Your To-Do List: Five Things That Can Change Your Life

[Read Time (Total): 5 minutes]

It’s pretty much programed in the human race that we usually don’t fix the things that are bothering us until we’ve been overwhelmed by them. Problem is, by the time it comes, we’ve put up with the stress of the thing for so long that by the time we can’t stand it anymore, it’s usually too late and something bad has happened. The hard part, it often seems, is telling the difference between what needs to be dealt with now and what just isn’t going to cause a problem. This post will help you stay on track without having to re-examine your entire life.

Here are my top five things you can do to stop yourself from being overrun by forces that feel like they’re out of your control. They relate to life in general and might seem random, but they will strengthen your immunity against stress and help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.

Productivity Tips and Free Time Management: How to Create a System That Works For You

[Read Time (Just Reading): 14 minutes]
[Read Time (Doing It): 2-6 hours]

(Recommended: Read then set aside half a day)

If there’s one complaint I hear more than any other it’s, “I never have enough time to do everything I want.” Now there are special circumstances for which this is true–taking 21 credits of college classes, interning, studying for the LSAT, and working 40+ hours per week all at the same time, for example–but 95% of  these complaints about not having enough time are actually just a result of a lack of organization. And that’s a good thing because it means you can easily fix it.

I tend to use my own situation for the example in these posts because I use myself as a guinea pig for hundreds of experiments every year to figure out what works and what actually changes behavior. I’m also what I can most accurately measure and it gives me a frame of reference from which to recommend certain strategies–I’m not just obsessed with talking about myself, though you could probably make that argument.

In any case, this subject will be separated into multiple posts because it’s such a huge topic. In this part I will be using my organizational system as an example for you of how to make your own.

My average week consists of:

• A 3.5-day weekend with lots of free time (However, this last term I unfortunately filled this time with work. More on this later.)
• 7-8 hours of sleep per night
• Extremely low stress levels
  
• 12 credit hours of intense 400 level college courses
• 15 hours of studying for school
• 20 hours of work
• 5-10 hours of work for The National Crittenton Foundation (private consulting)
• 10-20 hours devoted to my Conflict Resolution Center internship
• 10 hours spent exercising (spread of 6 days)
• 1-5 hour spent working on blog posts
• 2 hours spent researching productivity strategies/tools

Let me first say that not only is this schedule possible (it IS actually my schedule after all), but it allows for quite a bit of chill-out time and is very low-stress–eliminating stress is the topic of an upcoming post. If you’ve read any of my other articles I apologize for sounding like a broken record but putting together a schedule like this is a moderate amount of work initially but nowhere near the amount you think it will be. In the end it will end up being far less work than you’re putting in now because it will run itself.

The Smart Shopping List: How to Shop Cheap, Eat Well, and Add Hours to Your Week

[Read Time (Total): 5 minutes]
[Read Time (Bold): 2 minutes]

Spending too much on groceries every week? Well here’s a guide for the tight-budgeted on how to save money at the stores by buying healthy, scrumptious, and quick/easy to make food.

The average American adult spends $150-200 per month on groceries. If you were to look through one of these average shopping carts you would find the majority of it is frozen, packaged, preservative-laden food.

One approach, particularly common in poorer regions as well as among the college crowd, is to survive on a diet consisting mainly of Top Ramen, dirt-cheap boxed noodles, and eggs. On this diet you could easily get your grocery bill down to about $60/person/month but the money you save isn’t worth the tremendous consequences…unless you don’t mind major health problems and a shorter life…

By adapting the following short process to fit you, you can get the following results:

• Add 4 hours to every week
• Reduce stress
• Reduce the amount of effort you put into cooking/eating
• Effectively and sustainably follow your diet
• Lower risk of heart disease
• Increase your lifespan

Effective Study Skills: Get the Most From Your Class Time

Read Time (Total): 11 minutes

Anything can be learned, practiced, and mastered. Anything. Period.

Here, you will learn the skills you need to master your schoolwork, but the true benefit towers over mere schoolwork. These tools and strategies are ones that will help you get the most out of almost any situation that allows for learning….so almost any situation. Do something the right way the first time and you won’t have to waste time with stupid corrections that leave your results mangled and incomplete.

There’s no mystical wall between you and good grades/effective learning; just like anything else, study skills need to be learned and practiced and the best part is, it doesn’t take long.

Note: This GPA trend is from one of the top private college prep schools in Oregon which doesn't mean anything in itself but the students are most definitely pushed very hard by great teachers and challenging material.

[Click graph for bigger version]

This is my middle-high school GPA trend. As you can see, my per term GPA jumped from a 3.2 to a 3.7 after Winter Break of my Junior year, increased to a 3.9 by my last high school term, and up to 4.0 my next term in college. I didn’t all of the sudden get smarter. I sat down during that break and came up with a study system with an emphasis on testing methods and using what works. Here’s what happened and how to do it yourself.