Medical School = Change

As I sit here on this beautiful Monday morning I realized that what do here is going to have to change.  I have really enjoyed sharing many of my thoughts on personal productivity as a student, and I hope that I have given some of you out there some interesting concepts and tools to toy with.

However, I was recently accepted into medical school meaning my entire game is about to change.  My four years at the undergraduate level at the University of Kansas were spent studying business administration, entrepreneurship as well as the inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, biology and physics necessary to take the MCAT (medical college admission test) and to be eligible to apply to medical schools.  On top of that, I maintained three part time jobs, and honed my productivity skills.

These skills are still relevant, of course, but like I said, my game is about to change big time.  Medical school means I get to take 110% of the energy I have put into work and school and focus them all on one target.  I am excited for what that means for me, and I am excited for what that means for this site.  I look forward to continuing to share some of my insights on personal productivity and focus tactics and tools for students, but I also realize that my time has just become a lot more scarce, or at least it will be in July when I start classes and KU Med.

I also realize that my focus is about to narrow tremendously.  With that, I feel like I have been given a great opportunity to share with up and coming pre-medical students, and in the future medical students, residents, and my fellow physicians when that time finally arrives.  So, while I love the work I have done here, I expect the broader analysis will subside somewhat to make room for my new life in the medical world.  I have already begun work and new project entitled “Med School Chronicles” where I hope to add value to the afore mentioned parties very, very soon.

Filed under: TheMacStudent

Why I Switched to Things from OmniFocus

The very first post here at The Mac Student was about todo managers.  I personally hold that a good todo manager that fits your brains style of organization is the most important part of an optimized workflow.  In that post I didn’t really commit to using any one task manager over the other.  The point was to share 2-3 of my favorites of the time and let the audience decide which was right for them.

However, shortly after using that article I did finally commit to OmniFocus, which I used up until 2 weeks ago.  Maybe it was simply me getting bored with software and looking for a change, or maybe there was something else there.  I switched to Things, coincidentally the first task manager I used on the Mac right before reQall and OmniFocus.  Yes, I went back to my first and I have to say, it feels go to be home.

OmniFocus is such a great task manager, and I still wonder why it is that I felt compelled to leave the confines of the OmniSphere, and take my tasks elsewhere when things were really working just fine for me there.  One big reason, and perhaps the least relevant as far as function is concerned, is the user interface.  By and large, OmniFocus is ugly.  It is cluttered and complicated.  Now, like I said earlier, it works great and it does its job well, however, there is something to be said for the clean lines and sleek design of Things.  It is just a program that I want to spend more time in, plain and simple.

I eluded to the complexity of OmniFocus earlier.  It is a power user app for the power user.  While a regular Joe might be able to get the right kind of functions out of it, the price tag isn’t worth it for that person.  What you really pay for is the complexity which is great if you know how and or want to go there.  For me, someone who mentors to other students and needs to find the best happy medium between functionality, price and usability, OmniFocus had developed into the red headed step child that really didn’t fit in with the rest of the tools in my arsenal.

So what do you loose when you switch to Things?  Quite a bit actually.  There are many layers of complexity in OmniGroups app to discover, and many layers I probable never took full advantage of.  However, these losses haven’t really bothered me.  There were some features in OmniFocus that I used in order to standardize my entries that I am doing just fine without.  Using Things is different.  After about 20 minutes with the app you have pretty much seen it all, and as such, it is very easy to wrap your head around it and get to work.  I feel like a task manager should really get out of the way and let you get to your tasks.  Isn’t that the point?  Sometime OmniFocus was a task in and of itself.

