you think it would take you to study a chapter? Well chop 15-30 minutes off that, and
then see if you can still answer the questions at the end of the chapter.
If you are using flash cards, set a goal of how many you’re going to get right the first
time through. Then try to beat your score the second time through (and third time and so
on.)
4) Be observant. Notice novelty.
Might sound corny, but you want to be totally immersed in your studying “experience.”
You want your whole mind engaged in what you’re doing.
One way you can do this is to make a habit of noticing everything. Feel free to let your
mind wander just a little bit while you’re studying. Not a lot. You’re studying, not
planning your weekend or deciding what you’re going to eat for dinner. But let your mind
go where it wants to within the realm of the subject you’re studying.
Be curious. When you read over unfamiliar words, what images come to mind?
Example: You’re reading about different structures of the brain in your textbook, when
you come across the word “hippocampus.” What pops in your mind when you read that
word? Maybe it’s an image of a big gray hippo. Maybe you picture a college campus
with winding sidewalks and manicured grass. Or maybe you picture a giant hippo
rampaging through a college campus!
When you really start to notice things, you’ll discover that you brain makes all kinds of
weird connections! Noticing these strange connections will not only help you stay in that
flow state, but it will also strengthen your memory.
5) Measure your success with self testing
Another feature of flow producing activities is that they usually provide “direct and
immediate feedback.” Translation: they have built in ways of letting you know if you’re
doing a good job or not. Like your score in a game.
Alternatively, try writing down sample questions while you’re studying. Pretend like
you’re writing a test, and come up with a few questions as you go along. When you have
3-5 questions written down, take a break and see if you can answer them. You might be
surprised to find that you’ve already forgotten the answers! That has the added benefit of
showing you how little you might actually be paying attention to what you’re doing.
Energy management
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Constructive Disengagement - Full engagement is using all of your resources
and can only be maintained for a short burst. By experimenting with some
constructive disengagement techniques, it may be possible to speed up the energy
recovery process. This could mean completely involving your mind or body in a
pursuit that has no relationship with the task you expended energy on. I know
many people use similar techniques in reading fiction, painting or meditating. The
one tricky property of energy is sometimes that it is best regained not by doing
nothing, but by doing something completely different.
Shorter Work Cycles - Although with school and various activities I rarely could
work longer than ninety minutes at a time, I had planned on working about eight
hours each day during the summer (mostly on this website). Now I am
questioning whether a method that would have a ninety minute period of work
followed by fifteen to thirty minutes of rest may be more productive in the long
run.
Goal Breaks - I am a constant and habitual goal setter. Goal setting is a powerful
tool for achieving focus and results but I also notice that it does require a lot of
energy. It may be beneficial to go through a long term cycle of goal setting
followed by curious exploration and wandering. I have mentioned previously how
I felt straying away from goal setting for periods could improve lateral growth,
but I am now also questioning whether it could also increase the long term
sources of energy.
Good habits
1. Make Your Wake-Up Consistent
2. Add Morning Exercise
3. Motivate Your Mornings
80-20 rule
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the
principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from
20% of the causes.
There are many ways you can use this rule. Here’s twenty:
1. Work Tasks - Write down all the broad categories of tasks you do at your job.
You can make a little table that shows the amount of hours spent at each category
(say, 1 hr for E-mail, 1 hr for contacting clients, etc.) and on another column write
down a value estimate for what percentage you believe it contributes to your
productivity. Eliminate, simplify or delegate low %’s and focus on high %’s.
2. Food - Record your eating habits for a week. Calculate up the calories of the
different items of food
3. Daily Time Log - Do a time log on your activities for an entire day. Record the
stop and start point for any activity. Then broadly shuffle the different activities
into categories. Figure out what parts of your day aren’t contributing to either
productivity, entertainment or personal happiness and cut them out.
4. Reading - Look at the last few dozen books you’ve read. Rate them according to
the amount of useful info or entertainment value. Look for trends and use that info
to skim or skip future books to save time.
5. Relationships - Look at your social circle and friends. Do a rough estimate of the
amount of time and energy you invest in each relationship. Compare that to the
amount of stress or satisfaction. You might find that certain relationships are toxic
and others are valuable and should be invested in more.
