## Highlights What was my secret? Efficiency. The simple truth is that the brute force techniques used by most students are incredibly inefficient. (Location 97) When you approach the task without proper preparation, it becomes incredibly tiring and you can end up spinning your wheels. (Location 100) The pseudo-worker looks and feels like someone who is working hard—he or she spends a long time in the library and is not afraid to push on late into the night—but, because of a lack of focus and concentration, doesn’t actually accomplish much. (Location 194) By placing themselves in distracting environments and insisting on working in long tedious stretches, these students are crippling their brain’s ability to think clearly and efficiently accomplish the task at hand. (Location 199) The bigger problem here is that most students don’t even realize that they’re pseudo-working. To them pseudo-work is work—it’s how they’ve always done it, and it’s how all of their friends do it. It never crosses their mind that there might be a better way. (Location 201) work accomplished = time spent x intensity of focus (Location 210) 1. Requires no more than five to ten minutes of effort in a single twenty-four-hour period. 2. Doesn’t force an unchangeable minute-by-minute schedule on your day. 3. Helps you remember, plan, and complete important tasks before the very last moment. 4. Can be quickly restarted after periods of neglect. (Location 258) The key to our system, however, is that you need to deal with your calendar only once every twenty-four hours. (Location 275) throughout the day, whenever you encounter a new to-do or deadline, simply jot it down on your list. The next morning, you can transfer this new stuff from your list onto your calendar, where it’s safe. (Location 277) Try to label each of your to-dos for the day with a specific time period during which you are going to complete it. (Location 328) Give yourself an hour for meals, not twenty minutes. And, if possible, end your day at an appropriate hour; don’t try to fit in work right up until sleep time because you need to be able to unwind and relax. (Location 333) In general, if you’re completing most of what’s on your list at least five days out of seven, then you’re as productive as any student realistically needs to be. (Location 355) I have yet to have successfully followed any time-management system without interruption for longer than two months. (Location 378) Once you have learned the power of feeling organized, you will have a hard time going long periods without it. (Location 385) Finally, notice how Stephen’s Things to Remember column from yesterday includes some long-term projects, such as “Create schedule for practicing guitar.” (Location 441) Stephen’s first step is to time label the tasks currently on his plate so he can determine how much he can actually get done. (Location 447) labeling in order of importance until his schedule is full, and then moves the rest of the items to other days on the calendar. (Location 449) Having to record, in ink, on paper, that you procrastinated over a task for no good reason is a powerful blow to your ego. (Location 617) But you should be able to identify at least one hour, on each weekday, that is consistently free. (Location 682) your door. Once you’ve identified these protected hours, use them to do the same work each week. For example, maybe Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for chipping away at your History reading assignments, (Location 685) Procrastination Battle Plan Choose your hard days (Location 695) Instead, scout out one or two days to preemptively designate as “hard.” By choosing them ahead of time, you can space them out so that you never have two hard days in a row, and you won’t be caught off guard by this sudden burst of intensity. Try to plan relaxing, nonacademic activities immediately before and after these days. This will ease their impact. (Location 702) Tell friends which days are going to be hard, warn them not to expect much communication from you, and ask for their encouragement. (Location 705) Step 3 Choose When, Where, and How Long (Location 714) QUESTION: When is the best time to study? ANSWER: Early. “I like doing work in one big chunk upon getting back from class, or doing it in between classes, depending on my schedule,” says Simon from Brown. “I try to never leave it until late at night.” (Location 723) You’re most effective between when you wake up and when you eat dinner. You should accomplish as much work as possible during this time. (Location 726) Doris, from Harvard, has a similar philosophy, admitting that she sneaks in work between meetings or classes, using small blocks of thirty or forty-five minutes at a time. (Location 742) If you have an hour in between classes, head straight from the first class to a library, or similar study location, near the second class. Mentally prepare yourself on the way over so that when you hit the study spot you can become productive within seconds. (Location 745) Become a ghost during the day. Like an academic ninja, slip from hidden study spot to hidden study spot, leaving only an eerie trail of completed work behind you (see (Location 749) QUESTION: Where should you study? ANSWER: In isolation. Identify a number of isolated study spots spread out across campus and rotate through these hidden locations when you study. (Location 759) Look for less-visited libraries away from the center of campus, and search out carrels high up in the stacks or buried down in the basement. Always keep your eyes open for the next great hidden study spot—small libraries in the buildings of student