My 2009 in Review

Here is my personal list of happenings:

• Did sizable management consulting engagements with a multinational company and a local conglomerate. Finally made full use of what I learnt in MBA and PhD. Learned a lot too, especially the human side of a consulting project.
• Did a business intelligence project with a large local company. Learned quite a bit of T-SQL and ASP.NET.
• Completed a statistical library product and sold a couple of copies online.
• Continue to build community in UPSR-TODAY.com
• Started a bookshop, both online and physical
• Developed a courseware on studying skills
• Started developing a workshop for business partnering with software consortium of Penang
• Learned to play chess (so that my son can’t beat me that easily)
• Has a big gathering (20 year anniversary) for a group of Buddhist friends who went to Air Jernih for community service.
• Read quite a few books. Lost count of it.
• Many other small things which didn’t succeed, too trivial, too confidential, or too embarrass to list.

Also, this year, I bade fare well to my late father.

Bye 2009.

May year 2010 be a fulfilling year for me and everyone.

My Favorite Restaurant Coming to Changi Airport

I have tried Ananda Bhavan in Penang Little India, Sungai Petani, and Tanjung Bungah. They have never failed to impress me. Especially the one in LIttle India – where there are two shops, one serving pure vegetarian food – really delights me.

As I walk around Changi Airport Terminal 2 two days ago, there is this sign:

Seems like the shop is expanding fast – outside Malaysia now. I think they deserve to be so successful. If you have tried their food, don’t wait, go try it asap.

Singapore National Museum Goes High Tech

Every time Malaysians visit Singapore, they can’t help returning home with many “ideas for improvement” for their home land. This trip is no exception for me.

I had an exceptionally good experience this time at Singapore National Museum. This time, it introduced a personal digital companion (as they call it). As you move around sections in the museum, you just punch in the number indicated on the floor. You will get detailed explanation on what you are seeing. Here is how the “companion” looks like:

It is multilingual, with a version for children.

I’ve never enjoyed a museum that much. Thanks for making this works.

Take Two

A common scene of a public toilet

(1) Malaysia:

    A desk collecting money from you for using the toilet.

(2) Singapore:

    No desk in front of the toilet. Inside the toilet:

Logical and Illogical Logics

There are always two sides of a coin. Take logic. It helps us to understand many things. On the other hand, people can twist and turn it to serve their purpose.

The following is a case of "logical thinking", which shows over-generalization of "pattern" without validation:

Fact 1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer  fewer heart attacks than Americans.

Fact 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of  fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

Fact 3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than  Americans.

Fact 4. The  Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

Fact 5. The Germans  drink a lot of beers and eat lots of  sausages and fats  and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

I know you don’t buy the conclusion here, simply because the conclusion is quite far off. But how about the false logical assertions that is more subtle and believable?

Like: “All good students go for tuition. If you don’t take tuition, you will lose out.” or, “We need a lot of protein for growth, therefore we must eat meat.” Recently I heard there was a so-called health expert going around to promote Vitamin-C as solution to all sorts of illnesses. This guy can put up a lot of “evidence” to support this points.

Our world is full of all kinds of assertions. It is not so easy to differentiate fads from facts. With the advances in marketing and selling, anything can be packaged so that you buy their stories. Packaging essentially show you something and hide from you something – to get you to buy their ideas or products.

Without critical minds, we will just get sucked into the zeitgeist, or the prevailing belief of the time.

The solution is: think twice, think through, get second opinion and don’t get emotional.

There is Tomorrow, Isn’t It?

One day King Yama (阎罗王), the ruler of Hell, walked the torture chambers to see what is happening in his kingdom, after learning the principle of “management by walking about” from a management guru.

It was rather quiet compared to the last time he walked the place a few months ago. He asked his immediate officer, Bull-head, “We need more people here to justify our capacity. Do you have any idea?”.

Bull Head thought for a while and said, “perhaps we can send someone to the human realm and tell them that there is no hell. Then their will commit more sins and come here.”

King Yama said, “we tried that but it didn’t seem to work. The legal system has become so good and their enforcement has become so efficient. Most people observe the law. Look at Singaporeans, they don’t even chew bubble gums!”

“What do you think?” King Yama turned to Horse Face, the other top-ranked officer.

Horse Face thought of the opposite, “Why don’t we tell them there is no heaven? They won’t bother to be good then.”

King Yama said, “Again, that won’t work either. Most of the people have learned that doing good itself makes them happy. There is quite a lot of spiritual movements up there. So they will do good anyway, regardless of whether there is heaven.”