The HUGE missing feature in Things that is almost a deal breaker is the lack of over-the-air sync.  You have to be on the same local network when you launch the app to get your updated tasks.  This is such a problem, and has almost had me switching back to OmniFocus in the few short weeks I have been using Things.  If I have added 5 tasks for the day on my Mac, I don’t want to have to remember to pull the iPhone out and sync things before I leave the house.  I should not have to do that.  OmniFocus can sync via WebDAV and MobileMe so you can make changes on the iPhone or Mac and they are automatically synced from anywhere.  Cultured Code developers have said that they are working on this, but it has been far too long in my opinion.  I think they should roll out some kind of awesome Things web service and provide over-the-air sync and web access to tasks through that for free just for all the trouble.

So there you have it, I switched from the more robust OmniFocus to the simpler and more elegant Things.  While Things does have some issues, I feel that it is a better fit for more people, and so far I have been very happy with the move.

Filed under: GTD, iPhone, Mac, Organization

Taking Notes on the Mac

This last semester I decided to start searching for a note taking application for the Mac.  Because essentially all of my important data lives on my Mac, it makes sense to keep my notes there as well.  There are some situations that require a pen and paper solution, like some science classes that involve extensive sketching, but most classes and meetings in todays world involve a powerpoint presentation and or handwritten notes on a screen somewhere that can be most effectively captured via the keyboard of a laptop.

Given how easy it usually is to find great solutions for educational applications on the Mac, I was a bit surprised at how hard it actually was to find something that fit my few meager requirements:  the ability to annotate PDF files, to embed many filetypes, an intuitive outline structure, and easy organizational features.

After playing with about 5 different applications, I decided on Notebook, which is developed by Circus Ponies.  I was looking for a free solution, but the free solutions I tried were either too feature lean to meet my standards, or to buggy to rely on day to day.  Most of the other applications I tried can be found here, and you may find that one of these alternatives suites your personal style of note taking better.

What I like about Notebook is that you can create new notebooks for different situations.  For example you can have a different notebook for each class.  Each notebook can then have multiple dividers to keep chapters or topics separate.  It really just depends on how the user likes to have things structured.  You can drag and drop most any file type into the page and it will embed it.  The way it embeds can be as simple as a link, to a slideshow of a set of powerpoint slides, or it may ask you if you would like to embed it for annotation.  I do wish the annotation features were a little more fleshed out.  As of now if you embed a PDF version of a powerpoint presentation it will make a page for each slide, whereas I would like to have all the slides on one page so I can have one page for each meeting.

Still, overall, Notebook is the front runner in my opinion for keeping track of you class notes.  There is a very detailed tutorial/review available here, which may help you to get started using all of the great features available.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Minimalist Travel

I found this article over at ZenHabits.  It discusses taking a minimalist approach to your traveling, meaning taking just the bare essentials.  However, this doesn’t mean you have to leave out the things that you need to keep connected or productive.  I recently returned from a 2 month adventure through Europe, so I was confronted with this same issue.  Another layer of difficulty in my case arose because I was planning for what was essentially 3 different trips in one.  1/3 of the trip I would be living on a campus taking classes while the second 1/3 was essentially backpacking and the final phase was a more traditional resort and sightseeing trip.

This may the the same situation that many readers are in.  If you are a student planing on studying abroad at some point in your educational career, you will have to make the choice to either travel light and have fewer backup plans or travel heavy and loose agility and the ability to easily blend into the local culture.

I can echo almost everything from the ZenHabits article having planned my packing and travel with the same minimalist principles.  I used this backpack.  I also carried a smaller daypack that I packed inside my main pack.  I would leave the main bag behind in the hotel or a train station locker and just bring the small bag out for the day.  This allowed me to become even more mobile when I didn’t need to carry all my belongings with me.

If you have your bag picked out, the next phase is packing it.  Here is the rule: 22 lbs maximum!  That is not a lot of weight, but it is about the maximum you will want to have on your back all day long when moving to a new town, and it is the maximum carryon weight on all of the discount European airliners.
Packing for 22 lbs may require some tough decisions on your part.  Here is a list of what I filled my 22 lbs with: daypack, light rain jacket, 4 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of linen pants, 4 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of walking shoes (not really packed because I wore them all the time), flashlight, iPhone, USB headphones for Skype, digital camera, Kodak zi6 HD video camera, travel size toiletries in a caddy (ziplock bag will work for this), pen, travel clothesline, MacBook, and a good book.

