Productivity for Students

I am sure you were told at some point in your life that balancing school with having a social life and getting enough sleep was impossible. You were told that you would have to sacrifice at least one of those to get through school. Well based on my research and personal experience, I have witnessed many individuals, including myself, who did not have to choose between studying, sleep, and social life. In fact, those people, let’s call them power students, were able to juggle way more than those three aspects of their life while maintaining stellar grades.

I wrote down some of the most successful habits and methods of power students and power people with the hope that they could help me get through university as smoothly as I could. The list below is by no means exhaustive nor in its final state. The tips are not timeless nor do they apply to everyone. I trust that you will follow the wise words of Bruce Lee when designing your habits. I use the word designing quite literally in this case. Design thinking is about constantly trying new approaches to a problem. Adopting an open mind allows power students to change their system instead of wasting time and energy trying to change themselves needlessly. Lastly, the list below is not in a specific order. I tried to only list the big rocks. You can watch this 3-minute video to understand what I mean by big rocks. I distilled these techniques with the 80/20 principle in mind. That said, adopting these habits (20%) should give you the biggest return on investment (80%).

As you will quickly notice, these habits are not sexy. They are simple and boring. They are about sharpening your axe to make everything else easier.

The Base (Sharpening the Axe)

• Sleep. This is a big rock for sure. Maybe the biggest one when it comes to productivity, physical health, and mental health. You can check out Mathew Walker’s TED talk or read his book to learn more about the importance of sleep or check out his tips to get better sleep. Amongst them, get at least 8 hours, do not nap past 3 pm, and stick to a sleep schedule.
• Adopt a growth mindset (Carol Dweck) and develop your grit (Angela Duckworth). You can also check out their TED talks.
• Eat healthily. Whatever that means to you. Eat plenty and try not to skip meals (unless you are sure that works for you). Drink lots of water. Consider typical brain foods such as nuts or omega 3 supplements.
• Be wise when it comes to caffeine. There are other ways to feel awake in the morning. I personally take a cold shower every morning to wake up. Tea is also a good option when it comes to caffeine because it allows you to drink something warm while getting smaller amounts of caffeine.
• Be active. You do not have to go to the gym to be active. There are all sorts of fitness classes that can make movement enjoyable. You can play a sport. You can walk or bike to school or work.
• Let loose. Unplug. Give your brain a break. Take up a hobby. Practice tasks that completely differ from your work. Enjoy your reading weeks and summer breaks.

Time Management

• Use a calendar/agenda of some form. I always recommend using an electronic calendar since most of us carry our phones wherever we go. Another advantage of going digital is that our calendar can send us reminders. This frees up more brain juice to focus on more important things. But like everything else, adopt the method that works for you. I use Google Calendar. It has great widgets for my Android phone.
• Take a minute to plan out your day. I recommend some variation of Tim Ferris’s morning journal technique. He asks himself the following 2 questions:
  • If this were the only thing I accomplish today, would I be satisfied with my day?
  • Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?
• Write down the 1 to 3 things you want to get done that day. Set the bar low. You can always add more to the list if you finish everything early. I often check off everything on my list by 10 am. It feels great to be satisfied with your day.
• Adopt a note-taking system. David Allen the founder of the productivity system Getting Things Done (GTD) advocates taking note of every idea that may be useful to remember at some point. This frees up your brain’s resources. I currently use OneNote for GTD and class notes. I use the OneNote badge to take quick notes on my phone.
• Go for a walk when you make a phone call. It is a great way to mitigate the effects of sitting all day.
• Put your phone on silent. The constant notifications steal your attention and make it impossible to get in the zone. Nothing is an emergency that can’t wait an hour.
• Make your bed. This will give you psychological momentum at the start of each day. Clean your room. An orderly environment will help you organize your thoughts.
• Schedule free time in your calendar. It will allow you to enjoy it more and ensure that you are taking care of yourself. It is productive to chill if that is what you’re trying to do.

Many of the tips below were found in Cal Newport’s books How to Win at College and How to Become a Straight-A Student. I only included the ones that lined up with my experience as a student.

