Ramos - The Super Students Guide to Productivity: How Super Students Produce More Work in Less Time

This book was written by a student for students. #TSP

Copyright 2016 by John Ramos. All rights reserved.

1st edition, March 2016.

Published by The Student Power @

Available worldwide in ebook and print formats.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Article 5(3) of the EU Copyright Directive, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to .

THE SUPER STUDENTS GUIDE TO

PRODUCTIVITY

Written, edited and designed by

John Ramos

Foreword

John Ramos, whom I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet in cyberspace Quora , to be precise and I share a common fellowship: we are explorers in the pursuit of peak performance strategies for students.

Surprisingly, many of the foundational concepts behind his first book on presentations, and now the current book on productivity, actually parallel my own research findings in Singapore, particularly in connection with the effective habits of peak-performing or smart students he likes to use the term, Super Students:

For example, peak-performing or smart students in Singapore:

• are always goals-oriented, and future-focused, and know their priorities;
• apply proven efficient and effective study tools and strategies in their academic pursuit, but more importantly, in their own life;

Against this scenario, his latest book is a concise, no-frills, systematic as well as systemic toolkit for enhancing student productivity, utilizing a simple and yet potent 4D formula, which is brilliantly premised on Diligence , Discipline , Direction , and Durability as the driving force, notwithstanding one more D : Daily Quota , which encapsulates the hard work, planning and willingness to change the way we produce results.

I view the latter as a prerequisite for successful implementation and tactical execution of the 4D formula.

To all students out there in search of maximum output with minimum input: This book is truly your personal navigational device.

Lee Say Keng

Knowledge Adventurer & Technology Explorer

Optimum Performance Technologies

Ho Chi Minh City/Singapore

th February 2016

Note from the Author

R ecognizing the importance of public speaking changed my life. When I was a kid, the need of delivering small oral presentations alerted me to the importance of becoming a competent speaker. I thought that would be next to impossible due to stage fright. I believed that some people were born good speakers and the rest just had to suck it up.

As I read more on the subject and learned a few things about slide design, communication, PowerPoint and even public speaking itself, I found out that delivering presentations is just like a muscle it can and it should be trained. I kept on participating in Science fairs and contests for high schoolers and applying what I learned along the way. Later, I would present medical papers or research projects in College and medical conferences.

During all these years, I tested which scriptwriting formulas work best in each particular scenario. I also learned lots of methods and tricks to plan a quality presentation and design eye-catching slides. But most importantly, I realized that the mentality of the speaker is key when delivering a presentation. I wrote this book to document all that Ive learned and to share it with you.

Hopefully, this book will help grow your public speaking skills. Believe me, they are the difference between winning and losing. At the end of the day, your ideas arent worth a thing if you cant communicate them.

John Ramos

March 2016

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Planning
3. Research & Resources
4. Content Creation
5. Rehearsal & Fine-Tuning
6. Speaking
7. Case Studies

Overview

Why should I care about Productivity?

Being productive gives people a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that loafing never can. Zig Ziglar

Who doesnt want MORE WORK done in LESS TIME?

In terms of workload, being a student is worse than being a fulltime worker. Whats more, some students are fulltime workers as well. Balancing a healthy personal and social life with assignments, exams, side projects, research projects, hobbies and even work thats our daily challenge.

Unlike most 9to5 employees, students bring tons of work home and may even spend entire weekends getting things done. Our regular tasks demand full focus for hours, ranging from memorizing long lists of information to solving difficult physics problems. If that wasnt enough, teachers and professors constantly test our knowledge with exams and assignments. And while grades dont always reflect the full extent of our knowledge, some of us still depend on them to be accepted to certain schools, internships or jobs.

We may even reach a point when stress is too much to handle. Academic burnout, meaning a feeling of exhaustion, lack of motivation and an overall depressive state caused by prolonged stress, is prevalent among students (premeds and medical students are highrisk populations). Unsurprisingly, research shows that students who are less efficient are more likely to suffer from burnout. It stands to reason that people who know how to lead with stress and who get more results in less time are not as prone to burnout.

Then we have Super Students, the ones who go even further on top of all that responsibility, they get even more work done. They are are also parttime researchers, entrepreneurs, workers, even parents. More than just working hard, they need to work smart to bring balance to their lives and still be successful. In fact, I will bet that most work both smart and hard. They have an indestructible work ethic and know a thing or two about maximizing their productivity.

I have written about Super Students before, both in my blog The Student Power and in a small eBook called The Super Student Roadmap (you can get it for free @ thestudentpower.com). Super Students are the ones who do not settle for average, who go the extra mile to develop their skills and accomplish their goals. It is both a journey and a destination not exactly someone with certain characteristics, but a path some students take to improve themselves. Productivity is at the center of what it means to be a Super Student.

Successful students are productive students they produce exciting work and take advantage of each living second to accomplish their goals. Bill Gates used to say all of us are billionaires if you live for 80 years, youre born 2.5 billion Seconds rich. They should be treated as your most precious asset, especially because it is the only real asset you have. Being productive means investing those seconds wisely, in order to enjoy the profit later, as opposed to wasting them on activities with no return at all.

We dont always invest our time wisely. Like that eagle whose heart was pierced by an arrow it fell to the ground and took a close look at the arrow. It noticed that its own feathers were part of the fletching. Were often the architects of our own destruction were the eagles last words. Facebook notifications, YouTube videos, smartphone sounds are often the weapons with which we destroy our work sessions. Your personal productivity may be under siege by the thousands of distractions polluting our minds. But it is possible to endure the siege.