A few months ago, after being accepted to grad school, I started looking for blogs and websites about students and technology/educational technology. I know a lot has changed with online resources for students since I was an undergrad. I was curious if the way students learned/did homework/took notes/etc had changed as much in parallel.

That search kept leading me across two major devices. Completely disjoint websites that I found through different avenues would advertise one or the other, and sometimes both.

So, being ready for change (knowing that a lot of it was about to happen in my life,) and having a few weeks before classes started, I found ways to implement them.

The first isn’t really a technology, it’s a methodology. It’s a personal productivity/organizational method called “Gettings Things Done” by David Allen.

Some of you reading are fresh out of college, and some are fresh into new areas of your life… One of the most important things my boss Chuck imparted to me when I started my first non-student job is that you need to learn an organizational system. The first time you work outside of someone else’s schedule (like a class schedule, etc.) you usually bottom out because you’re not used to that much personal responsibility.

I started at work with the Eagle planner, and took some seminars on that and the Steven-Covey planner/Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, so I’ve been trained in a few systems, and use pieces from them in my life. However, I knew my system wasn’t complete and I was missing things. Plus, very soon I would have to balance class and work, as well as home/personal stuff — and do that on a tight budget, meaning more planning for shopping and meals. I needed something better, and everyone was raving about how great the GTD system is. So, I grabbed the book from the library and started reading.

You know I already make lists, and am very action oriented. Sure, a “plan” is good, but things I can do and check off are great. The GTD system gives you a system to write things down/store them and organize them in a way that they’re easily available and yet not taking up space in your noggin. GTD says get everything out of your head, and then organize it. Use an inbox. Process. File. Review.

It’s amazingly effective. It gives you that peace of mind you have when you leave work right before you go on vacation, when you know everything is managed and taken care of — combined with the age old trick of putting something next to your keys when you have to remember it the next morning. It’s out of your head, so you can focus on what’s next at hand without having to struggle to remember what you’re forgetting, combined with a trusted system you can easily access and get that information back when you’re ready to use it.

Sound simple? It is. This isn’t rocket science, and we’re all probably doing some of it. GTD just gives a framework to be more effective. (Beth is probably rolling her eyes at this point in the post, because she’s heard about this system a ton. Sorry, Beth.)

Since I started a few weeks ago, I have all my filing in order. I have set action lists and project lists for home, school and work. I have physical inboxes at home and work that I work in and out of. I have a ‘tickler’ file to store things I’ll need in the future. I have a label printer. I have one email in my inbox, which I should really file but I want to watch a lecture it’s reminding me about first.

The cool thing about GTD is that it’s technology agnostic. Like paper and manilla folders? Use them, one idea per page. Have a new Palm or Visor/Treo? Store them all there. Live and breathe in Outlook? Use those categories/sections. Use a combination of all of it (like I do.) In a future post, if people are interested, I’ll talk about what I’ve come up to implement GTD.

The book tells you to take 3-4 days and sort your entire life — I just don’t have the time to do that a week before the semester started. So, I’m going for incremental improvement. Each day, I file a little more, implement a new part/section of the plan into my life. I’m satisfied. Tonight, after I’m done blogging, I’m going to do the “weekly review.”

If you’re interested in finding a new workflow management plan for yourself, pick up the book or buy me a beer. I’d be happy to sell you on it. I’ve already hooked two people, and, hey, I was right about the TiVo, wasn’t I?

The second technology that the hip students are using these days is TabletPCs, but this post is long enough. I’ll talk about my new toy under a different heading.