The ByteBaker

It’s been over a week since I last posted and in that week I’ve been very busy with schoolwork and exam prep (not to mention catching up after being at NCUR for the better part of a week). It’s been hard for me to get time to do anything besides stay in step with my work, but necessity is the mother of invention and so I’ve managed to learn some lessons that help me to squeeze out a little more useful time out of each day. It helps that I’m on a fairly tech-savvy college campus and hence no more than a few short minutes away from computer with a network connection. This post is devoted to how to make the best use of computer time when there is a ton of other stuff to do.

1. Timebox communication

Timeboxing is a time management strategy where you put together all related tasks into a single (slightly large) time slot and get them done all together. More importantly, when time is up you stop and move on to other things no matter what’s left. This isn’t the best strategy for all things (like any creative work), but it works great for more mundane things. Since most of my communication is electronic, timeboxing works very well. I have 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes to an hour in the evening where I sit down with all email and Facebook messages and get everything cleared out. I don’t check my email in between unless there’s something urgent.

2. Keep work online

College students are always on the move. One great way to squeeze more out of the day is to not have to go back to your room to get your work. Keeping most of your work online means that you can get a little work done whenever you have a network connection (and for most college campuses you’re never too far from one). This doesn’t work if you need a textbook, but can be good for writing papers or doing online research.

3. Don’t be afraid to disconnect

In contrast to my last point, the internet can easily become distracting and disconnecting can be the only way to actually get work done. Don’t be afraid to pull the plug if it’s cutting into worktime.

4. Use calendars and reminders

With a mass of deadlines looming, it can be easy to forget what comes when and have everything just coalesce into an indistinguishable mass. Having a good calendar with some sort of reminder feature is absolutely essential. I use Google Calendar and for the past few weeks it’s been a lifesaver. I use it to schedule out my time as well as keeping track of deadlines. Scheduling is probably the best way to make sure that useful time doesn’t go to waste. Of course, you actually do need to follow the schedules that you make for yourself.

5. Keep notes on a computer

This is most helpful if you do it throughout the semester, but can be especially useful right before exams. Notes for classes are much easier to reorganize and structure if they’re electronic and print-outs are certainly easier to read. This doesn’t always work out for diagrams, but for plain text there’s almost no reason not to do it.

NCUR 2009 is over and I’m back at college. The last few posts are reports of the things I saw and found interesting. I came across quite a few good ideas, some of which I will be exploring in the future. However there are some real-life day-to-day lessons I learned from the experience of going to a conference for the first time. Most of the things I’m about to list are actually pretty common sense things, but they’re not always things that are actively on one’s minds. Without further ado, here’s the list:

1. Make a checklist and actually use it. It’s amazing how easy it is to miss simple everyday things when you’re packing for a short trip. Keeping an actual list of things to pack and checking off on them helps a great deal. Priority should be given to things like toothbrushes, razors, medicines and other sanitary and essential items.
2. Always pack a few more clothes than you think you’ll need. This doesn’t mean pack a full wardrobe, but there’s nothing wrong with a spare T-shirt or two, no matter how light you want to travel.
3. Figure out your look before you leave. If you’re going on stage or meeting a lot of people, then you probably have some image of yourself that you want to present (consciously or not). Please think through this image (if you care about it) and prepare accordingly. It’s fine to dress casual, but wearing a shirt and tie with running shoes is probably not something you want to do. On the same note, make sure everything you want to wear actually fits properly.
4. Prepare yourself. Whether you’re giving an oral presentation, showing a poster or just mingling with the crowd, make sure  you know about whatever it is you plan to talk about. In particular, rehearse an oral presentation, know the details behind everything you put on a poster and be prepared for questions. Also I’ve learned that it’s better to admit that you don’t know the answer to a question than to try and fudge your way out of it.
5. Have your equipment ready. This is related to the last point, but not quite the same. For example, you can have a great rehearsed presentation but that doesn’t mean your immune from technical difficulties and the like . In the case of computer science, if you want to show some program you wrote, make sure it’s up and running before you begin your presentation.
6. Take your time and take a break. If there’s a lot going on at a conference, then it’s very tempting to just keep on moving from one thing to another as fast as possible. Depending on the specific circumstances, that could be a good idea. But sometimes it’s worth slowing down. I made a conscious choice to pick a few sessions and presenters that I thought would be interesting and spent most of time there. I also left enough time to just walk around and relax. I think I had a better experience than if I had just moved around at full speed.
7. When it’s time to go, make an early start. I’ve never really been late for a departure, but I have been pretty close on a few times. It’s much less stressful to be early even it requires sacrificing a few hours of sleep. Additionally, there’s time left to deal with any last minute things that might pop up.
8. Have fun and learn what you can. There’s not much in going to a conference if you’re not going to enjoy yourself and come away from it with something interesting. I don’t think there’s any simple rule of thumb on how to do this, but I think that following the above might help to some extent.

If you have any ideas on how to make the most of a conference or just travel in general, please drop me a comment.

Reading:

Almost Perfect I was born too late to be part of most of the technical innovations of the 80s, and not being born into a particularly technological family, I missed most of the 90s too. But I love stories about important events in the computer industry. In some ways they feel like the folk tales of particularly interesting, somewhat quirky culture. This is one of those stories which talks about Word Perfect, the word processor of legend.

Media:

The Sixth Sense Ever wondered when technology would stop being locked inside a box? This presentation is a look at what information technology really should be like.

Software:

Nexuiz This is an open source first person shooter available for Windows, OS X and Linux. They just released version 2.5 and as the screenshots show, it can hold its own pretty well against commercial offerings.