A few weeks ago I saw a post on HN that I’ve been meaning to write about: “Things I’ve quit doing at my desk.”

The post is about work and desk habits. It raises some awesome points about becoming more efficient and procrastinating less, two things that are always on a busy college student’s mind. I care a lot about efficiency and, more importantly, ROI. There are only 168 hours in a week, how can I get the most bang for my buck?

The answer lies in working smart, not in working hard.

Work smart, not hard, that’s my philosophy boss. – Dr. Gregory House

Measure results, not hours. Sitting in the library for hours on Facebook Chat isn’t getting you anywhere fast. Here are some quick hacks to improve efficiency:

• Use your iCal to put goals in writing. This little psychological trick keeps you on pace with assignments and helps you remember when everything is due. Five page paper due in 3 days? No problem! Make promises in baby steps: Outline with complete intro due on day 1, 2 pgs due on day 2, 5 pgs due on day 3.
• Not good with a calendar? Asana and KanbanFlow (as I’ve been recommended) are two free efficiency tools to check out.
• Email your professors. Try to limit it to once a week or once every two weeks, even if it’s just a question about a reading or an article that you think they might be interested in reading. This lets them know that you are on the ball, making connections, and amped up about their class.
• Take advantage of  office hours. Not only will this accomplish some of the same goals as above but you will also pick up tidbits that will help on quizzes, papers, and tests.
• Study before you go to sleep on the night before a test. This improves retention of material.
• Exercise. It makes your brain happier!
• Write things down for better memorization, it really does work.
• Keep a list of emails you want to send in your draft folder as a makeshift to do list
• Thinking about your career/applying to internships? Email 1 new person per day. This is a technique from Never Eat Alone. Spend 3-5 minutes emailing someone new whom you admire and would love to meet or speak with. Try to email during work hours (Monday AM is good). Even if only 33% of people respond and agree to speak with you, you will have “met” 120 new people in only a year. Don’t ask for anything unreasonable, just a 5-10 minute call or email exchange. You will learn a TON this way about yourself, other people, interactions in general, and about different industries that you may be interested in pursuing.

There are probably a ton of other hacks, those are just a few that I’m a fan of. Any more? Shoot me a line and I’ll update with your contributions.