Then King Yama observed that the operators in the torture chambers often have little chats with the people they torture. So he thought the operator would understand better from their first hand information. So he posted the same question to the operator, who is busy frying a couple of snatch thieves.

Without thinking much, the operator replied King Yama, “It’s easy, just tell the people up there that there is tomorrow.”

“That simple?” King Yama doubted.

“Yes. The people who end up here know they should stop doing bad and start doing good. They end up here because they think there is tomorrow. So they kept postponing and postponing. By the time they realize they are here, it was too late.”

“Bingo! Good idea.” King Yama was delighted. He now convinced that management by walking about works. And he gave the operator a banana, emulating how the Hewlett-Packard manager reward an engineer who solved a major problem.

“Guys, let’s send the message up there and start telling everyone there is tomorrow.” King Yama ordered.

King Yama pondered for a while and ask the communication department head, “Transmit the message using the subconscious wavelength, so that the human won’t resist the message consciously.”

-- The End of the Story

p.s: Wonder why you have the urge to postpone good things you wanted to do and bad things wanted to quit? Obvious, right?

p.p.s: The operator then peel the banana given by King Yama. But he accidentally dropped it into the boiling oil. When he finally managed to take up the banana, he found that it was extraordinarily delicious. His innovation of pisang goreng in Hell earned him even more awards later.

Instant Abundance, Easy as ABC

First of all this is not to promote a get-rich-quick scheme, but to promote a different way of looking at life.

If you have studied accounting, you would have come across Activity-based Costing (ABC) – a widely accepted way to record how money is used in organizations. ABC is based on the premise that activities (which are carried out to accomplish goals) consume resources, which cost money. So it goes like this: Activity uses resources that cost money. This premise is very insightful thus brought about the widespread usage of activity-based costing method.

Now, lets look at our lives. We wanted something in our lives. That something could be college degree, job, girl friend, family, car, house, fame, etc. We do lots of activities, which consume resources, to get what we wanted. Most of the time we focus on the activities and the money, and forgot about the middle part: resources. No so? Think about when was the last time you really pay attention to resources – meaning recognize their abundance as well as limitations and act accordingly?

I would like to put forth these two assertions:

1. We have more resources than we think
2. Resources don’t always cost money

Just to name a few - have you thought about these resources you might have: your knowledgeable parents (or in-laws), smart subordinates, helpful friends, your talent in language (or any other fields), your good look, your underutilized computers, your already-subscribing internet connection, and your vacant-and-waiting-to-be-rented shop-houses. Furthermore, you have a lot of hungry investors, eager donors, and you have ability to reach them.

If you just spend 30 minutes making a complete list of resources you have, you will be amazed the abundance your have. You will immediately recognize that most of them don’t cost extra Ringgits.

Now you are rich. Aren’t you?

And if you are not starting to think big, you have got problem.

Grateful to My Primary School Teacher

I wrote the short paragraph below to thank my teacher, who played a big part in making who I am. It’s the time of teachers day, and I think the paragraph is still relevant – so I publish it here again.

Having gone all the way to doctoral level in the journey of study was never easy. A lot of people have supported me. If you ask me who I would thank the most, I would date it back all the way to my first 3 years in my primary school in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan. My form teacher then was Mdm Luo Ai Qun (罗爱群老师). She took care of me, advised me, and inspired me. And I still remember she pointed out to me how much I must be grateful to my mother, who worked on two laborious jobs at that point in time. “Express gratitude to your mother by studying diligently.” She said. For the next 30 years, I did precisely that.

I have made a card (see below) to thank her.

Structural Approach

Life is fluid.

That fluidity creates ambiguity, uncertainty, confusion and loss of direction. The solution to fluidity problem, in engineering, as well as in life, is to put in structure. Just like civil engineers put up structure to fix the positions of beams, wall and floors, structure in our lives fix many aspects of our lives: time, space, social interactions, as well as other aspects of our activities.

The way structures work is quite simple: it limits choices – time, space, people and ways of doing things.

What? In this age of freedom of choice, who want to limit choices? You say.

Wait, please hold your horse. Let’s not get into the negative sides of structure. You probably will appreciate its values as you starting to see my points.