Study tips

• Find the times of the day when you perform at your best. Some people tend to be more productive in the morning and some claim to be more productive at night. I do my best work in the mornings since there are fewer distractions and ways other people can control my agenda. I try not to work too hard at night so my brain can have time to slow down before I get to bed. I do tend to get burst of creativity at night, however. I either write the ideas down for the next morning or I might act on them if they are keeping me up regardless.
• Start fast, end slow. Try to start your assignment the same day it is assigned. This will help to bypass procrastination and the fear of taking the first step.
• Most of your studying should be spent alone. Find a few quiet spots to study and you can alternate to change the scenery.
• Study in short bursts rather than long days spent at the library. Remember the 80/20 principle. The effectiveness of your study time will diminish after a couple of hours of studying. Take a 5 to 10 minutes break to walk around or stretch every hour. Our alertness operates on 90-minute ultradian cycles.
• Practice the quiz and recall method to learn the material. Rereading your notes only gives you the illusion of knowledge. Being forced to write down or say out loud a definition is more difficult than reading it. Use flashcards to implement this method. Make sure to start early with flashcards to maximize the benefits of spaced retrieval. Digital flashcard tools may be useful since most are free and accessible on your phone. You can also easily share your decks with your classmates. I have found Quizlet and Anki to be useful.
• Create a summary sheet of the material to consolidate your knowledge. Use this sheet when practicing. Eventually, you will be able to remember where concepts are on your page which will help you to remember them. Some people find mindmaps to have a similar benefit to summary sheets.
• I like to play a song on repeat, listen to lo-fi music, or some white noise to get in the zone and limit distractions. I tend to work in silence if my focus is there.
• Go to class. This forces you to study every week instead of cramming before the midterm. The teachers are usually helpful and can add to your learning experience. This also allows you to get to know your professors who are useful people to have in your social web.
• Use a laptop to take notes if you can. Typing is faster and neater than writing by hand. This eliminates the risk of losing or damaging your notebook. For math and science courses, pen and paper are still the way to go with all the equations. I personally use a 2-in-1 tablet to take my math notes which gives me the best of both worlds.
• Be intense about the format of your notes. Be proud of them. Personalizing them with colour coding and a system will help you retain the material better. It is an art.
• For STEM courses, write down as many problems and examples as you can. Write comments on the reasoning behind the solution. Write out steps. Definitions can be found in the textbook.
• Ask questions in class. If not, at least take note of your question and ask your peers or the professor after class.
• Take advantage of all the forced studying sessions. Most courses have tutorials, study groups, review sessions, and office hours. Regularly attending these forces you to use the concept of spaced retrieval instead of cramming. Keeping up with the material also limits the stress of falling behind before finals.
• Get to know the teacher’s assistant or the person who marks to know you. Format your assignments in a way that is distinct and enjoyable for the person to mark. Every grader is biased, and they are more likely to be more generous on the marking.
• Create a group chat or discussion forum with your peers to ask questions and work together on assignments. I currently use Discord since you can invite classmates with a link.
• Doing problems is the best way to study STEM courses. Make use of the practice tests, textbook suggested exercises, tutorial questions, and lecture examples.
• Create a study plan before the midterms or finals. I write mine on 1 sheet of paper and carry it in my pocket at all times. This relieves some anxiety by showing you that the mountain can be conquered when you take it 1 day at a time.
• When taking a test, read quickly all the questions first. This will prime your brain and allow your unconscious mind to start working on the problems.
• Subtract 10 minutes from the time you must write the test and divide it by the number of questions. This will give you the approximate time you should spend per question. Use the last 10 minutes to review and make your answers clear if you can afford it.
• For a multiple-choice question, if you are not sure, stick with your first instinct.
• Start with the questions that you know. This will build confidence and ensure that you did not leave those unanswered. My high school physics teacher taught us this lesson in a way that I will never forget. He started the class by dropping a bucket full of marbles on the floor. The marbles rolled all over the classroom. Before they stopped rolling, he told us we had 10 seconds to collect as many marbles as we could. Ten seconds later, he went on to say that the marbles are like points available on a test. Start with the one that you know you can get and move on to the next one. If you try to collect all the marbles, you will be paralyzed and end up with none.

Student life

• Drop classes every semester. Attend more lectures during the first weeks than you plan on settling for. This will allow you to get a feel for the professors and the course content. That way, you have insurance if you know from the first lecture that this class is not for you.
• Take elective courses that interest you. I made the mistake of taking an elective that everyone said would be easy just for the sake of getting a good grade. Since I had zero interest in the subject, I despised putting effort into the course and it ended up lowering my GPA.
• Apply to 10 scholarships every year. There are a lot of applications that do not require much work from the students. Some only require your transcript and your resume. Let’s say that you spend 5 hours applying for scholarships and you get lucky with only one out of ten applications. If the scholarship was $1000, that would result in a wage of $200 per hour spent.
• Get involved in something the first week. It is a great way to meet people early on. For me, it was intramural sports.
• Be mindful of the people you spend most of your time with. They influence your thoughts, habits, and future more than you can imagine.
• Do not get a “normal” job. If you are going to work, try to get a student job. Being a TA or tutor is a great way to make money while having flexible hours and deepening your understanding of the material.
• Take advantage of reading weeks and summers to work on your side projects. It will make you disconnect from your studies and result in more experience on your resume. Creating a business or a side-hustle can improve your university experience both financially and mentally.
• When in doubt, take the hard way. Take on a minor and an honours program. In hindsight, seldom are the times where I regretted not cutting corners.

The advice above only comes from my own experience and the experience of other power students. They are not meant to be applicable to everyone in every scenario. All of them only have an effect when implemented. Some heavy design thinking will be necessary to customize a system that works for you. I think it is worth reiterating that the purpose of adopting these techniques is to allow us to live more meaningful lives. Weather, it is to create a career for ourselves, to create room to enjoy the things we really want in life, or simply to live with less stress.

Affiliate Links

1. The 80/20 Principle – By Richard Koch
2. Why We Sleep – By Matthew Walker
3. Mindset – By Carol S. Dweck
4. Grit – By Angela Duckworth
5. Getting Things Done – By David Allen
6. Make It Stick – By Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, Mark A. McDaniel
7. How to Win at College – By Cal Newport
8. How to Become a Straight-A Student – By Cal Newport
9. Surface Pro 7 – Microsoft Tablet