organizations, a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, or the local public library are all potential concentration gold mines. (Location 764) you move through your day, squeezing in study sessions between classes, it’s nice to always know of a nearby study spot. Second, (Location 767) That little procrastination devil on your shoulder is an incredible salesman. If you give him even a glimpse of an alternative to your work, then he will close the deal. (Location 770) QUESTION: How long should you study? ANSWER: No more than one hour at a time without a break. Your break needs to be only five to ten minutes, (Location 782) Read a newspaper article or send a few e-mails. That should be enough. (Location 786) When asked how long they studied in a single sitting, all but a few of their answers fell somewhere between half an hour and an hour: “Not more than an hour,” replied Chris. “One hour, then I get up and do something else for a bit,” replied Melanie. “About forty minutes to an hour,” replied Ryan. “One hour on, fifteen minutes off,” replied Lydia. “One to one and a half hours. Then I would always take a break,” replied Lacey. (Location 798) If the test is worth less than 15 percent of your final grade, it’s a quiz; otherwise, it’s an exam. If the test is worth only 5 percent or less of your grade, designate this a tiny quiz. (Location 891) For larger quizzes, you can more or less follow the advice in this section as written, but feel free to move more quickly through the review-focused steps (Steps and. (Location 894) “Use your laptop. Seriously! You will be overwhelmed by the quality and legibility of your notes…it’s really a no-brainer.” (Location 915) Take Smart Notes in Nontechnical Courses (What’s the Big Idea?) A “nontechnical course” refers to any course outside of math, science, economics, and engineering. We’re talking about English, history, psychology, political science, anthropology, classics, education—basically anything that doesn’t make frequent use of mathematical formulas. (Location 932) ideas—they require you to explain them, contrast them, and reevaluate them in the light of new evidence. If you are aware of, and understand, all of the big ideas presented in the course, these tasks are not so difficult, and strong grades will follow. (Location 937) The solution is to figure out how to take notes that clearly identify and explain all of the big ideas that are presented so that you can review them later without spending any extra time. (Location 948) Question Evidence Conclusion (Location 969) You should take advantage of this reality by recording all your notes in a Question/Evidence/Conclusion format. (Location 974) When you’re done, your notes for a given lecture should consist only of a bunch of question/conclusion pairs, each separated by points of evidence that support why the conclusion is a reasonable answer to the question. In other words, your goal is to fit all the facts and observations spewed out during class into this nice simple structure. (Location 976) Take Smart Notes in Technical Courses (Where’s the Problem?) (Location 1068) for technical courses you should focus on “capturing lots of detailed explanations of problems…the more notes the better.” In other words, you can forget about big ideas. The key to taking notes in a technical course is to record as many sample problems as possible. (Location 1072) your entire focus in a technical class should be to write down, as faithfully as possible, the steady stream of examples provided by your professor. (Location 1075) If you don’t understand a topic after it’s presented by the professor, then you can go back and use the reading to help fill in the blanks. (Location 1081) Smart students follow the professor’s examples with their textbook open. (Location 1083) Even in the fastest class, there should be time to jot down the questions and final solutions. (Location 1091) Students who do well in technical courses are those who closely follow the problems being presented and then insist on asking questions when they don’t understand a specific step. (Location 1096) So pay particular attention at the beginning of the discussion, and don’t get discouraged if subsequent problems fly by too fast for you to record all of the intermediate steps. (Location 1104) Final priority: Annotate the steps. (Location 1106) if your time is limited during a particular week, then your strategy should be to select only the most important supplemental readings for review. (Location 1155) Readings that make an argument are more important than   readings that describe an event or person, which are more important than   readings that only provide context (i.e., speech transcripts, press clippings). (Location 1161) In a course with no favored sources, readings that directly address the specific topic of the lecture act as the favored sources for the day. Treat the rest as supplemental. (Location 1220) If you write down very little, the assignment can be completed fast, but the time will be wasted because you won’t have bothered to extract the big ideas in a way that makes them accessible when it comes time to study. (Location 1239) “read for arguments, not facts.” (Location 1266) “You can work on problem sets in small pieces while you’re between classes or activities.” Concentrating on only one or two problems a day will help you avoid mental fatigue. (Location 1268) working in groups “can drastically cut the time required to finish a really hard problem set.” Identify one or two students who share a similar skill level as you and then construct a regular schedule for working together on the class assignments. (Location 1273) Set your meeting dates for two or three days