In fact, structure is very much in all aspects of your life: (1) you are in a family structure. That limits what you can and should do to your parents, children, etc. Their expectations towards you is quite firmed up; so are your expectations toward them. You have promised (if not vowed) to your spouse that you won’t do something that will destroy your relationship. So your family function properly. (2) You are in an organization, a company. Your role is prescribed. Your deliverables are specified. Your working hours are stipulated in the employees’ handbook. You follow the Do’s and Don’ts of the company. (3) You probably have promised your priest or master that you will be a religious person. You won’t kill, steal, lie, commit adultery, drink, smoke, etc. This community structure keeps you being good.

So do you still think structure is no good?

Yet, you may say, we need freedom.

Fair enough, but you need to do it wisely. How?

You use structure to your advantage. Here are few ways that I have done it and I find it useful to help me:

1. When I wanted to become a vegetarian, I simply told everyone I know that I will do it. I established a structure of expectations. So becoming vegetarian was never a struggle. You can use this structure if you want to quit smoking, gambling, or any other kind of small or big vices
2. I got married early. I cemented the commitment from my wife. Therefore eliminating major sources of doubts that we are not meant for each other. Then we focused on building our family and bringing up our next generation.
3. When I decided to go for my doctoral study. I told my lecturer, friends, family members. I told them them when I am going to start, what will ensue and what kind of support I need from them. I set off the journey and completed the study. I survived because I have put in the structure.

In fact there is an entire discipline of applying structure to organizations, called organization theory. It is a boring subject, really. I studied it, and even taught it. It is only when I apply to my personal life, the meaning of structure comes to life.

Theory of Constraints

Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a philosophy of management and improvement originally developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. A trained physicist, Goldratt became and “management  guru” with his book “The Goal”.

Goldratt probably was laughed at by his academic peers, for coming up with such a simple idea. The theory didn’t even have an equation – quite a shame for a physicist.

But Goldratt’s shame in the academic world turned into fame in the practical managerial world. I wasn’t accidental. The theory, which I think is more like a principle, works.

Not only it works in the job of a manager, it works almost everywhere. It works for a student, a parent, a worker, a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, even a priest.

The TOC simply instructs us to find the bottleneck to our current performance, remove it, then work on the next bottleneck. Then do it again, and again.

The key value of TOC is not what it tells you to work on, but what not to work on. ie., don’t waste time on non-bottleneck.

Simple, right?

But how many of us are just so undisciplined to keep work on non-constraints?

Why? Because bottlenecks are often where our weaknesses lie. It is where our fear is. In short, it is the place where we have avoided – often unconsciously.

Take an example, if you are afraid of public speaking, it will drag your career down for years, until you decided one day to face it and make a breakthrough. Otherwise you get stuck forever.

The Weighty Seven Pounds

I don’t watch movies often nowadays. Even less often is to watch a movie that really move me – the ones that keep me thinking about it hours or days after watching them. To me, good movies are the ones that make me think about life more deeply.

Seven Pounds is one of those rare movies. To me, it is the best I have watched.

The writer, director and producer have pushed to the limit how extreme guilt and compassion interplay and make a person extraordinary.

If you have not watched it, you should get one now. The key is don’t find out what the story is about before you watch it. Just watch it, you deserve a good movie like this one.

让舌头打结的绕口令

My Friend Lilian wrote an interesting article in UPSR-TODAY.com,

要学好华语，不仅是要懂得写、懂得读，而且还要读的标准。这可不简单。汉语拼音有时真叫人头疼，特别是翘舌音、平舌音、前鼻音、后鼻音等。什么时候念要翘舌音，什么时候要念平舌音，都给混淆了。这也因为是我们的懒散、不认真的学习态度，往往只是得过且过，不多思想。。。

Full text here

Announcement: Recycling This Sunday

Event:           Penang Desa Relau 1 Recycling Program

Objectives:   To cultivate caring and harmonious community via recycle & sorting activity.

• Date: 8 March 2009 (This Sunday)
• Time: 9.00 am - 12.00 pm
• Venue: Desa Relau 1
• Organizer: Tzu Chi Foundation

You, Yes YOU, are invited to come join us.

Bring along your old:

1. Paper ( Newspaper, books, etc)
2. Plastic
3. Cloth
4. Glass ( bottle/tins)
5. Aluminium cans
6. Metal cans
7. Electronic waste ( computers, printers, etc)
8. Battery

No Shortcut - It's 5 Years

Short-term thinking - or short-termism as some call it - is prevalent nowadays.

Many four-year degree programs in Malaysia were shortened to three years because 'the labour market' needs more graduates. Not many people attend Sixth-Form anymore - it is deemed a waste of time. Many people hop jobs to get pay rise and promotions as frequent as every one or two years. Many businesses were started with expectation that they can become wildly successful in just one or two years.

