More Interesting, Efficient, and Effective Ways to...

As the semester comes to a close, many of us are looking ahead to the dreaded final exams. We have to remember everything from the classes we slept through, read books we never even bought, and somehow convince our bodies that sleep just isn’t that important.Or, we could study less, even have a little fun, and still do well on exams, just by tweaking how we study. As I’ve mentioned before, most people don’t...

Better Brainstorming with a List of 100

As students, we’re constantly brainstorming. Paper topics. Key terms. Cool costumes for parties. You know what I mean. For me, my first idea is rarely my best one. I come up with something atrociously awful, and have to just hope someone tells me it’s a terrible idea. Eventually, after tons of failures, I often happen upon something better. Even still, I don’t always come up with the best idea. I find that...

Avoid Stress Overload with a Task Kill Day

  Right now, for many students, is the busiest part of the year. It seems like somewhere around mid-November, most professors realize “hey, we’ve got to give out more work!” and then give projects, papers, tests, presentations, and the like- all due, seemingly, on the same day. This, though, isn’t the sole cause of stress for me. Often, the thing can stresses me out the most is all the other things I...

Write and Highlight All Over the Web With WebNotes

    (Update: I’ve been given 25 invites from WebNotes to give our readers to their private beta. The first 25 comments here will get invites. It’s worth it, give it a try! Even if you can’t get an invite, sign up on their site. The turnaround, in my experience, is pretty fast.) Most, if not all, of the research I do is on the Web. When I write papers, do presentations, or study for finals, I spend a...

5 Ways to Get Yourself Started

Procrastinating is a wonderful thing. I’ll ruffle some feathers saying this, but I think procrastinating is often a really useful thing to do. When I’m avoiding the thing I want to do least (currently? Writing a history paper), I get a ton of other things done. However, it does get to a point when you need to stop procrastinating, and get working. When asked how to stop procrastinating, most people say...