The Valentine's Day Episode - HackCollege Season 3, Episode 2

Chris and Kelly somehow manage to not even bring up Valentine's Day in the week prior to the nerd's dreaded holiday.

Topics this week:

• Blackboard pushes out its latest version and schemes up new ways to destroy the world.
• Students are footing more and more of the bill as tuition increases. Where is all of that money going?
• The Obama administration posts its goals for higher education
• Dad swings by to give you a tip about how to stop a leaking faucet in your dorm room.
• Chris and Kelly tear apart a girl who dropped out of school because of an operating system.

Review -- OmniFocus (Mac) task management for students

OmniFocus is another one of those to-do-list-on-steroids productivity applications, but it's definitely one of the most intuitive ones I've ever seen. If you're a GTD fanatic, this is that missing piece you've been waiting for.

OmniFocus makes it easy to put together your to do list with about a million different ways to “write stuff down” -- between the iPhone app, Quicksilver-esque hotkey entry, the iCal and Mail integration, no matter where you are, if you think of something that needs to get done, it's easy to enter. But OmniFocus really shines when you need to start rattling through that to do list. You can easily sort every task by its most essential parameters: how long it will take, when it's due, what project it belongs to, what resources are at your disposal and tons more.

Efficiency

Considering that the whole point of this application is to ultimately save time, the actual use of it is quite efficient as well. I'm really happy with how easy it is to enter things. Whether I type “in 24 hours,” “tomorrow,” “02/11 at noon” or just about any other combination of thoughts, OmniFocus figures out what I meant. I can leave fields blank and it won't care (which means you can ignore functionality that you don't need).

A super flashy part of the iPhone app includes a location-based action thingie. It's kind of overkill but I still love it. Let's say I'm near the library – since my phone knows where I am, it will only give me to-dos that I can complete in that area. So, I could write an email but maybe not send a document that's on my laptop at home. Or, it would remind me to return a book while I'm here.

But the major efficiency killer is the learning curve. I'm a GTD veteran, but it still took me about a week to completely understand what OmniFocus can do. If you don't know GTD, good luck. There are a lot of extraneous features and there isn't a much easier way to get to know them besides screwing around – the help manual and their screencasts are long-winded and disorganized. Perhaps one day I'll write up a tutorial for it.

Cost

OmniFocus is a big rip-off but I'm really happy that they're student-aware enough to give us a discount. For students, the program itself is $49.95 (versus $79.95 for real people). Unfortunately, the iPhone application, which really completes the whole system, goes for $19.95 no matter how you cut it.

Student-ness

OmniFocus was definitely not created with the student in mind, but the application works just about as well with a student lifestyle as GTD does.

Projects can be filed into folders which is great for classes – there's a folder for each class (or just one for all of your classes). That way, you can easily see what the next step in each class is. At the beginning of the semester, for classes with robust syllabuses, you can easily enter all of the assignments for the whole class so that you can always see what's ahead of you. In some classes, I'm more on top of things than my teacher is.

The problem with GTD for students is always the fast turnaround assignments – something gets that's assigned now and due tomorrow afternoon doesn't always get processed by the GTD workflow quickly enough. The deadline integration on OmniFocus kind of solves the problem. Even if a task is poorly organized, as long as it's entered and has a deadline soon, OmniFocus will make sure that you know about it.

Hacks for Part-time Students

Image Coutesy: Funny PotatoHaving a career or job and going to school is a tremendously hard thing to do. Whether you are meshing school and work together during the day or going to class after completing the nine to five, you're under a lot of pressure. In cases like this, time becomes even more of commodity than when you're just a student. 

When driving to class, take the scenic route. The stresses of rush hour traffic can fry many a brain.  This is the last thing someone taking a test needs before they touch pen to blue book. Although it may be longer, taking the road less traveled could be relaxing. Also, try not to listen to anything. Silence is very soothing and fiddling around with a music player or switching radio stations can be frustrating and take your attention of the road.  You might want to put something calming.  Check out Luke's last article for some music that fits.

If you are getting a new computer to start school I suggest either getting a small notebook or a netbook depending on what your major requires. If you have a desktop at home an aren't ready to shell out for mobile hardware, you can still keep your information mobile by keeping it on the internet. You can check out ways to edit your schoolwork on the internet here. Some classes require files that can't be uploaded to sites like Google Docs.  Dropbox is an online storage drive that takes all other file types.

