Increase Your Willpower by Turning "Shoulds" Into "Musts"

Must... resist... Nutella. Image courtesy of Flickr user Domesticat. Licensed under BY NC SA 2.0.

It's easy to talk about "shoulds" in college. You should get a degree, you should do your homework, you should really start on that paper that's due in an hour. However, it's often difficult to turn those shoulds into action--thus 4 am paper writing binges when you know you should have gotten started hours ago.

If you find yourself waffling on "shoulds," this post over at The Minimalist suggests that the best way to keep from self-sabatoging is to turn your "shoulds" into "musts." By doing this, you put yourself in a place where you quit talking in the abstract and move into things you have to do. If you really follow the system that the article is talking about, it gets even more concrete--you say your "must" list aloud.

Beyond applying this method to short term assignments, the author of the original piece is really focused on using the "must" method to make major changes in your life. By turning big life goals or changes, like following career dreams or losing weight, into obligatory things, you reframe your thinking so that not doing them is not an option.

Though I don't actually read my "musts" aloud from a formal list, I can say that reframing the way that you negotiate big life changes can have a huge impact on how likely you are to follow through with them. Stating your end-points and goals aloud makes them a very clear part of your life and forces you to focus on them.

As an example, I'm able to go to bed by midnight every night. A big part of that is that I'm able to treat early schoolwork as obligatory--if you think of it as a requirement to start working on your paper at 10 am rather than midnight, you can see pretty drastic changes in what your life is like. (Protip: life gets awesome.)

If you're looking to make a major life change--and as a college student, you're in a better position than most to do so--try this method of reframing your decision and see if it works for you.

Man on the Street: Band or Tech? (Presented by Intel)

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Prepare Homemade Breakfast Items to Keep Yourself Healthy and Energized

Don't have time to eat all of this? Eat it on the go! Photo courtesy of c.a.muller. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

I have said this several times on HackCollege-- don't skip breakfast. Your mother was right. It is the most important meal of the day. It keeps you energized to power through all of your classes and it actually keeps you healthier. However, we usually don't have the time to sit down and eat a big, huge breakfast and we definitely don't have time to fix it. So what's a college student to do?

Take those meals on to go! It's a little hard to take a plate of eggs and bacon with you on your way to class, so here are some good, healthy breakfast ideas that you can eat in your busy schedule.

Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies

If you have a blender, this is a really tasty, healthy way to get started in the morning. All you really need is some of your favorite fruits and some yogurt. Most smoothies follow this basic recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups of fruit, fresh or frozen (bananas, blueberries, pinapple, mango, strawberries, raspberries, or whatever other fruit you have in mind)
• 3/4 cup of plain (or flavored, if you wish) yogurt
• 3/4 cup of juice (orange or apple juice works well)
• Optional: 2 tbsp of an add-in (milled flax seed, whey protein, antioxidant powder, etc)

The lovely part about this is that you can store an extra glass of leftover smoothie for tomorrow morning.

Breakfast Tacos

Breakfast tacos are a staple in the south. They've got everything you need, and it's a way you can eat eggs on the go. Scrambling eggs takes less than five minutes and then you just scoop them into a heated-up taco (flour or corn, depending on your preference), and you've got yourself a basic breakfast taco.

If tortillas aren't to your liking, you can always just make an egg sandwhich by putting your eggs between two piece of toast. Also delicious.

Granola Bars

You can always buy granola bars from your grocery or campus food store. They're easy enough to deal with, although I've never been a huge fan of their flavor and tend to add lots of sugar. Wise Bread suggests using this chewy granola bar recipe with old fashioned rolled oats, dried fruit, and dark chocolate for a homemade granola bar with a great taste from home.

Zucchini or Banana Bread

There are not a lot of things that are better than a warm slice of zucchini or banana bread with just the smallest touch of butter. It is amazing. If you're in the mood for something sweet and warm when you wake up in the morning, bake a loaf of your favorite bread and eat it all week. Chances are someone in your family has a traditional recipe for zucchini or banana bread, but if not, search around online for some recipes to test out.

Peanut Butter Toast

Whenever I have a big event going on during the day and I need to eat a big but quick breakfast, this is usually my go to choice. Peanut butter is a tasty protein choice that will keep you going through the day, and it takes all of about three minutes to make.

