Step 1 :Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a DayStep 2 :Declare War on ProcrastinationStep 3 :Choose When, Where, and How Long

Part 1. Study Basics

<ul><li> Jot down to-dos and deadlines on a list whenever they arise. </li><li>Transfer these to-dos and deadlines t your calendar every morning.</li><li>Plan your day each morning by labeling your to-dos with realistic time frames and moving what you don’t have time for to different dates.</li></ul>

Step #1. Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a Day

<ul><li>Keep a work progress journal, and every day record what you wanted to accomplish and whether or not you succeeded.</li><li>When working, eat healthy snacks to maximize your energy.</li><li>Transform horrible tasks into a big event to help you gather the energy to start.</li><li>Build work routines to make steady progress on your obligations without expending too much of your limited motivational resources.</li><li>Choose your hard days in advance to minimize their impact.</li></ul>

Step #2. Declare War on Procrastination

<ul><li>Try to fit as much work as possible into the morning and afternoon, between classes and obligations. </li><li>Study in isolated locations.</li><li>Take a break every hour.</li></ul>

Step #3. Choose When, Where, and How Long

Step 1: Take Smart NotesStep 2: Demote Your AssignmentsStep 3: Marshal Your ResourcesStep 4: Conquer the MaterialStep 5: Invest in “Academic Disaster Insurance”Step 6: Provide “A+” Answers

Part 2. Quizzes and Exams

• Always go to class and try to take the best notes possible.• For nontechnical courses, capture the big ideas by taking notes in the question/evidence/conclusion format.• For technical courses, record as many sample problems and answers as possible.

Step #1. Take Smart Notes

• Work a little bit each day on your assignments; avoid suffering from day-before syndrome.• Read only the favored sources on the syllabus in detail. To decide how much time to spend on supplemental sources, remember the importance hierarchy:✓ readings that make an argument are more important than✓ readings that describe an event or person, which are more important ✓ readings that only provided context • Take reading notes in the question/evidence/conclusion format.• Work in groups on problem sets, solve problems on the go, and write up your answers formally the first time.

Step #2. Demote Your Assignments

• Figure out exactly what the test will cover.• Cluster your notes for nontechnical courses.• Build mega-problem sets for technical courses.

Step #3. Marshal Your Resources

• Embrace the quiz-and-recall method. It’s the single most efficient way to study.• Spread out memorization over several days. Your mind can do only so much at a time.

Step #4. Conquer the Material

• Eliminate the question marks for topics covered in class or from the reading that you don’t understand.

Step #5. Invest in “Academic Disaster Insurance”

• Look over the whole test first.• Figure out how much time you have to spend on each question (leaving a ten-minute cushion at the end).• Answer the questions in order of increasing difficulty.• Write out a mini-outline before tackling an essay question.• Use any and all leftover time to check and recheck your work.

Step #6. Provide “A+” Answers

Step 1: Target a Titillating TopicStep 2: Conduct a Thesis-Hunting ExpeditionStep 3: Seek a Second OpinionStep 4: Research like a MachineStep 5: Craft a Powerful StoryStep 6: Consult Your Expert PanelStep 7: Write Without the AgonyStep 8: Fix, Don’t Fixate

Part 3. Essays and Papers

• Start looking for an interesting topic early.

Step #1. Target a Titillating Topic

• Start with general sources and then follow references to find the more targeted sources where good thesis ideas often hide.

Step #2. Conduct a Thesis-Hunting Expedition

• A thesis is not a thesis until a professor has approved it.

Step #3. Seek a Second Opinion

• Find sources.• Make personal copies of all sources.• Annotate the material.• Decide if you’re done. (If the answer is “no,” loop back to #1.)

Step #4. Research like a Machine

• There is no shortcut to developing a well-balanced and easy-to-follow argument.• Dedicate a good deal of thought over time to getting it right.• Describe your argument in a topic-level outline.• Type supporting quotes from sources directly into your outline.

Step #5. Craft a Powerful Story

• Before starting to write, get some opinions on the organization of your argument and your support from classmates and friends who are familiar with the general area of study.• The more important the paper, the more people who should review it.

Step #6. Consult Your Expert Panel

• Follow your outline and articulate your points clearly.• Write no more than three to five pages per weekday and five to eight pages per weekend day.

Step #7. Write Without the Agony

• Solid editing requires only three careful passes:– The Argument Adjustment Pass: Read the paper carefully on your computer to make sure your argument is clear, fix obvious errors, and rewrite where the flow needs improvement.– The Out Loud Pass: Carefully read out loud a printed copy of your paper, marking any awkward passages or unclear explanations.– The Sanity Pass: A final pass over a printed version of the paper to check the overall flow and to root out any remaining errors.

Step #8. Fix, Don’t Fixate

"Teachers can open the door, but you must enter it yourself."

Looking to jumpstart your GPA? Most college students believe that straight A’s can be achieved only through cramming and painful all-nighters at the library. But Cal Newport knows that real straight-A students don’t study harder—they study smarter. A breakthrough approach to acing academic assignments, from quizzes and exams to essays and papers, How to Become a Straight-A Student reveals for the first time the proven study secrets of real straight-A students across the country and weaves them into a simple, practical system that anyone can master. You will learn how to:  • Streamline and maximize your study time  • Conquer procrastination  • Absorb the material quickly and effectively  • Know which reading assignments are critical—and which are not  • Target the paper topics that wow professors  • Provide A+ answers on exams  • Write stellar prose without the agony A strategic blueprint for success that promises more free time, more fun, and top-tier results, How to Become a Straight-A Student is the only study guide written by students for students—with the insider knowledge and real-world methods to help you master the college system and rise to the top of the class.

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Cal Newport is Provost’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, and the author of seven books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications and on TV and radio.From his website: "I write about the intersection of digital technology and culture. I’m particularly interested in our struggle to deploy these tools in ways that support instead of subvert the things we care about in both our personal and professional lives."

Cal Newport

How to Become a Straight-A Student

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread each day, and at last we cannot break it.”

<ul><li>The 1st Law: Make It Obvious</li><li>The 2nd Law:Make It Attractive</li><li>The 3rd Law: Make It Easy</li><li>The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying</li></ul>

HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT

1.1: Fill out the Habits Scorecard: Write down your current habits to become aware of them.1.2: Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”1.3: Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”1.4: Design your environment: Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.

The 1st Law: Make It Obvious

2.1: Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.2.2: Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.2.3: Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

The 2nd Law:Make It Attractive

3.1: Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits.3.2: Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.3.3: Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact.3.4: Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less.3.5: Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior.

The 3rd Law: Make It Easy

4.1: Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit.4.2: Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits.4.3: Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.”4.4: Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately.

The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying

“If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right, then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow. It will just happen naturally, like a good seed planted in a good spot.”

<ul><li>Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible</li><li>Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive</li><li>Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult</li><li>Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying</li></ul>

HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT

1.5: Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible

2.4: Reframe your mind-set. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive 2.4:

3.6: Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits.3.7: Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you.

Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult

4.5: Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior.4.6: Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful.

Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.”

A lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote.

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 10 million copies sold! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: <ul><li>make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);</li></ul><ul><li>overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;</li></ul><ul><li>design your environment to make success easier;</li></ul><ul><li>get back on track when you fall off course;</li></ul>...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

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James Clear is the author of "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" He writes about habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement at jamesclear.com. His website receives millions of visitors each month and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his popular email newsletter.His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Time, and on CBS This Morning. He is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies and his work is used by teams in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Learn more at jamesclear.com

How to Become a Straight-A Student

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