To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

Step 21 to GTD Mastery is: I have a mobile office space set up, if needed.

As a student, it is definitely needed. Utilizing the time inbetween classes, events, and extracurriculars is crucial. This alone can make or break your academic success. This semester I was fortunate enough to schedule my classes with no gaps. I like hard transitions during my day (e.g. classes to studying to recreation). However, this is a personal preference as many students simply can’t sit in lectures for hours upon hours. In addition, your schedule may simply force large gaps upon you.

Like any other workspace, your mobile office has two requirements: a productive environment and supplies. Since we have already discussed the school supplies you need, this post will focus on choosing an effective study space.

The Golden Rule

When buying real estate, it comes down to location, location, location (says Donald Trump anyways). When choosing a study space, it comes down to isolation, isolation, isolation. This, above all other factors, is the key component for student productivity. The only faces you should see are those in your textbook (not your roommates, not that cute girl/guy, not your favourite celebrity’s poster). The only noise you should hear is what you want to hear (your thoughts, your writing, your keyboard, your music).

Examples

The first location that should come to mind is a library. However, not all libraries satisfy the need for isolation. In my high school, we had a tiny library, roughly the size of two classrooms. There was a set of cubicles in one corner for “quiet study,” but this was rendered useless by the flow of students twenty feet away, without any effective sound barriers. Fortunately, there was a public library accessible in a two-minute walk. There was also a book store in the nearby mall which had a Starbucks. The customer base was non-students and quiet during my study hours. I would sit at a table facing the wall. My final study spot was the upstairs floor of the pizza store. It was only busy during my lunch hour. During my study hours it was a ghost town.

In university, my library has designated “quiet study” floors. In addition, you are allowed to book breakout rooms, complete with stone walls and a door. Perfect silence. Another option is lesser-used buildings on campus.

Other Criteria
While isolation is the key, it isn’t enough. Study spaces should have good lighting. This reduces eye strain and keeps the body from unconsciously moving to a sleep mentality. The study space should be large enough to comfortably layout your study materials. My final requirement is that I’m able to eat at my study space. Being able to refuel your energy is important. If you’re at a library, pick a spot where a librarian can’t see you.

Depending on the individual, it may be necessary to have more than one study space. Using the same study space daily can grow tiresome and actually decrease productivity as you start dreading the “walk to work.” Always be looking for new study spaces because, come crunch time, there may not be a seat for you at the library.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

Step 20 to GTD Mastery is: I have all the office supplies I need (p. 92)

Page 92 in Getting Things Done refers to a list of tools for your work space.

Paper-holding trays (at least three)
A stack of plain letter-size paper
A pen/pencil
Post-its (3X3s)
Paper clips
Binder clips
A stapler and staples
Scotch tape
Rubber bands
An automatic labeler
File folders
A calendar
Wastebasket/recycling bins

You can see my paper-holding trays (with blank paper), writing tools, and post-its on my workspace.

I have decided on a paperless filing system thanks to the help of Marina Martin at Sufficient Thrust. A post will follow when my Fujitsu ScanSnap arrives. This eliminates the labeler and file folders.

My calendar is my cell phone. Currently, I need to buy some more staples.

The rest of the list can be seen in the picture below. I place the supplies in my desk drawers to avoid the clutter of bulky desktop storage. The garbage and recycling bins are within swivel distance of my desk.

And yes, my recycling bin is an Eggo Waffles box. I used to eat them religiously when I was younger.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

Step 19 to GTD Mastery is: I have a dedicated physical office space set up.

GTD Mastery 100 returns after a couple of weeks off. GearFire has added a few more writers to the team and I hope you are enjoying the fresh content.

Above, you can see my office setup on display. It’s not terribly exciting, but it gets the job done. You can click on the image which will take you to an interactive image on Flickr.

On the far left is my inbox discussed previously in the series. In front of it is my change holder. It automatically sorts my coins and has a holder for coin wrappers.

My supplies holder is at the centre (in black). It holds writing materials and a hole-puncher. To the right is a scratchpad and a document holder (in green). To the left is a dragon carving (my Chinese zodiac), a birthday card (given to me by my grandparents), and a Mickey Mouse woodblock (from a time when I didn’t know what GTD was).

My laptop and mouse are a Dell Latitude D630 and a Logitech VX Revolution respectively. I run dual screen with my laptop and external monitor. The Easy-Read book holder (review here) is stored on the top of my monitor and also serves as a document holder.

At the top is my bulletin board. I post inspirational articles on it. The GTD Mastery 100 checklist is on the bottom-right three papers.

Check out more workspaces courtesy of the Unclutterer Flickr group.

It’s almost a guarantee, no matter what your major, that your classes will eventually begin to overlap and build on each other. That is why it is so important to take full advantage of the work you’ve already put into past classes.