before the deadlines; this gives you time to first try the problems on your own and identify the ones that give you the most trouble. Then, when you meet with your problem set group, your energy will be focused where it’s needed most. (Location 1275) You should also take advantage of office hours. (Location 1278) group work is most useful when you’ve already thought of potential solutions for most of the problems. (Location 1287) First, set aside a little block of time to familiarize yourself with a couple of problems, (Location 1290) Next, try to solve the problem in the most obvious way possible. This, of course, probably won’t work, because most difficult problems are tricky by nature. By failing in this initial approach, however, you will have at least identified what makes this problem hard. (Location 1292) After you’ve primed the problem, put away your notes and move on to something else. (Location 1295) go slowly and deliberately the first time. (Location 1305) Most straight-A students don’t think “studying” is a big deal. They realize that the bulk of the work required to ace an exam has already been accomplished through identifying big ideas in lectures, extracting arguments from reading assignments, and solving problem sets. (Location 1310) Before you can conduct any meaningful studying, you must first define the scope of the exam. (Location 1323) What type of questions will there be, and how many of each? (Location 1327) If it’s two weeks before the exam, and the professor hasn’t mentioned any details yet, you should ask. (Location 1335) Your problem set assignments are the key to your review process. Start a pile for each problem set that covers material that might appear on the exam. Next, you’ll need to supplement each problem set with sample problems from your lecture notes. (Location 1350) 1. Match the lecture to the problem set that covers the same material. 2. Copy sample problems from these lecture notes onto a blank sheet of paper. You don’t have to copy the steps or the answers, just the questions. 3. Label the blank sheet of paper with the date of the lecture. This will help you later figure out where these problems came from (and more important, where their answers can be found). 4. Fasten this sheet with a paper clip to the problem set you matched it to in step one. In (Location 1352) Label the blank sheet of paper with the date of the lecture. This will help you later figure out where these problems came from (and more important, where their answers can be found). (Location 1356) It’s important that you add these technical explanation questions in addition to your regular sample problems, since they will reveal whether or not you understand the underlying concepts or if you’ve just memorized the steps for some particular problems. (Location 1368) If possible, start writing up your cards at least a week before the first day you plan to actually study. (Location 1376) If you organize your materials the same day that you review them, your brain will be too tired to accomplish both effectively. (Location 1380) If you can close your eyes and articulate an argument from scratch, or stare at a blank sheet of paper and reproduce a solution without a mistake, then you have fully imprinted that concept. It’s not going anywhere. (Location 1395) Therefore, the quiz for any given chapter can simply contain all of the questions from the notes you took for that chapter. (Location 1403) If your notes contain some really broad questions—for example, an entire lecture that deals with only one idea—break them up into several smaller questions that, together, cover all of the relevant points. (Location 1404) If you can’t explain exactly how you got from the question to the answer, then you don’t yet understand this problem. Be honest with yourself: (Location 1442) As before, check mark the questions that give you trouble. Review the solutions for these questions. (Location 1444) - 💭 bruh ic Instead, try to knock off question marks as soon as they arrive. By the time you begin studying you should, as Robert, a straight-A student from Brown, explains, “have at least a vague understanding of every topic that will be covered on the exam.” (Location 1485) skim through quickly and get a feel for which topics are covered. This review familiarizes you with the length and relative difficulty of what lies ahead. It also primes your brain for the topics you’ll need to address. (Location 1533) At any given point during an exam, you should know the maximum number of minutes you have to spend on the current question before moving on to the next. (Location 1548) The key to maintaining this keen awareness is to build a time budget. First, take the time allotted for the exam and subtract ten minutes. Next, divide this amount by the number of questions. The result is how long you have to spend on each prompt. (Location 1551) Years of informal experimentation by successful students have demonstrated that the most effective way to tackle an exam is to answer the easiest questions first, (Location 1559) Instead, your first step should be to jot down a quick outline. This might seem like a waste of time, but in truth it can be invaluable. (Location 1575) “Usually, you can isolate three or four mini-questions from a single essay question.” Underline each of these mini-questions; (Location 1577) “Then, outline on paper (not in your head) the way that you will use what you know to answer these mini-questions,” (Location 1578) Monday Through Friday—The Week Before the Midterm On Monday, as dictated by her calendar, Julie spends two hours mastering the first two quizzes, a task she accomplishes by pacing around her dorm room