Web 2.0 Apps to Improve a Student's or Professor's Productivity
Being productive and getting things done both rely on planning and being organized. But with the hustle and bustle of courses, it's sometimes easy to forget what you have to do and when. So here are some Web 2.0 applications (mostly free) that should help you on your quest as a student or professor in being productive.
The idea is that these applications will in some way increase productivity and/or reduce time taken for specific tasks. Thus, some companies are more heavily represented because their products are designed for productivity.
Education-Specific Tools
These Web 2.0 tools were designed specifically for students, educators, and/or parents.
Chalksite. http://www.parishdata.com/chalksite/
Chalksite handles some of the administrative tasks of courses, such as managing grades and assignments, and communicating with students.
Students: View class assignments, your grades, or discuss homework problems.
Professors: Set up workspaces for each class you teach. Add your students to the list and invite them automatically by e-mail. Post assignments, attendance, and grades. Assignments can have files attached that students can view. Chalksite also has messaging one-on-one or by group, as well as discussions similar to Web site commenting. Educators can also connect with parents and create teacher Web pages.
Schoopy. http://www.schoopy.com/
Schoopy is a classroom organizer application that also allows school Web pages to be created. It's aimed more at public schools than colleges, though it can still be of use. Parents can register and access the appropriate Schoopy account for a school, as well as participate in discussions. It's similar in spirit to Chalksite but also allows the creation of online communities and the designation of users as leaders or participants.
CollegeRuled. http://collegeruled.com/
CollegeRuled is primarily for students, allowing them to create their class schedules, participate in discussions on class message boards, and link to schedules from Facebook. Students can also manage tasks for each class, to keep track of notes and assignment due dates.
1 . Set times & plan your day
Not many people are going to work well without some structure. Waking up in the morning without any sense of direction for what needs to be done, or what you’re going to do that day is a recipe for disaster.
Start scheduling or setting daily milestones. If you don’t work best on a “hour based plan’”such as writing a guest article from 1PM to 2PM, set milestones for the day—one guest blog post, do all client marketing reviews, two blog posts on my personal site, complete client design, etc.
2. Keep an organized to-do list
When you’re juggling half a dozen projects at once, you’re just asking for trouble by keeping a to-do list in your head. Don’t you want to be able to sit down in the evening and have a few worry-free hours from your workload? If you’re not keeping a to-do list somewhere other than in your head, you’ll be heading straight for burnout.
The solution is simple. Buy a moleskin notebook or pop open TextEdit on your computer, then spurt out all the tasks and actions you need to achieve. Don’t worry about the order, just pump out everything that needs doing. Once these are on paper, focus on organizing them. It’ll feel much better having a visual action list you can look at to see what needs to be done.
3. Set goals & milestones
In addition to your newly developed to-do list, start setting goals and milestones. For instance, if you have a blog, a goal might be publishing 5 entries per week for four weeks straight, while a milestone might be hitting 2,000 readers via your RSS feed.
Goals are very important, not enough people set them. I for one have set goals to keep me focused, to keep me looking straight and ahead, and they are perfect to use as motivation for something to work toward.
4. Disconnect yourself from the outside world
This falls under focusing on a single task. When you’re writing, the last thing you need is to be distracted by phone calls, or emails. It disrupts your overall flow and makes starting your piece again hard to do. On occasion, one simple email can ruin hours of your work day.
You don’t have to close your email program, practice ignoring notifications. If you hear the new email sound ignore it, keep working, and keep in the flow.
5. Focus on a single task
Multi-tasking can be fun, and can be rewarding. You think you’re getting a lot done at once, killing two birds with one stone when all you’re really doing is dragging out both tasks longer. Spend some time on a single task or project and focus. Don’t try to write an article while also dealing with marketing related emails. Keep them separate. When you’re doing, one ignore the other—allowing you to work more quickly and efficiently in the long run.
These 5 steps will make you more productive as you impliment them into your schedule.
How many times have you ended your busy day feeling like you had not accomplished ANYTHING or maybe you just remembered you FORGOT the most important thing you were suppose to do???
Those days can soon come to an end. This website: http://www.rememberthemilk.com will help you plan, manage, remember, organize, locate, and take your tasks with you!. The website is free!
As they say, "NEVER FORGET THE MILK (OR ANYTHING ELSE) again."
You can input your tasks and look at your tasks daily, weekly or monthly. It will let you decide when they are due and send you a reminder. Now you only have to enter your task once and forget about it. Remember the Milk will organize you and remind you. If only it could just go on and complete the task for you - this would be a highly sought after commodity! But for now - let's just get organized!
Enjoy the site and your new planner!
I believe Microsoft said it best when they described their take on being productive:
The key to helping businesses become more agile and productive in the global economy is to empower individual workers -- giving them tools that improve efficiency and enable them to focus on the highest - value work -- and a new generation of software is an important ingredient to make this happen. In this blog I will explore the Productivity Applications available on Web 2.0. that will help make you more productive in your everyday environment.
If you need to be more productive...
- At work
- At Home
- Managing Your Finances
- Managing Your Family Schedule
Then this blog will enlighten you, teach you and organize your life so you will be more PRODUCTIVE!