If you have been reading advertisement in the newspaper in recent months, you would surely saw a lot of 'get rich quick' schemes - through options trading, internet business, etc - which supposedly give you tens of thousands of Ringgits within few days or weeks.

The net results of short-termism were apparent: many failures, and long term success forgone. It is like plugging fruits that are not ripen - the fruits are not edible and you lost the chance to taste the nice ripen fruits in the future.

How long should we take to do something well?

I would think five years would be a reasonable time frame. I took 5 years to get my first degree in engineering. And another 5 years for a doctoral degree in management. Yet I still feel that I am just touching the rudiment of the subjects. Most doctors takes 6 years before they can practice medicine. A few successful friends of mine took 5 years to have their companies stabilized and made profit.

In spiritual practice, novice Buddhist monks have to practice under a teacher at least for 5 years before he is allowed to be independent. Many successful spiritual teachers in the West has practiced at least 5 years in the East before they went back to the West to teach.

Even great thinkers like Peter Drucker took three to four years to learn a new subject:

Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject, but they are enough to understand it.  (Requoted from here)

Jim Collins and his team took 5 years to fully understand what makes great companies and report their finding in the book Good to Great.

In Germany, many graduate students refuse to graduate until they fully understand what they study - and that usually take many more years than the average period of university programs. I am amazed by their serious attitude in learning and their willingness to spend time to master their knowledge. This is the type of attitude we should emulate.

There are not many 5-years in our lives. Assuming we live 50 adult years, we probably can do about 10 things really well throughout our life time. This means we have to consciously choose things which are important to us and spend a good 5-years on each of them.

Once Intel-Insiders Get Together

Many faces looked familiar, yet their names were not in the conscious part of my mind. I always have problems when meeting up with group of old schoolmates or colleagues. But today I was glad the organizers gave a big name tag to everyone who attended the 'Intel Alumni Gathering'. We instantly recalled the names and linked them to the faces. Thanks for saving us the embarrassment of forgetting the names.

I observed that most of the people have gone less obese then they were some 8 years ago when I left Intel. They appear to be healthier and fitter. A former senior manager added to my observation -these ex-Intelliers are probably happier after leaving Intel.

Intel has been a big and significant part of the lives of the people who gathered here today. It is common to see them enumerate their years in Intel, some up to 10+ years, 20+ years, and even 37 years! You may take this people out of Intel, but you can't take Intel out of them. They still use the Intel Jargons in a typical Intel ways.

E&O Penang is a nice and grand place to have lunch. The ambience is suitable for most of us who have held the identify of being yuppies, who usually have great pride in our being. From the conversation, I noticed that this identity often didn't serve us well after we leave Intel, especially if we take up jobs in much smaller companies, or if we start our own businesses. Working in a big multinational is like living in a structured and protected environment. Once we get out from there, we have to play by the rules of the jungle. Many of us couldn't do that well. We got bruises before we realize this and adjust our senses.

Most of us have advanced in age, and one of the main topics in our conversations was health. We shared quite a bit about how we keep ourselves healthy - tai-chi, treadmill, hiking, diet-watching, etc. The younger attendees tends to talk about money, particularly investment choices - forex, mutual funds, etc. It is not uncommon for Intelliers who left Intel some 15 years ago - when Intel shares were unbelievably profitable - to have lots of spare money to invest.

There weren't much common things about this group of people after they leave Intel. But we were together for so long in the same organization and we know each other well and trust each other. We are willing and open to share a lot of wisdom we acquired and experience we had. I guess this is the biggest value for us in joining alumni - be it school or company alumni.

Stan Shih "Reminders" for Young Entrepreneurs

Stan Shih (the founder of Acer) reminds young tawkehs in 11/2/2009 issue of Common Wealth (天下杂志, p. 62) that:

1. Get the cause-effect relationship right: It is start a business -> create value -> earn big bucks. NOT start a business -> earn big bucks. The big reward comes only as a result of successful creation of values.
2. Break-even within two years: or at least see the light at the end of tunnel by year two.
3. Have stamina: so that you can last until you see success. You usually experience a lot of pain during the initial phase. In short, work more, eat less.
4. Don't borrow in short term during expansion phase: Growth is long term. In the event of recession, your financial structure will collapse if you have the burden of short term debts. Have the notion of sustainable business, keep rooms for your business to rebound.