Thats not a lot of stuff, but with the multi-purpose MacBook and iPhone as well as the fact that the clothes were all neutral colors so they all matched each other, it made it very do-able.  If I had to adjust that packing list I would also probably remove the USB headset because the built in mic and a set of earbuds would have sufficed.  Also, last summer I had the original iPhone which had no video.  Now, with a 3G S, I may have been able to get by without the HD camera and my 8 megapixel digital camera.  Although the collection of HD video is nice to have.

The point is that you don’t have to choose between having the stuff you need on your trip and being bogged down with gear.  If you are smart, you can have the best of both worlds.  It was a very satisfying feeling when I got off the bus with my fellow students in Italy on the first day and while they were all struggling to get their 3 suitcases off the bus and up the stairs, me and my one bag had already found our room and made it down for an early dinner.

Filed under: Lifestyle, Organization, Travel , Apple, iPhone, Light, MacBook, Minimal, Packing, Packing Light, Travel

Get Answers, then Get on with Things

There are so many answer websites out there that it can be hard to decide which one is going to give you the information you need. You have Yahoo! Answers, wikiAnswers, Answers.com and on and on. One service that has been flying under the radar but that has a very dedicated community of answerers, myself included, is Aardvark.

When you sign up for Aardvark you tell it what kinds of questions you would like to answer.  This is where the networking aspect of Aardvark is played out.  Each member is considered knowledgeable on a set of topics that they have chosen.  When someone ask a question, only members who are familiar with the topics are presented the question to answer.  That keep people answering questions they feel they know something about and giving you direct access to a network that can help you.

Because of the directed approach to matching questions with the right answerers, Aardvark can return results extremely fast.  They claim that most answers come within 5 minutes of the question being asked and then vast majority of the rest are answered in under 10 minutes.  These times depend on how many people in your network are on and answering questions, but the fact that you can expect to get an answer to you question from someone who knows their stuff in under 5 minutes is pretty astounding not to mention very valuable.

You can ask for tips, recommendations, research questions advice, etc., and expect to get answers you can more or less trust to be accurate or at least get you started in the right direction.

So what makes Aardvark really stand out?  Well, if you have been around here for a while you know that one feature to any service that puts it into another level in my book is an iPhone app.  Aardvark has a great iPhone app.  You can log in and Aardvark will immediately let you ask a question.  When it gets the answer it emails it to you as well as displays it in the app.  It also gives you questions to answer based on what you know.  It is actually pretty fun to get on every once in a while and answer some questions.  You will be exercising your brain and helping someone out at the same time.  Hey, you know this stuff, and it is always fun to talk about what you know.

When you combine the iPhone app with their newly re-designed website at Vark.com, you have a formula for a very compelling questions answering service.  Check it out, get your question answered and then get back to work.

Filed under: iPhone, Productivity

Why Students Should be Using Dropbox

I am always looking for ways to improve the way I manage my files.  From experimenting with multiple to using different folder systems, or even downloading preference pane add-ons and or full blown applications, I definitely expose myself to as many tools as I can for keeping things organized and backed up.

I am a huge proponent for Time Machine, which is built into OS X, for backing up files, but I have really wanted a way to also backup to the cloud.  A motto I truly believe in these days is that “If it isn’t in two places, it doesn’t really exist.”  This of course speaking of all of your digital files.  I am starting to think though that it should be increased to three places.  You should try to keep your files locally on your machine, backed up to an external drive and also backed up off site either on another drive or in the cloud if possible.

There are a ton of services out there for getting your data secured off site, but most of them come with a large price tag.  Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Carbonite and many more companies are offering a solution.  However, I, like most students out there, am not in position to drop $50+ up front for storage space.

