Stumbles: Chumby

I stumbled across this new proto-type product on the net the other day and I think it’s just so wonderful that even though it’s not strictly related to student life I have to post it.

The Chumby has been described as a glorified alarm clock and I think that’s the best place to start with a description. It works as an alarm clock but also runs widgets which can gather information from the internet (via wi-fi), play MP3’s, access RSS feeds and e-mail and play flash animations and programs. You control the chumby by a squeeze mechanism hidden within the soft exterior.

According to the official website:

It’s designed to show pictures that your friends send you from their cellphones, and messages from your IM buddies, your blogs and social network sites. It can display your daily horoscope and the weather, and a whole community of artists and animators can send their creations around the chumby network to entertain you.

The best bit, however, is that the people who created it did what I wish more hardware manufacturers would do – create some really cool hardware and make it open so that users, having paid their money, can do what they like with it.

It’s not avaliable yet but they’re expecting a price of under US $150 and from what I’ve seen so far I’ll be picking one up when they become available.

Some interesting links:
Why the chumby was invented
A creators inside perspective
Home page
What is the chumby

Use your university’s resources

Todays tip is to use the resources your university offers. Most colleges/universities have two things on their websites and in the library/on campus: a study skills unit and a collection of books on studying and being a student. If you need help with your studies these guys are great to go to because, at least at my uni, there is a specific person for each faculty who can help you with your essay and exam techniques (not write the essay for you – just help). They know what the lecturers want and the standard of work expected so can help you understand this better too. If you’re too scared to talk to a real person then generally much of the information is on the internet which is easier to access. Along with this service practically every library (local or at your education provider) will have books on study skills. Try a keyword search for “study skills” and your faculty/major.

If your university doesn’t have such information available then others do have it. Here’s some links to some of the more useful school websites:

University of Victoria Learning Skills Program Handouts – I liked this article on concept maps
University of Chicago – a collection of many “virtual pamphlets” from lots of different institutions
University of Manchester – the information on self evaluation contains some useful stuff on knowing about your own learning style
Brunel University – a useful online electronic guide to “some of the best ways to study”
University of Sussex – general study-skill information
Study Guides and Strategies – not a university site but a very comprehensive site with lots of information about different ways to study for different subjects and various study systems

These are just a few of the many websites out there. A quick search of “study skills” and a university name will help you to find more.

Hope this helps.

Inbox Thoughts

I posted earlier this week about a new GTD program called Inbox (link). I’ve had a play with it and here are some of my thoughts on what is a very promising program.

When I first opened Inbox what jumped out at me was the clear and uncluttered display. The second thing was that it is very obviously beta. The third was that it’s a very, very useful application. It’s a bit like a big notebook with spots for saving information, spots for keeping current projects and spots for keeping track of the why – why are you doing this. It’s also got space to record the goals of projects which is a very good way of focusing when starting a project.

I had a quick play on it but it’s really too beta to use as an organisational tool for the moment but it’s certainly shown me the potentials of the GTD system  and illustrated what simple software is capable of. I’m hoping the final release will be freeware but I’m not so sure it will be. If it is, however, I’ll be sure to download it and it might even be the first productivity software which has kept me interested for more than fifteen minutes.

Useful time management tips site

This website has some really useful time-management tips from students. I’m not sure on the origin of the site but the information is certainly very useful. One tip which is timely, I think, given that it’s back-to-school time in the Northern hemisphere is this one:

University is different from school
If you have come straight from school then University life will be very different, because there is a lot more freedom. This will seem great at first, but you also learn that in a way, it becomes more difficult than school (I am referring to the mode of study rather than the content of the study), because what you must learn is no longer handed to you on a plate. You must self-manage your studies and research the topics yourself. It is very easy not to do much studying at all in the first year, unless you are very self-motivated. If you are not, then try to help yourself by reading as many books as you can from the reading lists for your modules, or any books that are relevant to your course, even if you are not specifically learning about it at the time. It is good to discuss the issues you read about with others on your course. You need to form personal views about subjects, because if you can somehow personally relate to a subject area, then you are more likely to understand it. Even though your study is self-directed, you can still ask a lecturer if you do not understand something. A lecturer can help you to understand more fully, and advise you on the best books to use for your research. It is often difficult to balance study with other aspects of life. For example, some students have part-time jobs and/or families to think about, other students who have neither of these factors, may instead enjoy socialising a lot (usually in pubs and clubs). I think that this too is an important part of University life and life in general. Making friends and social action is an important part of social integration, and may even be relevant if you are studying a social science. Interacting with people also means that you can then study together and help each other. However, there should be a balance between study and other aspects of your life. It can often be difficult to self-motivate, so a good strategy may be to make up a rough timetable of your week, which allocates specific time slots where you should sit down and do some studying. Ensure that this time is quality time where you can really concentrate, away from family and friends, the TV or the radio.

This is something I wish I’d known when I started at uni.

Organising your favourites using tips for e-mail

43 Folders pointed me in the direction of this article by Glenn Wolsey with six e-mail tips and while I was reading it it occurred to me that these tips would work equally as well with web favourites. Like many students, I don’t get 100’s of e-mails but I do do a lot of internet surfing (both study-related and extra-curricular). So here’s Glenn’s tips modified for use for keeping favourites or RSS feeds organised:

6. Don’t check websites constantly – do it every two or three hours instead. This way you can spend 10-20 minutes in blocks reading new information.

5. When saving favourites put them in folders – if there’s something you want to read later or need to try then have a folder just for that.

4. For things which you just want to keep and don’t have an action associated with them then file them – “study”, “work”, “information” etc.

3. Always file stuff! Don’t just end up with one big list.

2. Don’t keep stuff past it’s “use-by-date”. If you save an article to finish reading it later then delete it once you’ve read it if it no longer interests you.

1. I’m not sure how you’d filter internet favourites… any suggestions?

My System

I’ve said before that I find it much easier to look at the organisational systems of others and adapt them to my own life than I do to read about various theories. This is a brief outline of my own personal system in the hope it helps someone.

There are three main tools I use to organise my life. Number one is my hipster PDA. This was a tool “invented” by Merlin Mann of 43Folders and isn’t very complex but is very useful. Basically a hPDA is a stack of index cards held together with a bulldog clip. I also punch holes in the top corners of mine to hold it together with a ring-clip. The second is a pack of post-it notes and the third is a notebook.

The hPDA I use to write useful information which I will need later – reference numbers for books, lists of dates I need to remember (birthdays, assignment due dates and the like).

The post-it notes are used like the hPDA but for stuff which will later be put into my notebook. I started off using the hPDA for this but discovered that having bits of cardboard scattered through my notebook was annoying. Post-it’s a good for writing on in class because there’re small and easily accessable.

The notebook I use is a square-lined A5 book from Kikki-K (in Australia). Each day I write a list of things I need to do in that day (or just in general) and cross them off as I go (original, huh?). There’s also a monthly calendar for dates and random information I need to know as well as lists of books to read, information for this blog and generally my paper life.

Between these three tools I have all the stuff I need to keep my life in order. Hope this helps!

Technorati

I’ve now claimed my blog (or in the process of doing so) on technorati. This will hopefully bring more traffic to my site.

For the GTD fans

This is a mac only GTD program which I might actually start to use. I’ve tried kGTD and it never really kept me interested but this program looks really useful and easy to use. It’s only beta and only mac but looks really cool.

Link

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One for the windows users…

Before I was a mac user I was a linux user and before that I was a windows user so I’m a big fan of open-source software especially if it’s for windows because that’s partly what encouraged me to ditch windows. So here’s a list of open-source alternatives for popular windows programs. Some of them are just free not open-source but they’re still good and many of the open-source ones are multi-platform (OpenOffice, NVU, Gimp etc.)

Link

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Keeping a tidy desk

If your desk looks anything like mine then this article will be very useful – 10 tips for keeping your desk clean and tidy. Most of the stuff is about having A System but it’s also very interesting for little tips and tricks you can incorporate into your life and hopefully clean up your desk!

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