Staying organized and on the ball while keeping a career and going to school really helps out.   One of the most popular task managers is Remember the Milk or RTM for short. This application allows you to create different lists for the different things you're involved with. RTM has a plethora of ways it can be accessed. It plays extremely nice with Gmail (which you can have your school email forwarded to) and Google calendar. Once you set your tasks up you can have RTM be the monkey on your back until you accomplish what needs to be done.  Here is a list of everything that can be done with Remember the Milk.

The most important thing to remember when heading back to school is to not get too busy.  Working too hard can have a detrimental effect on your health, and the relationship you have with family members. There are many classes at Universities that involve physical activity, which could relieve a ton of stress.

Are you a part-time student? If so, comment below about some of your hacks. You can also email me at mike@hackcollege.com

Join Us @ BIL

HackCollege live from CES. Tune in today for our live BIL coverage!Chris and I are down in Long Beach this weekend at the BIL Conference with Revision3. If you like or are familiar with TED, you alread know BIL. BIL is the cheap cousin that's just as cool as TED.

Revision3 has decided to live stream all of the talks from revision3.com/bil/. If you're free this Saturday tune in. We'll be live all day from 10 pm PST to 6 pm PST. There are a lot of awesome speakers lined up today. Hit the chat room or tweet us up (@lesinski and @kellysutton) and let's get some dialog going.

We'll also be in Long Beach tomorrow from about the same times covering the second day of BIL. Should be sweet!

Tune in to Live Revision3 BIL Coverage

Hack Your Studying with Music

Studying with music can help you concentrate and keep you from dying of boredom, but did you know that you can “hack” the sounds you listen to, giving you an extra little boost of brain power?

It should be no surprise that certain kinds of music while studying are better to listen to than others. This comes down to personal preference, but if the beats of the new Jay-Z album make it impossible to hear yourself think, it’s probably a good idea to find something else to listen to. I suggest mellow music, especially instrumental music because it doesn’t have words to distract you. Check out Explosions in the Sky or Ratatat.

Listening to white noise can help drown out background sounds and help you concentrate. Most study aid CDs are simply white noise backed with nature sounds. White noise is a great tool for those who need to listen to something but find music too distracting. There are even white noise generators for your iPhone.

The pseudoscience of Binaural Beats is perhaps the most interesting, yet least credible way to hack your studying. By playing sounds of specific frequencies, it is thought to alter your brainwaves thus stimulating your mind and body. There are specific frequencies for focusing, alertness and even some that help you fall asleep. Give them a shot, I do not make any guarantees but many people do swear by these tonic sounds. 

Personally, I study at the library with foam ear plugs to block out all noise. I find the complete silence puts me in a world of my own and really helps me focus on my work.

What do you listen to when you study? Throw up your answers in the comments section.

How to Hack In-Class Presentations

Worried about getting a job after graduation? You may just want to start streaming your online presentations to put yourself a step ahead of your classmates. Check out the video for more information.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Study Skills Series at Not Just Surviving

Stephanie Bowyer has started a series over at her blog Not Just Surviving about study skills.

While HackCollege doesn't usually post about study skills, they are nonetheless important. Where will you find the time to shotgun beers if you aren't studying efficiently? Stephanie's posts are throrough and well-researched. Definitely give them a read if your study habits need a-changin'.

Head on over to Not Just Surviving and check out her series!

Use Qik to Record Your Drunken Nights

Qik.com, is a social media website which has recently exploded on to the scene with streamlined solution to sharing live video from your cell phone. Within seconds, live video of your friend shot-gunning a beer is viewable online, after the action is over the video is hosted at Qik.com. Qik even allows you to upload your completed recording straight to YouTube. Cool.

Here are the requirements for using the Qik service. Credit to Flickr user Steve Rhodes

• A smartphone. Qik has native clients for most smartphones, here is the full list of supported phones. If you have an iPhone you will need to Jailbreak it first, since Qik is having a hard time getting their app through the Apple’s store. Qik is available in Cydia. 
• A data plan. Sending live video over the internet will require a data plan with your wireless service provider. From experience, 3G is essential.
• An account on Qik.com

Once you’re all set up it’s as simple as pressing play on your mobile phone. Qik offers some interesting interactivity with other social web sites including Twitter, Facebook, and as previously mentioned, YouTube. Personally, I use the Facebook client which puts a box in your profile and delivers live video to your Facebook profile. Twitter users have the option of sending out a link of their video via “Tweet” when they are streaming.

Have fun documenting your college days and share them with your friends, not family. 

Post your usernames in the comments. My stream can be found at www.qik.com/turcotte44