6. Television Shows.
7. Web Surfing
8. Spring Cleaning
9. Budget - Calculate all your discretionary expenses (after taxes, food and
necessities). Now compare the money value of each expense with the utility of the
purchase. If you wanted to compare different entertainment items in your budget,
you could value each expense on the pleasure it brought you. If you wanted to
compare different investments or tools you could compare return rates or
productivity gained.
10. Habits - Figure out which behaviors (or lack thereof) contribute the most to your
life. Exercise? Rising Early? Family Dinners? Use this as a basis for making new
habits.
11. Goals - It doesn’t matter whether you have them written down or just in your
head. Look at all your goals and compare the resources required to accomplish
each (time, money, energy, etc.) with the benefits gained. Benefits could be
physical rewards, purposeful work or emotional quality. Pursue the goals with the
highest value
Reading tips
1) Remember, Reading is Not Linear
How do you read a book? Likely from start to finish, never going back and never
skipping any sections. This is probably one of the most inefficient ways to read. The
beauty of text is that it is non-linear. You can skip down to read only my main bullet
points, or read them in practically any order. Although the pattern of start to finish might
be a simple one, it isn’t always the most effective.
For most books I do read in a roughly start to finish fashion. But I frequently re-read
passages that I want to get a greater understanding of and completely skim over passages
that I feel are redundant or unnecessary. Good writers generally add anecdotes or
metaphors to improve understanding of a concept which you can skim over top of if you
already get their point. Similarly, bad writers often go short on explanation of complex
details so re-reading can allow your brain the time to form the concepts.
Not only is reading non-linear but it doesn’t have a set pace. Although I read some books
at about 900 words per minute, I slow down to 200 if the passage I am reading is
particularly information dense or complicated. Similarly I can skim at over 1500 words
per minute if I’m reading mostly fluff. Saying I can read at 900 wpm is like saying I can
drive at 100 km/h. Speed reading isn’t just about faster but pacing yourself for the
specific reading task you face.
Most people read a book as if it were given to them as a speech. They listen to the author
and follow along with what he is saying in a purely sequential manner. In order to reach
faster rates of comprehension you have to learn to abandon this tactic. You can start this
by not subvocalizing.
2) Stop Subvocalizing
To move to a new level you need to stop sounding the words inside your head or
subvocalizing. Subvocalizing takes time, more time than is necessary to comprehend the
words you are reading. It is almost impossible to go much beyond 400 or 500 words
while subvocalizing. Instead you need to train yourself to read without hearing the words
in your head.
I simply see the word and my brain automatically constructs what has been written. I’ll
understand a line of text that I looked over in a second, even though it may have taken at
least five just to say the words in my head.
3) Practice Reading
Practice reading doesn’t mean reading. Practice reading involves reading faster than you
can actually read.The point is simply to see the text faster than you can read so you can
untie the habit of sounding the words as you comprehend them.
You can start doing this by taking out a timer or a stop watch and simply viewing as
much text in a book as possible in one minute. Use a book you haven’t read before to
ensure your brain is actually practicing instead of relying on memory. Mark out where
you started and stopped. Count the number of words per line (use a quick average) and
then the number of lines you actually read in the book to compute your practice reading
rate.
4) Use a Pointer
Use your index finger to mark where you are on the page at all times. It should follow
along with the word you are currently reading, slowly scrolling across each line and then
back down one. It may feel awkward at first and it may even temporarily slow your
reading rate as you adjust, but using a pointer is critical if you want to improve your
reading skill.
Using a pointer is also crucial if you want to practice read. By moving your finger faster
than you can actually read, your eyes get used to viewing text faster than your brain can
process what is written down. This will break your subvocalization attachment and can
easily let you double your reading rate with sufficient practice.
5) Eliminate Distractions
Reading can’t happen in an environment where external distractions are overwhelming.If
you need a break, take a break. But don’t multitask with your reading or you’ll lose any
benefits speed reading can offerDistractions will hamper regular reading but they will
make speed reading impossible. Subvocalization creates enough mental noise that it can
hold your attention, but without that it can often be difficult to stick with what you are
reading.External distractions may be a problem, but internal distractions are just as bad.