What I have found is that Dropbox meets most of my needs.  DropBox is great because it creates a folder on your computer, Mac or PC, that is constantly being synced with the Dropbox servers.  That means any file you drop in or save to that folder is automatically uploaded to DropBox and then pushed out to any other device you have Dropbox installed on.  This can be multiple computers or even your iPhone via the free DropBox app.

Not only will Dropbox sync files between your machines, but it allows you to share files with other, great for group projects.  You can have everyone on the team save their files to a shared folder you create.  For you, these files will show up on your computer locally, and the rest of the group will have access via the Dropbox website.

You get 2GB of data for free, which isn’t enough to store your media files, but is probably enough to handle your current documents.  I like to keep a copy of only my most recent documents in Dropbox.  The way I handle my folders on my mac make this all very easy.  I put together a video below to show a way to keep your latest files ready to be accessed from where ever you are.  Enjoy.

Link to download the needed automator action Sync Folders.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Making Twitter Useful Again

Ahh Twitter.  Once a web 2.0 haven for the geeks and tech savvy is now the mainstream phenomenon of 2009.  Everyone has a twitter account.  Your mom has one, your bank, your apartment complex, your professor, CNN, and everyone.  This is actually a good thing.  The more information that can be amassed in the stream, the more likely it is that you, the user, will find the information you need.

Twitter is good for that, or at least it used to be.  Everyone is on Twitter and therefore if you aren’t on Twitter you are missing out on resources that everyone else is taking advantage of.  But you are already on Twitter, because everyone is on Twitter.

Here is the problem:  A major trend in the “Twitterverse” is this follow-if-followed rule.  Basically it is rude not to follow someone if they follow you.  I take major issue with this.  You will see that a vast majority of the people who follow you  are following about 1000 more people than are following them, and they are in the 10,000 or so of range of both.  This is because they look for people to follow who they know will follow them back, as is customary today, and they are always a bit ahead of the re-follwing curve, thus less followers than people they follow.  There are even websites devoted to finding for you the individuals who are most likely to follow you back.  So they just go following and following random people, which at the end of the day equates to more followers for them.

But is this really a good use for Twitter?  Here is the reality: when someone like this follows you they have absolutely no interest in you, what you have to say, or what you might contribute back to the community.  They are looking to pad their stats.  It’s like forward throwing the basketball off the backboard over and over again to get more rebounds.  The player doesn’t care about the game, nor do his rebounds help the team.

Twitter can be a very valuable tool when used as originally designed.  You follow people whom you feel can provide you value, and you yourself provide value back to the community.  People will follow you if they feel they can gain something from you.  What is the point of having 15,000 followers if none of them care what you have to say?  What is the point of following 15,000 people if you can’t get any value out of your stream because it is so cluttered with trash?  And, by the way, all those people who are following you are in the same boat.  Twitter becomes a popularity contest and looses its value.

The solution?  Go through your following list today.  Look at each person you are following and ask, “do I have any idea who this is, what they usually talk about, or what value they add?”  Once you have your ridiculous following count down to a manageable number, you will find that you actually check Twitter for valuable information from people you trust to deliver it to you instead of glancing at 300 random tweets from whatever small subset of people happen to have said something within the last millisecond.  And by the time you figure out that you have no idea what you are looking at, a new set of 300 useless tweets will have hit the front door.

Some will still argue that this is just the way Twitter is, and that there are plenty of 3rd party ways to whittle down the junk to find what is important, but the problem is many people new to Twitter are more mainstream and wont be able to figure that stuff out.  So they are stuck with Twitter as it is now: a group of people stroking their egos.  Let’s make Twitter better.

Filed under: Communication , Communication, Organization, Twitter

Google Wave Invites

If you read my earlier post about Saying Goodbye to Traditional Email, then you know a little something about google wave.  This could be big folks and I want everyone to get the chance to try this out.  I don’t have any invites left and I am currently getting a feel for the system myself, but I did discover a sit today that may be able to help the rest of you.

