If you're into productivity, then you must have at least heard of David Allen's Getting Things Done productivity opus. Let's take a look at how to apply GTD to your school work.
GTD is basically a "workflow for life," so if all you want to do is get papers in by their deadlines, it's overkill. Luckily, some of the GTD precepts work for the student workflow—so that's what I'll share here.
Photo by aveoree.
The Inbox
It all starts with the inbox. It's probably the most important part of GTD—capturing all of your assignments. Way too many students think of an agenda or a planner as synonymous with a to-do list. It doesn't make any sense to write a new assignment down on a planner under a date—that's deadline-oriented thinking that just begs for procrastination.
Instead, as soon as you get a new assignment, write it down on a list that you'll review later. A simple notepad is all you need. Put all of your new assignments on that same notepad; don't divide it up by class.
Don't depend on your brain to remember assignments, either. Write everything down. That kid who writes things on the back of his hand—he's not so far off.
The Workflow
Hopefully, you're going to visit this list of assignments once a day. Since students usually have tight deadlines, nightly will be best. Every time you review your assignments list, you're going to go through a workflow, illustrated below.
First, turn everything into an action – the first possible action you could take for that assignment. So, the action won't be "study history," it'll be "review history notes" – since that's the actual thing you'll be doing. If it's a project with multiple actions, for now, just think of the first thing you need to do to get it rolling and make a note somewhere that you've got a new project on your plate (see "projects" below).
Dates, Contexts, or Both
The next step is to classify that action according to a date, context or both.
Contexts
Contexts are an awesome way of organizing assignment to-dos. Instead of having one daunting list of homework, you separate each item by what materials you need to get it done. That way, when you're trying do a little HW at your work-study job, you're not trying to read books you don't have with you or look up files that are on your desktop at the dorm. Your list of contexts can look however you like, but here's a list of contexts that fit the student lifestyle (this is largely what mine looks like).
Dorm: This might include textbooks that I'd never haul out of there or things on my external hard drive, which I also don't like lugging around.
Upper campus: Before I head to upper campus, I'd check this list. Maybe I can stop by a teacher's office to cover something while I'm there.
Library: Research. Novels to check out. Texbooks to hack.
Computer: Gee, you can put a lot of things on this list. I break mine down into three separate lists: online, offline, and email. It's less daunting that way. Plus, "email" things can also get done on my phone or from someone else's computer. Offline (mostly creative writing) items are nicer to do on my netbook. It allows more freedom.
Thinking time: This is usually brainstorming stuff I can think about while working out or taking a walk.
Campus phone: Rather than waste my cell phone minutes on hold with financial aid, I might hi-jack an on-campus phone and dial their extension.
Class: Have one for each class. This will probably consist mostly of questions you'd like to ask another student or the teacher.
How you organize these is up to you. I use OmniFocus. Paper is awesome, too. Keep the to-dos for your dorm… in your dorm. Keep the list for each class in the binder that goes with the class. You get the idea.
Now, when it's time to work on stuff, you'll know exactly where to look for something to get started on.
Dates
If there's a due date, always note that so you know what's coming. But some things are only date-oriented, like meeting with a group to trade feedback or attending an extra-credit lecture. Those needn't necessarily have a context. Mark your calendar for these things.
Projects
Most of your college work is not a project. It's just a single-action: read the textbook, do the problems, busy work—that kind of thing. But there are at least two major things that are "projects" with more than one action: papers and… projects. These things all have multiple steps, so it's important to think of them in terms of each individual action rather than the whole.
Once you're done with the first step (which you established already), make a note of the next action and put it through your "inbox" like it's another assignment. Keep doing this until you complete the project.
As soon as you confront a new project, list it somewhere. You might list it in a special place in that class's notebook. A bulletin board or a dry erase board is also a good spot to list your important on-going projects.
Schedule Regular Assignments
There's no point in going through the overhead of GTD if you know that your thrice a week class is always going to have an assignment. Putting that through your inbox system means you might not even look at it until the next day—and if you miss your inbox for a day, that means you won't see it until the day after, which is when it's due. Instead, just reserve some time on your calendar to get the work done every week; right after class is actually remarkably efficient, but there's nothing wrong with just scheduling an hour right before your class to hammer out the work.
Review Weekly
Pick a day once a week and review two things: your calendar and each class.
In your calendar, look at what due dates you have coming in the next month, emphasizing what's due in the next week. Use this information to inform how you approach each context list through the week.
To review each class, look through your notes, handouts, and assignments and make sure you haven't missed any to-dos. But most importantly, look at your list of projects for each class and make sure you have a next action listed for each one.
This May Not Work for You
You'll have to alter this to make it work for you, but here it is, stripped down to the basics. Try it, but be flexible. And if you need some help just search for "GTD" right here on Lifehacker and I'm sure there's no shortage of support.
Commenters—I've just hacked up the GTD workflow. Let's hear your thoughts, please.
The school-bound productivity nuts at weblog HackCollege will be joining us all week to offer their perspective on making the most of your Back to School regimen.