The way to remove internal distractions comes from clearly identifying a purpose and a
motivation.
6) Find Your Motivation
If there was one piece of advice I would offer to improve your reading rate it would be
simply to engross yourself in the material you are studying. If you can connect what you
are reading to a deeply held motivation, and determine your specific purpose for reading
you can maintain a very alert and focused state.
First, find a general motivation. This is how what you are reading relates to your truly
motivating goals and passions in life. The general motivation should make you want to
read the book. If you don’t genuinely want to read the book, come up with more reasons
it is attached to your deepest interests or it is going to be a struggle to move through. You
can find a general motivation for reading any book if you are creative enough, so don’t
tell me you can’t figure out one.
The second portion is to determine your specific motivation for reading. What are you
specifically looking for when reading the book. New ideas? A practical solution to a
problem? An understanding of a concept? A chance to flex your mental muscles? Figure
out what you want to get out of each reading session so your mind is primed to intake that
knowledge.
Maximizing Your Holistic Learning:
1) Ask Questions
When you are learning something, you can make associations simply by asking yourself
questions. How does this information relate to what we’ve been studying? How does this
information relate to other things I’ve already learned? How does it relate to other
subjects, stories or observations?
Be creative and try to find several different points of reference for every idea you learn.
Figure out not only what things are similar too, but why they are what they are. As this
becomes a habit, you’ll find that you automatically remember information because it fits
into your web of understanding. Ask yourself after you hear something whether you “get
it”. If you don’t go back and ask yourself more questions for how it fits it.
2) Visualize and Diagram
One of the best ways to begin practicing holistic learning is to start drawing a diagram
that associates the information you have learned. Better than taking notes during a lecture
is drawing a picture for how what you are learning relates to anything else you have
already learned. Once you get good at this you will be able to visualize the diagram
before it is drawn, but start drawing to get practice.
When I try to understand economics it often helps me to visualize the relationship
between different factors. I view cycles of money, GDP or price levels as a structure that
combines all the different elements. If you can’t immediately create vivid pictures of the
information, try drawing them first.
3) Use Metaphors
Anything you are learning should be immediately translated into a metaphor you already
understand. When reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, I understood his writings
by relating all the examples of statecraft and war he offered to areas of business and
social relationships which I already understood.
While visualization creates tight webs that interlink within a subject, metaphors create
broad webs that link completely different ideas. You might not realize how that blog
article on fitness you read two weeks ago relates to math, but through making metaphors
you have a huge reserve of information available to you when you need it.
4) Feel It
Another technique I’ve experimented with to improve my holistic learning is feeling
through ideas. This one is a little more difficult to explain, but the basic idea is that
instead of associating an idea to a picture or another metaphor, you associate it with a
feeling. I’m a visual learner, so I’ve found it to be ineffective for large pieces of data, but
it is really helpful for data that is otherwise hard to relate.
5) When in Doubt, Link or Peg It
Questions, visualization, metaphors and feeling should cover about 99% of the
information you need to learn. They are the most effective ways to interlink ideas. But if
you still need to memorize some information that you can’t understand or relate, your
fall-back can be the link and peg system.
Explaining these memory systems is out of the scope of this article, but the basic idea of
the link system is to create a wacky, vivid picture relating two seemingly unrelated ideas
so that a connection between them is forced. The peg system takes it a step further
creating a simple phonetic system for storing numbers and dates.
Dirt Roads and Superhighways
An effective web should heavily interlink between ideas of a similar subject, but it should
also have links that extend between completely different ideas. I like to think of these two
approaches like comparing dirt roads and superhighways. You need lots of cheap dirt
roads to interconnect closely related areas and a few superhighways to connect distant
cities.
When I was learning history I would make dirt roads connecting the aspects of one
particular time period and culture to itself. Linking the artistic achievements of the Song
Dynasty with their political situation. But I would also make highways and
superhighways. I would compare Song China to India and to the politics in the United
States.
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