REUSING PAST PROJECTS

An important aspect of this system is the direct reuse of past projects. For example I remember taking an English class in which I needed to write a persuasive essay, in writing this essay I spent hours and hours researching a specific topic (in my case Nuclear Energy) and ended up doing very well on the paper. As a naive first year college student I discarded the paper once I received it back from the teacher. The next semester I needed to make a persuasive speech on a topic of my choice, and it hit me: I had already researched a topic (Nuclear Energy) the past semester and that there was no need to do it all over again. Fortunately, even though I had thrown away the paper, I had not deleted the file from my computer and was able to find it. Reusing the information I had previously found saved me hours of research and increased my confidence in the project because the original grade ensured the quality of my research.

REUSING PAST CLASSES AS A WHOLE

A chilling realization is taking a sequential class, such as calculus II, and discovering that you’ve forgotten most of calculus I. Fortunately, there is a very simple and effective way to avoid this problem and it consists of three steps:

1. Make sure you keep all of the tests/classwork/homework throughout a semester.
2. As you have each test in class, keep the relevant classwork/homework with that test and file it away.
3. At the end of the semester take each test and it’s appropriate classwork/homework and put it in a manila folder labeled for that class.

If you follow these three easy steps it saves an incredible amount of time backtracking in future classes, and makes reviewing entire classes worth of work organized and simple.

REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF WORK YOU SAVE

In the above step 2. I make it a point to keep the relevant work only. This is where the reducing part of this system comes into play. If you end up with a huge unordered pile of paper and just file it all away, you’ll likely waste a substantial amount of time sorting through to find what you want in the future. Reducing the clutter to only what is absolutely necessary for understanding is crucial in streamlining the entire process so that you can spend the most time concentrating on the class you’re actually taking.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

Step 18 to GTD Mastery is: I maintain a “Someday/Maybe list,” and regularly review and update this list during daily and weekly reviews.

Last week we talked about the weekly review in Step 17. One of the items on my weekly review checklist is to review my Someday/Maybe list. This involves two steps:

1) Transferring active projects to your project list. Did you find some time over the holidays to start brainstorming for your Great American Novel? If so, you should have a new item on your projects list. The same can be said for any project you’ve set in motion.

2) Deleting unwanted items. Has someone already written and published what you thought was the next Great American Novel? If so, it’s time to delete it from your Someday/Maybe list and go back to the drawing, or writing board, as the case may be.

When I started practising GTD, I would usually just skim over my Someday/Maybe list without any deep thought about the items stored there. This lead to the graveyard that is my first blog, ttGTD.

Today, writing for GearFire is proof of a fresh and inspiring Someday/Maybe list.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

Step 17 to GTD Mastery is: I have a weekly review scheduled for each week.

I have a reminder set up on my cell phone for 7:00 AM on Sundays. My family is still sleeping so I’m able to perform the weekly review free of distractions.

Ricky Spears posted a must-read article on “Why We Resist the Weekly Review and Plan (and What You Can Do About It)”. At the top of the list: it’s not on our calendar. When I first started GTD, I brushed aside my weekly review almost every week because I didn’t actually set an appointment with myself.

The next step was actually creating a list of what I wanted to do in my weekly review (next actions). gtdfrk’s weekly review checklist provided an excellent starting block. I customized it to fit my system and life.

You can read my favourite posts on weekly reviews at my del.icio.us page. It covers posts on personal development-oriented weekly reviews as well as the literal GTD weekly review.

For anyone still feeling intimidated by the weekly review, I’m going to finish off with a quote from Ricky,

The only wrong weekly review is no weekly review at all.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

I haven’t decided on a paper filing system yet, but your comments have been insightful. If you haven’t already, feel free to share your paper filing system here. You are on my waiting for list =D. Nevertheless, the journey continues.

Step 16 to GTD Mastery is: I only have physical actions on my Next Actions lists—no multi-step projects.

I used to struggle with this until I made pruning my next actions part of my weekly review. This prevents the “amorphous blob of stuff” that one of David Allen’s seminar attendees coined. Looking at my next actions list doesn’t make me cringe anymore.

Here are the posts that have helped me create effective to-do lists.

Merlin Mann on Building a Smarter To-Do List: Part 1 and Part 2
Gina Trapani on “The art of the doable to-do list“.

To read my complete journey to GTD Mastery see the main post.

This is going to be a different kind of post in the GTD Mastery series. Today, I’m asking our readers to help me with:

Step 15 to GTD Mastery: I have a paper file system which is fun and fast to use, perhaps using an automatic labeler.

That’s right. I don’t have a filing cabinet or an automatic labeler (waits for the gasps of horror to subside). I don’t have any significant volume of incoming paper in my life right now. Any physical paper items (e.g. newpaper articles and receipts) that I want to keep for reference are scanned and uploaded to my server and backed up. I have all my bank statements sent online and have setup online bill payments. I’ve kept a 3-ring binder for my each of my courses over the years and they are put in storage bins upon completion or thrown out.

Nevertheless, I foresee a need for a filing system in the future. I’d like to implement it before classes start again this Monday. I’d appreciate any recommendations and user experiences with your filing cabinet and labeler of choice.