Also, if you are a fan of peanut butter, try my mother's favorite use of it and put it on a banana. Plop a small scoop on the top, take a bite, and repeat.

Baggie o' Cereal

This is how I survived most of college mornings. I kept a box of cereal in my room (much cheaper than buying those individual bowls of cereal they sell in the dining halls) and then filled a sandwhich bag up. I could eat it on my way to class or in class, if I was lucky enough to have professors who didn't care. This isn't ideal for most normal people who actually like milk on their cereal, but take a bottle of milk from the dining hall with you, and it works for a quick, easy breakfast.

What do you eat for breakfast? Would you try any of these alternatives? Let us know in the comments!

[via Wise Bread]

Deals of the Week

Get 50% off of 1Password for Mac and more with Hackcollege Weekly Deals

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Welcome to "Deals of the Week," a new series where we will be giving you the inside scoop about the hottest bargains on the web. The deals we feature will be relevant to college students in some way or another, whether it's a price drop on a note-taking app or a coupon for groceries. We will focus on online promotions and discounts so that everyone can take advantage of them, no matter where you attend school. Start looking out for new "Deals of the Week" every Monday!

• 1Password is 50% off for a limited time on the Mac App Store. Previously $49.99, now $24.95

• AlbumTrackr is free for a limited time on the Mac App Store, normally $1.99. 

• Buy.com has the Microsoft Office Home and Student 2011 Software for Mac (1-License) for $88.99 Free Shipping. Normally $119. 

• EasyTether for Android is available for 50% off. Previously $9.99, now $4.99. 

• Save 50% off all in-stock products at Belkin with code FB50 until 9/30/11

• Jamba Juice has printable coupons for $2 Slow Cooked Steel-Cut Oatmeal, $2 Fruit & Veggie Or All Fruit Smoothies and $1 Baked Good With Purchase of Any Menu Drink good through 9/27/11.

• Domino's is offering $6.95 for any large pizza (pick-up only) with code 52090 through 9/30/11.

• Save 10% back-to-college gear at Radioshack with code BTCAUG2011 through 10/1/11.

• Get $5 off orders of $50 or more at Target with code PCODES5.

• Cengage Brain is offering $10 off an $80 purchase with code FBTS10 through 9/30/11.

• OfficeMax is offering 20% off any purchase with code SURFMYADS20 through 9/24/11.

Let us know in the comments what you think of "Deals of the Week" and what kind of deals you want to see in the future!

10 Free Mac Apps You Won't Find in the Mac App Store

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

I'm a big fan of using the Mac App Store for finding, buying and installing apps, but being relatively new, the store's collection is limited (although growing). And for those who like free stuff, a lot of the best Mac freeware programs haven't made their way into the App Store yet. Last week, we showed you ten great Mac App Store freebies. Now, here are ten awesome free apps that are missing from the Mac App Store.

1. Handbrake - An open source multithreaded video transcoder that you can use to rip DVD's or Blu-Ray discs and convert videos to and from a variety of different formats. Lifehacker has an excellent guide on how to rip your DVD's with Handbrake. 

2. Transmission - An extremely lightweight yet powerful and fast bittorrent client. One of my favorite features is the way download/upload rates will show in the Transmission dock icon, so you don't have to open a window to see how your downloads are doing. Transmission integrates brilliantly with your Mac, with useful options to watch a folder for .torrent files, trash the original file after your download is complete, and set speed limits globally or for individual torrents. 

3. Netnewswire - A fantastic RSS and Atom reader that can sync your Google Reader feeds. It works with other Mac apps such as MarsEdit and Twitter for Mac, is scriptable, and has lots of keyboard shortcuts. Technically, Netnewswire can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, but the Mac App Store has the "Lite" version, which is different from the free version you download from their website. The App Store version of Netnewswire does not allow Google Reader syncing, which is an automatic dealbreaker for most RSS power users.  

4. Adium - An instant messaging application that lets you aggregate all of your messaging profiles into one app. You can connect to and chat with your contacts across Facebook chat, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and more. Adium's universal contact list allows you to merge contacts across different accounts. Other standout features include tabbed messaging windows and support for themes. 

