10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less)

Build a Quick Capture System
David Allen – author of Getting Things Done and probably the most well-known 
productivity nerd alive – aptly describes the purpose of your mind:
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
In this case, I define the concept of an idea somewhat broadly: An idea is 
anything that might cause you to take action at some point in time. This means 
an idea could be:
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An actual, creative idea you come up with
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An article or book you find that you’d like to read
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A task that needs doing later
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An event you need to attend

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10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less)
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A person you’d like to get to know
Most of these things are not ideas themselves, but your mind holds ideas of them 
– and that’s the problem. Even though your brain is essentially a giant parallel 
processor that can do many things at once, it generally works best if you’ve got 
it pointed at a single task at a time. Trying to juggle a bunch of ideas which 
require future action only hampers your ability to execute on the idea you’re 
trying to work on now. 
But here’s the problem: Ideas come all the time. Since ideas can strike at any 
time or place, you need a system for capturing them, storing them away safely 
for later use, and getting yourself back on task.
What’s more, you need a system that lets you do this quickly and without much 
friction. This is the idea behind quick capture.
To utilize this concept well, you need to build a great quick capture system. The 
classic method is carrying around a notebook wherever you go, and it’s a fine 
method. I recommend trying it if you like writing with pen and paper.
However, I get a bit geekier with my system, and most of it resides on my 
iPhone. Here are the apps I use, along with Android alternatives if needed:
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