Success At School

It’s the end of reading week at Hong Kong University (the more academic sounding equivalent of spring break.)

I got back to my dorm room at around 9:30 last night after an exhausting 15 hour flight from the states. I unpack and head straight to bed for about 10:30. My thoughts are on an 8 start to get through some work I need to do.

Needless to say, I can’t sleep. My body clock is a whole 12 hours behind the current time here. I fight it until about 4.30 when I decide I may as well get up and do something productive before the day starts.

Normally I am an early riser, comparatively speaking. Usually I would get up at around 8 and take myself off for a cup of coffee before everything kicks off. That being said 4.30 is definitely pushing it, even for me.

The positive thing of all this, and this is my point. Is that since 4.30, I’ve been able to get through my MIT’s for the day.

In his e-book Zen to Done, Leo Babauta talks about outlining the 3 Most Important Things (MIT’s) you need to get done everyday. He suggests you do this the evening before and handle at least one of them when you wake up the next morning.

The 15 hour plane journey gave me plenty of time to figure out my MIT’s for the day. And the early morning has meant I have been able to power through ALL of these tasks before 8 o’clock. Now I can get on with the day without these things hanging over my head. I can essentially take a guilt-free day off. Maybe I’ll start getting up at 4.30 more often.

Now I’m not saying that we should all rise before the sun does. I know that many people ‘are not morning people’ and I accept that. But just imagine getting up one maybe two hours earlier than you normally do and getting through one or more of your MIT’s. Then having the rest of the day off! (except of course for classes)

How do you structure your day? Do you like to handle the big tasks in the morning and get them out of the way. Or do you prefer to do them all in the evening? Leave a comment and let us know.

Those who know me and have sat around for long enough to hear me rant about social networking sites will know that I don’t, on principal, like them.

Personally, I feel a little uneasy about having so much personal information out on the web about me. And recently I have begun to think about the ‘digital footprint’ that we all leave behind. Emails, blog postings, social network sites, events, wall postings. Every piece of information we place on the internet will be kept in some form forever. If you don’t believe me then just look at Google’s mission statement.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Every piece of information you upload to the internet falls under this category and Eric, Larry and Sergei will do whatever they can to make it ‘accessible and useful’.

The reality is, unless we want to become a digital hermit, we can’t escape the fact that we will leave a footprint behind. What we have to do is ensure it is a positive one.

In the posting Six Productivity Tips to use Social Media, the Academic Productivity Blog gives some useful hints on how to leverage social networks to your benefit.

I’m interested to know what you think about social networks. Are they a great tool to build an maintain friendships or are they simply a way for the corporate bigwigs to spy on us? Leave a comment and let us know