5. Growl - An uber-customizable control center for notifications on your Mac. Growl is a system preferences pane that is integrated into countless Mac applications (including many on this list!). Get notified when a download finishes in Transmission, when there is a new article in Netnewswire, when you receive a message in Adium, and much more. Choose themes for all your notifications and make them show as frequently or infrequently as you wish. Once you discover how useful Growl is, you'll wonder what you ever did without it.  

6. Appcleaner - The process of uninstalling an app on a Mac was designed to be simple-- just move the unwanted app to the trash. The problem with this method is that applications create a lot of extra files on your hard drive, and deleting an application doesn't get rid of that extra clutter. Appcleaner helps you trash apps properly and completely. When you drag an app to the Appcleaner icon, it finds all those loose files and deletes those as well. You can also select apps, preference panes, and widgets to uninstall from the Appcleaner interface. 

7. Seashore - If you are looking for a fast and easy to use image editor that has more than enough power for most beginner to intermediate users, Seashore will fit the bill. Seashore has a solid set of advanced features such as multiple layers, individual primary and alpha channel editing, and anti-aliased brush strokes. Seashore was inspired by the GIMP, another popular image-editing app that is more powerful but less user-friendly than Seashore and not a native Mac app. If you're not sure whether Seashore is right for your needs, this helpful table compares Seashore's features with other image editors. 

8. Onyx - Onyx is a maintenance and optimization utility for your Mac. It lets you verify and repair your hard disk, delete caches, logs, and temporary files, and configure the parameters for the Finder, Dock, and other Apple applications. Onyx is a great way to keep your Mac running smoothly.

9. Tinkertool - There are a lot of built-in settings in Mac OSX that are hidden from the user. Tinkertool gives you access to these preferences. Some examples of things you can do with Tinkertool include enabling the “Quit” menu item of the Finder, adding a stack for Recent Items, and disabling the Dashboard. Here is a list of all the settings available in Tinkertool.

 10. Appfresh - One advantage of installing apps from the Mac App Store is that you can easily view and download software updates from one place. Appfresh brings this feature to all of your installed apps, system preference panes, widgets, and plugins. Appfresh also checks for system upgrades and updates to Apple's built-in software, so you don't even have to run your Mac's "Software Update" separately!

OS Tips - Time Saving iPhone Keyboard Tricks

If it does, read on to see how to make your life a little better!Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Typing on your iPhone's touchscreen can be pretty awful: It's small, cramped, and very error prone. On today's OS Tips, I'm going to show you a few hidden tricks to make typing on your iPhone far more bearable.

1. Drag to Quick Punctuate/Capitalize

If you just want to enter one punctuation symbol or number and get back to typing with the QWERTY keyboard, hold down the .?123 button, then drag to whatever punctuation/number you want. That enters your number/symbol and puts you immediately back to QWERTY so you can let your thoughts flow uninterrupted without having to annoyingly change keyboards. The same dragging functionality applies to entering capital letters. For characters on the right side of the keyboard, you can just hold down the shift or .?123 key with your left hand, then tap whatever character you want with your right hand to achieve the same functionality more quickly. You can also use this trick to type multiple capital letters without turning on caps lock (which we'll get to later).

2. Hold Down Keys to Open More Options

Want to easily type in español or français? Hold down on a key to open a pop up menu, then drag to whichever option you'd like. Note that this doesn't work for all keys, so experiment with it.

3. Double Tap Shift for Caps Lock

Want caps lock on your iPhone? Double tap shift and START SHOUTING AT YOUR FRIENDS IN TEXTS!

4. Double Tap Space to Quick Start New Sentences

Use this shortcut to increase your iPhone typing speed. Once you reach the end of a sentence and want to start a new one, double tap space to insert a period followed by a space. Shift will even be highlighted for you for the start of the new sentence!

5. Shake to Undo/Redo

Mess up something? Quickly shake your phone back and forth to bring up the undo typing dialog box. Do the same if you change your mind to bring up the redo typing dialog box.

6. Easy Ignore Autocorrect

Isn’t it annoying when the iPhone automatically corrects your spelling even though you meant to spell the word that way? Instead of moving your finger up to the screen and pressing the little x on the box that pops up, save yourself a ton of time and just tap z followed by delete. That’s a much quicker way of clearing away the autocorrect box.