There is a new site that just launched called the Google Wave Invitation System.  Basically it is a trading site for people with extra invites to give away.  So, if you have some of these invites, go there and sign up as a giver, and if you need an invite, sign up as a receiver.  Your name gets thrown on the list with a protected version of your email address and hopefully you will get lucky enough to get an invite to Google Wave thrown your way.

Good luck everyone.

Filed under: Communication, Organization , Communication, Email, Google, Google Wave, Organization

Your Second Brain

We could all use a second brain in our lives.  Sure the brain is a fascinating organ capable of storing terabytes upon terabytes of information, but the human brain does not handle data as simply as, say, a hard drive or a dictionary.  Those things are static and the brain is a dynamic living organ.

Not only can the brain have its information removed or replaced, but we only use about 10% of its capacity in the first place.  Unfortunately, as modern students, a lot of what our professors require of us is stuffing our brains with information that is useful only for passing the exam.  This practice is unfortuate, but with larger class sizes at major universities, small group problem based learning (PBL) session can be logistically impossible.

With the constant onslaught  of facts, figures, tables, diagrams, flow charts, slides, flash cards, handouts, PDFs, novels, ball and stick models, spreadsheets and the like, it would be nice to know that we had some second brain available for us to store some of this information.  While this second brain might not help us pass the exam, it is sure to make the everyday information we would rather not forget, remembered.

This ideal second brain would be easily accessed, wherever we are.  Every once in a while it would be nice to just take a nice brain dump into the second brain, and then have the peace of mind that our random thoughts have been stored, indexed, and made ready for later access.  It would help us to remember EVERYTHING.

There is a great tool that I think all student should use for remembering the little things that make life harder if forgotten.  That tool is Evernote.  Evernote is a cloud based service that allows you to “clip” information that is then synced to the online server and then back out to any point of access you have set up.

You can clip website contents (via browser plugins), files or folders (via the desktop application), mobile audio or pictures (via mobile phone apps like the one for the iPhone) and more.  The best thing about Evernote is that it can really be tailored to fit the kind of remembering the individual user needs the most.  I have compared my setup of notebooks and categories in Evernote with those of my friends and there are invariably always major differences, things I never thought of.

The best way to explain Evernote is to give examples of usage.  Lets say you are late to class or a group meeting and you forgot something important you need to remember.  You might not have the time to look down and type that information into your to-do manager like OmniFocus, Things, or reQall, but you can record a quick voice note with the iPhone app.  This voice note will be shot up to the server and dropped into your default notebook.  I call mine the “brian dump” notebook.

If you are tired of all the membership cards and IDs you carry around every day, take a picture of the front and back of each of them and then leave them behind.  You can always get to them via Evernote mobile or online and since Evernote can search text in images, you will even be able to search for the card you are looking for.

Use Evernote to record the audio during lecture (with the instructor’s permission of course) and then play it back for yourself when you are re-reading notes later.

With so many ways to help you remember all the things you need to remember, there is no reason to to get Evernote on as many devices as you can.  If you know it is always there, then you will be more comfortable with trusting your memories with it.  Give it a try, it’s free.

Filed under: Mac, Organization

Quick Tip: Facebook Lite

Facebook tip-toes the line between useful tool and complete garbage.  Every student I know is on Facebook.  Therefore I am on Facebook because you have to go where the people are to make sure you have a network in place to use to your advantage.  If you treat Facebook as a tool, then you can use it as a source of information, communication, and network building.

However, there has never before been a tool that has so much utility that is also laced with such overwhelmingly useless noise.  No, I don’t want to be in your mafia war, no, I don’t want a piece of “flare, no, I don’t want to take another quiz, and no, I don’t want to vampire bite people.

While there is no absolute solution for making Facebook less annoying, try browsing to lite.facebook.com instead of your regular page.  It’s cleaner so you can get what you need and get on with your life.  You can find my Facebook lite page at http://lite.facebook.com/brandon.s.pope

Filed under: Uncategorized