and lecturing answers to an imaginary class. (Needless to say, Julie waited for a time when her roommate was out before starting this vocal review.) On Tuesday, she works with her memorization flash cards for forty-five minutes. On Wednesday, she spends two hours mastering the middle two quizzes. On Thursday, she spends another hour with her memorization flash cards. And on Friday, she spends two hours mastering the final two quizzes. As one might expect, even though she had previously eliminated most question marks in her notes by following the advice of Step (Invest in Academic Disaster Insurance), Julie comes across a handful of questions that she still doesn’t really have a satisfactory answer for. She jots down these questionable topics, vowing to deal with them later. (Location 1654) she takes the list of questions for which she doesn’t have great answers and sends e-mails to classmates in hopes of soliciting better ones. (Location 1667) Case Study Calculus Exam (Location 1686) Note: Michael is careful to label each question with the date of the lecture where he found it. This will make it easy to look up the answers in his notebook when it comes time to review. (Location 1706) When he’s done, Michael has four mega-problem sets, each consisting of one graded problem set assignment from class, and a sheet of paper filled with sample problems from his notes. (Location 1708) His final act of organization is to think up some technical discussion questions. For example, during the first week, Michael’s class focused on single variable derivatives, so he jots down the following general question on his first mega-problem set: “Explain what a derivative is, what it describes, and the general procedure for calculating one when given a function.” (Location 1709) Part Two Cheat Sheet Step. Take Smart Notes • Always go to class and try to take the best notes possible. • For nontechnical courses, capture the big ideas by taking notes in the question/evidence/conclusion format. • For technical courses, record as many sample problems and answers as possible. Step. Demote Your Assignments • Work a little bit each day on your assignments; avoid suffering from day-before syndrome. • Read only the favored sources on the syllabus in detail. To decide how much time to spend on supplemental sources, remember the importance hierarchy: – readings that make an argument are more important than – readings that describe an event or person, which are more important than – readings that only provide context (i.e., speech transcripts, press clippings). • Take reading notes in the question/evidence/conclusion format. • Work in groups on problem sets, solve problems on the go, and write up your answers formally the first time. Step. Marshal Your Resources • Figure out exactly what the test will cover. • Cluster your notes for nontechnical courses. • Build mega-problem sets for technical courses. Step. Conquer the Material • Embrace the quiz-and-recall method. It’s the single most efficient way to study. • Spread out memorization over several days. Your mind can do only so much at a time. Step. Invest in “Academic Disaster Insurance” • Eliminate the question marks for topics covered in class or from the reading that you don’t understand. Step. Provide “A+” Answers • Look over the whole test first. • Figure out how much time you have to spend on each question (leaving a ten-minute cushion at the end). • Answer the questions in order of increasing difficulty. • Write out a mini-outline before tackling an essay question. • Use any and all leftover time to check and recheck your work.       Paper writing is hard, and, to some extent, this is unavoidable. (Location 1787) Let’s begin by taking a closer look at the paper-writing process itself, which can be broken down into three separate components: 1. Sifting through existing arguments. 2. Forming your own argument. 3. Communicating your argument clearly. (Location 1842) Each of the three components described above is mentally taxing, but to do all three at the same time is downright exhausting! (Location 1852) locate a thesis within the topic that is both interesting and supportable. (Location 1858) We present a streamlined system for gathering and annotating the right material as quickly as possible. (Location 1860) “Once I have the structure, the paper writes itself.” (Location 1866) Critical analysis essays differ from research papers in several significant ways: Topics are provided in advance, your thesis is nothing more than a specific answer to the question asked in the assignment, and there is little-to-no original research required. (Location 1896) If you have trouble finding a topic in advance, you have two options. (Location 1938) “Approach your professor with some ideas you have and let him recommend some appropriate readings.” (Location 1939) “Read your primary sources carefully.” (Location 1941) For a critical analysis essay, the solution is simple: Review both the reading notes and lecture notes that relate to the essay prompt. And that’s it! (Location 1956) conducting research paper thesis-hunting expeditions. Their goals are twofold: (1) find an interesting thesis that can be supported within the scope of the assignment; and (2) minimize the time required to conduct this search. (Location 1963) Start general, then move one layer deep. (Location 1966) “A great thesis typically has at least these four qualities,” explains Christine, a straight-A student from Harvard. “It’s provocative, nuanced, direct, and inclusive.” (Location 1994) thesis should, at the same time, also show a grasp of the complexities of a subject—‘in this poem, X symbolizes Y because (Location 1995)