7. Intentionally Misspell for Quick Contractions

Instead of going through the trouble of changing keyboards to insert an apostrophe when you want to type “we’re,” intentionally misspell the word and have your iPhone autocorrect it for you! Type the last letter of the contraction again to then hit space to have the iPhone change the word for you. For example, type weree to get we’re and helll to get he’ll.

Do you know any other cool hidden iPhone typing tips? Let us know in the comments!

App of the Week – Create Free Temporary Phone Numbers with RingShuffle

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Ever encounter a situation where you need to give someone your phone number in order to contact them, but never want to hear from them again after that meeting? Let’s just go over a list of quick examples: 1) Meeting creepers on Craigslist, 2) Guys hitting on you, 3) That random embarrassing hookup, and so on… Today, I’ve got the solution for you. RingShuffle creates free temporary and disposable numbers that link directly to your carrier’s number.

Platform Availability: iOS 3.0 and up, Any computer with Internet access (via either the Ringshuffle website or the Ringshuffle Facebook app)

Cost: It’s free! If Ringshuffle sounds even remotely interesting to you, you owe it to yourself to try it.

What it is: Unlike some of the multi-faceted apps I’ve covered in the past, Ringshuffle only does one thing but does it very well: create temporary and disposable phone numbers that link to your carrier number. Best of all, the person on the other line won’t know the number you're giving out is only temporary. Other people can reach you perfectly fine from this number, but when you don’t want them to bother you anymore, just throw away that Shuffle number. These temporary numbers expire in seven days, but you can dispose of them sooner if you wish. You even have the option of changing the area code to blend in with the locals/look like an out-of-towner!

How does it work: Download the app, go to the website, or approve the Facebook app; then, create an account – it’s ridiculously easy. All Ringshuffle requires is your carrier phone number, an email address, and a five-digit pin. After that, it sets you up with a shuffle number with the same area code as your carrier number. If you’d like, hit shuffle and you can then choose a shuffle number with a different area code. And that’s it! Ringshuffle will automatically forward people who call your shuffle number to your carrier number. Unfortunately, you can only have one Shuffle number associated with your carrier number at a time, and you can't currently make outboud calls with your Shuffle number (but they're working on it!)

The Competition: While researching more about Ringshuffle, I found out about a service called iNumbr that also allows you to create virtual phone numbers. However, iNumber costs at least $6.99/month with a limited amount of talk time on your virtual line. The same cost limitation also applies to NotMyNumber (which also offers apps for iOS and Windows Phone) - rates start at $2.99 for a number that only lasts an hour. Ringshuffle has no such restrictions and is absolutely free! If making outbound calls with your temporary number is essential however, go with NotMyNumber.

Summary: So often, the phone-related apps we cover on HackCollege are limited to smartphone users. Ringshuffle is one of those rare apps that’s useful to anyone with a phone number (regardless of what phone you use) who wants to keep it private. Get Ringshuffle and start taking back control of your phone number’s privacy today.

Can you think of any other helpful uses for temporary and disposable numbers? Is there anything else out there like Ringshuffle? Let us know in the comments!

Watch, Read, Make: Fear, Printed Buildings, and Fancy Glasses

Milton Glaser – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Watch: This video of Milton Glaser talking about the fear of failure and personal success is delightful, if for no reason other than it's personal branding explained by a person who (rightfully) thinks that "brand" is an awful term to apply to people. He cautions against pursuing professional success at the expense of personal development--doing the same single thing over and over is soul-crushing. He takes that as a jumping-off point for talking about fear of failure. The man's advice is good, and you should watch it. (Via Preakness and Argyro.)

Read: This summary of MIT research up at BoingBoing talks about the fact that they're looking into 3D printing as a way to make buildings. The idea is taht 3D printing, rather than traditional large-scale building techniques, opens up the possibility of organic shapes which are otherwise impossible. Personally, I'm just waiting until I can print myself a tree-yurt and call it a day.

Make: Glass etching (making frosted glass in patterns) is one of those crafts that I keep meaning to try. This article, via CRAFT, shows how to do it. Buy some cheap glasses from the dollar store and experiment--if you're feeling some school love, you can use contact paper and etch your school's name onto the glasses (a good gift for parents), and if not you can always etch other designs or phrases (like your name) onto them. Having interesting glassware, rather than plastic cups, is a sure-fire way to feel more like an adult.

Got anything interesting planned for the weekend? Let us know in the comments!