Organizing Long-Term Projects

Previous: Exams

Image courtesy of interllectual

So you have this huge project that your professor has assigned, that will be due at the end of the semester. “Oh, that’s three months away,” you think. “I have plenty of time.”

The “project” that I’m referring to is anything that involves multiple steps, and is not due in the next two weeks or so. In college, this is typically a final, end-of-semester project. Whether your project is a research paper, a thesis, or a working model of the solar system, you should probably sit down and do some planning. Otherwise, three months from now, you could be sitting down at you computer thinking, “Ok, 12 hours til this thing is due. How much coffee does it take before I can move at the speed of light? Oh, right, 100 cups.” This line of thought will then lead to a desire to watch some Futurama before working on your project, which will lead to you repeating the conversation with yourself, although this time you’ll be jittery and the time will be 8 hours.

The big question, then, is:

How can I plan this project in advance, and prevent the otherwise inevitable all-nighter?

List Your Steps

First, sit down and write out all the steps that will be required to complete this project. Every single little thing that has to get done, has to be written down. If you need to pick a topic, that is a step. If you need to read a section of the text and then write a response to it, these are two separate steps. Writing a paper should be broken up into specific sections to write, and editing/revising should always be separate from writing. Try to make your steps as small and unintimidating as possible. This way, when you have to complete a step, it won’t be a big, scary one, and you will be less likely to put it off.

It’s sometimes helpful to write down what materials you will need for each step, so you know what to gather before beginning to work.

Pick Due Dates

Next, go find a monthly calendar, preferably one you actually use. Find the project due date, and count back two days. Write that day down as the due date for the project. (I find tricking yourself to be pretty effective. No better way to finish a project early than to think it’s due before it actually is.)

For each of your steps, figure out a reasonable amount of time that you will devote to it, and choose a due date based on that estimate. Write down a due date for each step. Don’t have two things due on the same day, and choose a process of completion that makes sense. Write down these self-created due dates in your planner, and on your monthly calendar.

Stick to Your Due Dates

The problem with these due dates is that there is no one else to enforce them. If you need someone to help with accountability, ask a friend to check up on your progress periodically.

Rather than finding ways to punish yourself for falling behind, think of incentives for doing well. Every time you complete a step, allow yourself some small reward. Take the time to enjoy something, without thinking about how you should be doing something else.

Because five minutes of relaxation is all you may get for weeks.

Next: Types of Note-Taking

Why I Hated Mind-Mapping, And How I Overcame My Bias

Different people call them different things – mind-maps, webs, concept maps – but they really all refer to the same concept. The point of mind-mapping is to get all the information about some topic onto a piece of paper, and to use lines to connect them. It’s a graphical (pictoral) way of representing information. Of course, this is a good idea in theory, because the brain needs to make these connections in order for it to retain information. However, I always felt that mind-mapping is  for people whose brains work graphically. And mine doesn’t.

I am a very linear person. I like lists and outlines. When I take notes, I make lists of points, often with indenting to show sub-points. If I can, I actually go so far as to outline. (You know, the one with the Roman numerals, and the letters, and the numbers, that all have a specific hierarchy and lots of indenting. I love that.) I always assumed that mind-mapping just doesn’t work for my way of thinking.

To be honest, part of my prejudice against mind-mapping is probably due more to the fact that I’ve never been taught how to do it, than to it actually not working for me. I’ve never really done it. When I teach it to students at the tutoring center I work for, I glance over their work to see if they got the major points, then declare it “good enough” because I don’t really know what I’m looking for.

One of my classes this semester is a small Philosophy class. The professor runs it in a discussion-oriented format. We are reading An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume, and we sit in a circle and talk about it. Now, how am I supposed to take notes on a discussion?

I tried lists of points, but the problem is that it’s impossible to know if I should leave room after a point to add more information, because of course I can’t tell if someone will say something useful later. One day, my notes were simply a list of disjointed points, that probably won’t help me at all when I go back to them to study for the midterm.

