MSA Mentorship“Productivity & Presentation”

This will include a cursory overview of Presentation Tools. Dive into the stuff you find interesting at home.

Why Does Productivity Matter?

When having fun, you should always be adventurous, look for creative routes, and seek pleasure in carefully pursuing your whimsical desires.

When working, you should always aim to be productive, to accomplish tasks properly, and get solid results. The sooner you learn to separate the mentalities of work and fun, the better.

BUT some of the best things in life are when you don’t have to! Those are the things where you’re productive and having fun. Life’s discoveries revolves around finding and engaging in those.

All we are trying to do is lead you in the correct direction of things to look at and think about more carefully. There’s so much under the surface you don’t think about and so you never discover it. There is equally as much stuff that you’ve never even heard of.

Your work is not a game you can just pick up and enjoy randomly whenever you want.

TIME is the biggest factor and you don’t have time to burn if you want to succeed.

Under almost no circumstance will a successful student delay actions they will end up doing eventually. There’s ZERO need to

delay tasks and let them inevitably build up.

PROCRASTINATION is the manifestation of Shaitan’s whispering, whether it’s salaat or homework or anything. It’s the single greatest

struggle for students and ruins 95% of them, which is a huge shame for kids that have great potential and talent, but a weak work ethic.

Why Does Productivity Matter?

1) Master yourself find out the ways you work best, the environment,

how long/many breaks you take, etc.

2) Make a structure for the way you handle work built around the

completion of tasks, not the need to finish time periods.

i.e. try “3 hours to finish Tasks A, B, C”, instead of “3 hours to finish as much as possible”

Why Does Productivity Matter?

Only Allah can judge the inner content of our work and character properly. Human nature is to be subject to our surface emotions. It’s a blessing that can be a curse if we forget that the CORE is what ultimately matters, not the presentation. Nonetheless, it shouldn’t be completely neglected like so many people do.

We are dealing with people that can be horribly turned off, or, more importantly, swayed in your favor, by your presentation. No matter how un-ideal, this is the way people, especially the business world, work. This travels with you throughout life in interviews, applications, and everyday interactions with new people. A suit + tie can matter because of its underlying messages, especially in the US.

Why Does Presentation Matter?

Moreover, once you know the tricks of this techy age, being presentable is so easy and so high yield, it doesn’t make sense to not show your best. When people say “show your passion”, how well it’s displayed is how passionate you are in the mind of an outsider.

NOTE: Be aesthetic, NOT gaudy. This comes with practice alone.

Why Does Presentation Matter?

All we are trying to do is lead you in the correct direction of things to look at and think about more carefully. There’s so much under the surface you don’t think about, so you never discover it. There is equally as much stuff that you’ve never even heard of.

Microsoft Office“Everything you build, build with a level of professionalism”

Use to your advantage:

Word

INSERT - Proper Headers & Footers & Cover PagesIdeas are best explained with pictures, use Charts & SmartArt (flowcharts) when possible

DON’T use clipart, they look stupid, find pictures online w/Google Images or Flickr

PAGE LAYOUT - Margin minimizing, Page Borders, Columns to save space, & Format Painter to save time

REFERENCES – toughest part about papers is forever gone, Word does the Citations & Bibliography for you now!

REVIEW – Deny it all you’d like, everyone uses “right-click synonyms”, learnhow to use Spell Check properly, can comment docs (better online, explained later)Poor grammar and spelling can literally put apps in the bin. Don’t neglect it!

“Everything you build, build with a level of professionalism”

ExcelMath Functions, graphs & charts, any type of proper presentation of calculations or data should be done using Excel

PowerPointAnimations, Slide designs, Transitions, Embedded Video areall so easy now! You just have to play with these programsa LITTLE bit to become proficient nowadays

Microsoft Office

Microsoft OneNote

Good software for extensive compilations of note-taking. More useful than any other MS Office software when used correctly. Can password-protect pages and automatically sync w/Dropbox Can print files/websites directly into a OneNote page. Can highlight, color, write, draw, do anything.

