Okay, so now he defeated corruption, what’s next? How is he going to lead the Philippines to rise to the ranks of Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the like? We are too focused on finding the savior to our never-ending corruption, but did we ever think of the other problems in the Philippines? Corruption is just one problem among the many other bigger problems here in the Philippines. Given his invisible track record, how can he transform Philippines into a Singapore? A Japan? A Korea? We do not need another Cory Aquino. Yes, she did have the morals, but she certainly did not have the competency. Instead, we need a Lee Kuan Yew. He transformed the once poor Singapore into one of the best countries not only in Asia but also in the whole world. We need someone who will not just fight corruption but lead our country to become one of the best.

This is why I am considering Gordon. The fact that he transformed Subic into one of the best places here in Philippines is something we cannot ignore. And if we talk about morals and integrity, we cannot deny that he worked for the Red Cross for around 40 years. He started helping Red Cross since 17 years old. This is a guy who has a proven track record plus the integrity that the Noynoy supporters keep emphasizing on. Gordon is a transformer. Though not in the leagues of Lee Kuan Yew and the like, he will certainly change the Philippines for the better. Arm him with Bayani Fernando and visionary Nicanor Perlas, and we have an unbeatable team.

Pissed.

So, why the hell am I starting early?

Well, first off, I am currently studying one of the most difficult majors out there in my university. And yes, it’s a technical degree. And as far as we know, technical degrees are way, way harder than non-technical majors. Whereas students can survive numerous paper writings and late-night rote memorization in liberal arts courses, students could not do the same with technical majors. Simply put, you cannot get an easy 4.0 with just doing hard work. In fact, one must put extra hard work, putting off sleep for many weeks. What’s worse is that no matter how hard they studied their asses off, they keep failing their subjects.

Given this situation, it is perfectly reasonable to start way, way early when it comes to studying for technical majors. In fact, it is not just studying early. It is getting to master the material as soon as possible. Most students try to delay their studying until perhaps a few days, or worse, the night before the test. These students underestimate the subjects so much that they always procrastinate over them. And thus, they fail. However, this is not just the case with late night procrastinators. Even those who start early can fail.

This is where I put my twist on studying for Hell Week. Aside from studying early, I will go more than just memorizing formulas unlike what everyone else does. Simply put, I shall delve more into insights. I shall develop insights per concept I chance upon in my subjects. Like what the venerable Cal Newport said in this article, we should gain insights for every concept that is taught in our technical subjects. That’s how straight-A students rock and roll. This is pretty much another reason why I should start early. I cannot just learn what the concepts mean in just one day. It would take perhaps a few or more. But as long as I am connecting more and more to my lessons, I should do fine.

Aside from learning the insights between the concepts, I will keep on practicing sample problems given by my professors. First and foremost though, I should put the foundation of insights before I tackle the practice problems. No matter how many practice problems I answer, they are worthless if I do not even understand what I am answering.

Now that I know what to do with my subjects, the next questions are where and when and how long should I do my work. As Cal Newport said in his red book, I should study in isolation, in the morning and afternoon, and for 50 minutes only with 10 minute breaks.

This is reasonable because first, we cannot just study in distracting places. Quiet, isolated places are the way to go. The garden below my room in my condominium is a good example. Greenbelt, The Fort, and Fully Booked (The Fort) are better. School locations are also ideal, but these locations can sometimes be depressing as they remind us of dreaded school stuff. Perhaps hanging out in some coffee shops near school could do, though usually these are bombarded with conyos, socialistas and the like. Yes, this especially includes the ever-famous-and-overrated Starbucks.

As for the time, morning and afternoon are perfect. In fact, I pretty much do all my work in the mornings and sometimes in the afternoons. Unfortunately, my Tuesday and Thursday afternoons end at 6, leaving my little time to review. Mondays and Wednesdays could work. As long as I do not hit 7 in the evening, I’m doing fine. The evenings are reserved for fun. Nevertheless, one advantage that my university offers is no classes on Fridays. Having nothing to do on a Friday, this gives me the whole day except evenings to do my work. Then again, since I am doing ridiculously early studying, this would be no problemo.

Lastly, 50 minutes with 10 minutes break in between studying is also reasonable. Most people usually spend 6 hour marathon sessions in the library. Sometimes, they would bring their friends, bottles of Coke, and pizza as well so they can suffer the misery of college life. I, on the other hand, do not permit to do so. Since my aim is to be a low-stressed student, I will study for 50 minutes per work, then take a 10 minute break doing some non-academic stuff (Like spying on chicks maybe? Kidding.), then return to my work. Plus, by not working altogether in the evening, this gives me time to relax my night off. Perhaps I could go watch a movie with friends, surf the Net, or rant about how Noynoy is a big fat douchebag and that he can suck my dick. Yeah, Noynoy, you heard that.

Another big problemo also coming my way these following weeks are a string of dreaded tests and projects. So, in addition to my ridiculously early preparations, I shall do another set of ridiculously early preparations for my projects, assignments and tests. I hope I would not lose my mind from this. One thing’s for sure though: I won’t be as stressed as my peers.

In conclusion, I sure have a deadly Hell Week coming, and not to mention a string of numerous major projects to give us a lot bigger headache even before the Hell Week starts. But through proper preparation and execution, I do not think I would suffer as much unlike most of my overloaded peers. And by the time Hell Week starts, I can breeze my way into scoring my A’s (hopefully), while the others lament at the difficulty of their course and thus switch to Advertising. Just kidding. So that concludes my post for today.