Yesterday, I had an epiphany. I realized that mind-mapping is probably the perfect way to record information in a discussion-formatted class. I flipped a piece of notebook paper over on its side and wrote the topic of the day in the middle. As the class progressed, I added relevant information on the sides and connected them to the parent topic with lines. My result has all the information regarding a (very short) section of the book on one page, which I can go back later an turn into an outline, if I want.

This is the final result. I have a random point floating around in the bottom there because I wasn’t sure what to link it to. It’s not really related to yesterday’s topic, but it was important to remember for the future.

I know there are many websites and programs designed to facilitate this, but I don’t take my computer to class anymore. For one thing, I find that putting pen on paper goes faster than finding the right button to click to tell the computer what you want it to do (although I do type faster than I write). Also, as a general rule, if I have my computer, I’m not taking notes or even paying the slightest bit of attention to the class. Facebook and Twitter – they call.

I learned some things yesterday. First, I learned that I can’t discount a note-taking technique just because I’m not familiar with it. Second, I learned that sometimes new ways of doing things can result in better note-taking and, in turn, better recall.

Finally, I learned that it’s easier to draw rectangles around my points than the traditional circles. And it looks nicer.

Use a Planner

Previous: Textbook Survey

Who should be using a planner?

Image courtesy of Mike Rohde

Most people have some form of a calendar or planner where they (should) write down things that they need to remember. For students, this will be assignments; for those in the work force, this could be projects and meetings…but if you have a busy life (and maybe just if you have a life at all) you should be writing things down.

What needs to go in the planner?

First, what kinds of things should you be writing down? Everything. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Write down assignments, long-term projects, plans with friends, the fact that you need to call this person from that office about this thing, that person’s phone number, etc. Some people keep lists of books they want to read or movies they want to see. It may be useful to keep a list of important equations you use for class, or contact information for some people. Write down anything you want to remember.

When should you write in the planner?

Note that I did not say “Write down anything you don’t think you’ll remember.” Don’t trust yourself to remember something. That is one of the most important habits to break when starting to use a planner – stop saying “Oh, I’ll remember,” or even “Oh, I’ll write this down later.” It is very likely that you won’t. Write it down as soon as you think of it, or as soon as the teacher reminds you. This brings me to my next point: you should keep your planner in a very easily-accessible place.

Where should you keep your planner?

If you want, get something small enough that it fits in your pocket. If not, keep it in a front pocket of your backpack and get used to pulling it out. Sometimes I find it useful to take it out at the beginning of class and set it on the desk, just in case. Then as soon as you hear something you should write down, do it. Writing it down right away is the easiest way to ensure that you will remember it.

How should you use your planner?

Ideas for how to use a planner will vary from person to person. You can get one that has the days already written in, or you can get a plain notebook and format it in whatever way works best for you. There are two main things this planner should be able to do for you though.

First, it should keep short-term assignments (those due in the next week or so) easy to see. Many people like the weekly format so that they can see the whole week at a glance when they open their planner.

Also, it should enable you to organize long-term projects. At the end of the month, I will have a whole post dedicated to organizing long-term projects. For now, though, know that simply writing in the due date three months from now will not be helpful. You need to be making progress toward that goal every week. Figure out what steps you have to take and write them down in your planner during the week that you want to complete that step.

Next: Topic, Main Idea, and Detail

Why It Never Hurts To Ask

I believe I’ve mentioned before that I’m a music student. One of the implications of this is that my major does not require me to take enough upper-division (300 and 400 level) classes to satisfy the university’s requirements. Right now, one of the classes I’m taking is Counterpoint, which is not required for my major, but looked interesting. Fortunately, it turned out that it actually was interesting, and since it’s a two-semester course, I was looking forward to taking it again in the spring.

Senior Year Landslide

I’m slowly being crushed to death under the load of Senior Year of College.