Main Notebooks

Individual Pages

Section Tabs

The Google Arsenal

Gmail

Calendar

YouTube

Maps

Drive

All of these are also easily accessible from smartphones.

So if you CAN invest in a smartphone, you DEFINITELY should just for tools like these

Gmail

Filters – Help you clear the clutter. Some people are fine with 1,000+ unread messages in

their inbox and they can handle. I like to limit the frustration by filtering emails and maybe

deciding to read them or not

Labels – When you can filter, you can add colored labels to make finding that stuff easier.

To start, make general titles, nothing too specific. It might seem trivial, but it makes life way easier

in college when you get ~50 emails a day

Explore things like making professional signatures at the end of your emails, look

through the Labs Google offers, and forwarding email from other email addresses you have

Google Calendar

Different Calendars and Task Lists

You can easily define a location for all events, define repeating events, &

share/invite other Gmail users to events

Google Calendar

When you see embedded Google Calendars, there’s a

button to add that calendar to YOUR Google Calendar so you

don’t have to check the webpage.

We do this and even MIT’s Registrar utilizes this because it’s so flexible and widespread

YouTube

Build Video Playlists with different sharing

settings:

Public – everyone can see and search

orUnlisted – only those you give the link can view (most useful)

orPrivate – only those you specifically have given access to can

view

Maps “How can I expect you to deal with anything if you can’t even be on time

or know where to go!?”

Muslim people (and most minorities) are habitually late, which is both embarrassing and unacceptable. Travel self-reliance is

horribly underestimated.

Many don’t know how to use even the basic functions of Google Maps. There is no need

to ask anyone for anything more than an address.

You can share shortened URL’s, different travel directions, & use Satellite View if you

like to use landmarks to navigate.

Google Drive

This is how we built our website and organize our materials. It’s another “sharing-restricted” file

source where you can upload any file type, do real-time updates, and work on files with multiple people.

Google Drive is the new Google Docs. You can make a

Document, Spreadsheet, Forms, Drawings,

Presentations, and Folders

Dropbox

Dropbox is nice because it can be built into your computer’s file Explorer. You

get 5gb free of storage with Dropbox and 5gb free with Google Drive

You can right click files in the public folder, and copy the public link to give to people so

that they can view the file

Desktop Sticky NotesDesktop sticky notes are especially useful because you will have to see them a lot. I

switched to using my smartphone notes app because I have my phone on me 24/7 and it’s

more accessible like in a conversation.Find whatever digital note-taking software

works for you. Paper and pen can’t be shared well.

Super Useful Software

SolidWorksMechanical & Civil Engineering – 3D CAD software involving

anything mechanical design

MatLabEvery Discipline - Interface to basically do anything: program, model,

chart and analyze data. Engineering-centered

Photoshop / IllustratorGraphic Design (which can be useful for any discipline) – image editing software. Easiest way of learning concepts of layers and effects that

apply to almost all other software.

WordPress (website builder)

Every Discipline – website publishing tool that requires basic knowledge of HTML

Super Useful Software

After EffectsGraphic Design – Video editing, effects, & post-production

MathematicaMathematics & Materials Science - Similar to MatLab except

heavily math-centered & more aesthetic output

LabViewEvery Discipline – This is what you will probably use for gathering

data in a lab

Useful Websites & Freewarehttp://www.sendspace.com/

Send file attachments up to 300mb instead of the regular 25mb Gmail limit

http://www.howstuffworks.com/How everything in the world works, explained much more concisely than Wikipedia

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/Suite for all media purposes, especially MP3 converter & YouTube Downloader

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/Precision audio editor, recorder, mixer

http://www.easybib.com/Free bibliography maker (if Word isn’t working for you)

Popular plug-ins for Google Chrome

http://www.lynda.com/Online software training vids, always start with the “Essentials

Training” for each software