On a side note, I am going to drop two of my major subjects next term all right. My university sure likes screwing with students of my degree. No wonder why we are called the college that never sleeps. Sigh. Well, then that means I am going to make my university the college that never sleeps!

Over the last few months during my semester break, I happened to land into a site that I never expect will change the way I will treat my academic life. Enter Study Hacks, arguably one of the most popular blogs about college life. The site is headed by Cal Newport, an MIT postdoc and author of two highly successful advice guides, How to Become a Straight-A Student, and How to Win at College. Most of his articles are centered around how to be a better student by doing less.

What I liked about this site is that Cal Newport provides simple yet effective techniques on how to study. His posts range from effective study techniques to tried and tested time management systems, while his later posts are more centered on how to live an impressive life.

His blog also lives by the philosophy of the Zen Valedictorian. The Zen Valedictorian, whom I aim to become, is the epitome of student productivity. He is widely accomplished in his major and extracurricular. He is the missing link between the grind, the slacker, and the failed grind. One usually thinks that being a grind and being a slacker do not mix, but the Zen Valedictorian proves otherwise. By being a Zen Valedictorian, one can earn straight A’s while spending late nights partying and doing other interesting activities. Read more on these articles to get a clearer view on what it takes to be a Zen Valedictorian.

Okay, so what’s the technique?

Anyway, by now you’ll be asking, what is this one simple technique that will end all our procrastination?

Well, here it is.

In this article, Cal Newport states that most students use the to-do list when it comes to planning out their day. To-do lists may look effective, but on the contrary, they are actually not. In fact, according to Cal, to-do lists are dangerous. So what is a better alternative to this ineffective planner?

Basically, the premise here is we shouldn’t use daily to-do lists. Instead, we should use time blocking.

So, what exactly is time blocking?

Before we talk about time blocking though, let us first know why a daily to-do list is not the ideal solution to our procrastination problems.

As Cal Newport notes in his article, daily to-do lists are a “terrible daily planning tool”. This is because daily to-do lists fail to incorporate two important things: (1) how long each task requires, and (2) how much and where your free time is available during the day. Without these two things, one is bound to be clueless as to how to tackle his tasks throughout the day.

In Cal Newport’s article, he further explains why daily to-do lists are ineffective tools when it comes to planning out our day. He shows us a brief picture on how one tackles the day using a daily to-do list:

How one tackles the day through a daily to-do list

In the picture above, we can clearly see that without clear planning, one is bound to procrastinate until sometime later after dinner to do all of his tasks. He underestimates his tasks as he does not know how much and how long each tasks take. Usually, one finishes some of his tasks by midnight. However, he was not able to finish the others. Thus, the result is the typical bleary-eyed student pulling off all-nighters just to get his tasks done but to no avail.

The Solution

So how does one solve this underlying problem concerning daily to-do lists? This is where time blocking fits in. So what the hell is time blocking? According to Cal Newport, time blocking is “assigning specific times on your schedule for when you want to complete specific tasks.” Using this approach, one can experience the benefits almost immediately. As Cal Newport states in his article:

1. Starting from your schedule, you are more likely to take advantage of smaller chunks of time open earlier in the day. (Chunks you would have otherwise wasted).
2. Assigning work to times reduces the urge to procrastinate. You are no longer deciding whether or not to work during a given period; the decision is already made.
3. You are more likely to fit in urgent small tasks between the bigger time-consuming tasks.
4. Over time, the technique will increase your ability to predict how much time work really requires — leading you to start things early enough to get them done without late night pain.

Here is a picture detailing how one plans his schedule through time blocking:

How one tackles the day through time blocking

In this picture, we notice how one makes use of the available time in the morning and afternoon. This leaves his evenings free of any looming tasks in his to-do lists. Hence, he needs not worry about missing his late-night parties.

Conclusion

Since the start of this semester, I have been incorporating time blocking in how I tackle tasks. I make use of the Google Calendar to time-block certain parts of my free time to do my work. So far, I have been very effective. I complete most of my tasks in the morning. This leaves my afternoon and evenings void of any tasks on the list. As a result, I never spend late nights doing my assignments, minimizing the risk of getting too bleary-eyed. Instead, I spend my nights surfing, doing Facebook, listening to music, reading blogs, etc., while others spend the whole night cramming their assignment, producing half-baked results. Another good thing here is flexibility. With the use of Google Calendar, I can easily switch the schedule of my time blocks in case there are some interruptions or anything. Through time blocking, I also know how long each task takes. I learned that I actually do most of my assignments in a span of 30 minutes to an hour, though I do these tasks chunk by chunk, hence the short time span. In addition, by working in the morning, I am able to focus better as my energy is highest in the morning. In addition, I get zero procrastination in applying time-blocking, because once I time-block my task on a specific time, I am bound to do that task once and for all. No delays, whatsoever.

But of course, one of the best things I received from this simple technique is seeing late-night statuses of my friends on Yahoo! Messenger saying things like “Cramming”, “Studying”, “Procrastinating”, etc., while I am dressing myself up for a party later tonight, knowing well enough that I had finished what ought to be done already a few days ago. (Just kidding, I ain’t going to any party tonight. But that pretty much sums up the benefits of time-blocking.)

Credits to Cal Newport for giving this effective advice!