Malaysia is Truly Asia

A Taiwanese who married to a Malaysian and stays in Penang (original story here) noted that:

大馬人或許不會留意，但大馬人在交談時總習慣參雜各種語言及方言，最令我印象深刻及覺得有趣的是本地人點飲料的一個叫法，即是“Teh Si Kosong Ice一塊雪”。 當我聽到這種點飲料的叫法，都被嚇到了，怎麼叫一杯茶也說了這麼多語言，福建話的Teh、海南話的Si、馬來文Kosong、英文的Ice及廣東話的一塊雪？
[Translation: Malaysian probably don't notice it - they mix a variety of languages in their daily conversation. The most extraordinary case is shown in the way they order drinks: "Teh Si Kosong Ice yak gao shu. (meaning a cup of iced tea without sugar, without milk, with just one piece of ice)" I was shocked to see 5 languages mixed into the name of a drink: Teh from Hokkien, Si from Hainan, Kosong from Malay, Ice from English, yak gao shu from Cantenese.

Man, I am proud to be Malaysian. Penang is more than deserve to be awarded the World Heritage Site.

I knew So Little About Penang!

I attended a seminar yesterday. One of the speakers was Ms Lim Gaik Siang of Penang Heritage Trust. She told us how Penang actually got to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage.

The key message is the "positioning" of George Town to win the listing: as part of the ancient marine "silk road", as a melting pot of Arab, China, Indo-china, Indian, Europe culture, plus the emergence of unique blended culture and architecture.

I was ashamed of myself for knowing so little about Penang.

She gave me an URL of the organization that she represents (as volunteer) Penang Heritage Trust www.pht.org.my. You should take a look.

In the site, there is an interesting link to http://www.penang-traveltips.com/. I think it is by far the best travelers' guide I have seen. If you have friend visiting Penang, read this site carefully before you attempt to be a guide.

Bashed, Everywhere

In this Internet age, if you choose a public life, you will have nowhere to hide if your integrity is questioned. Hee Yit Foong was given a Facebook group in facebook, and receive relentless criticism there. Picture below shows the group.

Hikers' Guide

I started to pick up hiking again. Two reasons for it: (1) it is a great family activity - especially now that my two sons are old enough for this reasonably strenuous outdoor activity. (2) as my age catches up, I need a form of exercise that work my cardiac system.

I have hiked 3 hills - Muka Head, Teluk Bahang Hill and Penang Hill now. Thanks to the Penang Hikers' Guide (picture below - full contents here). If you happen to have Hiker's Guide for other states than Penang, please let me know. My next target is to go out of Penang state for hiking.

Sin Chew Jit Poh Interviews Me on Old Mantin

Not long ago Sin Chew Jit Poh (星洲日报) interviewed my brother and me on our little eatery in my hometown Mantin. The report came out a couple of days ago in its "My Kampung" section. The article is also available on Sin Chew's online portal: see here.

Community Message: Stress Management Talk (Mandarin)

《转化压力为动力》讲座会
日期                     ： 14/3/2009
活动日子             ： 星期六
对象                     ： 大众
时间                     ： 4pm - 5.30pm
地点                     ： 槟城新港檀香寺多元化礼堂
咨询联络电话     ： 04-6451141
咨询电子邮件     ： mitra@thanhsiang.org
咨询网页： http://thanhsiang.org/ch/mitra
票价  ： 凡乐捐RM10将获得入门票一张，乐捐RM20将获得入门票三张。
详情：

• 了解压力，明白压力的根源。
• 压力背后，总有我们放不下的东西- 事情、看法、事件等。
• 没有事情是无法改变，而是改变得面对的，得处理的，才是造成许多人无法踏上改变的第一步。
• 压力的存在，也是突破的一个强大动力。若不好好静下心来，好好检视你的压力，得心打开，面对该面对的，停止该停止的，生命的另一扇门就会为我们展开。

此讲座会讲师为洪丽真心理辅导硕士。洪丽真硕士毕业于马大心理辅导硕士班，目前
全职推动亲子教育工作，拥有多年的辅导经验，并致力于将辅导、成长与瑜伽结合在
一起。

Teluk Bahang to Penang Hill Hike

After having hiked Teluk Bahang hill and Muka Head, I took the challenge the hike Penang Hill from Teluk Bahang last Saturday.

Based on the map, the entire journey spans 11.3km, about the distance from my house in Sungai Ara to Komtar.

I took my two boys and my friend Sitt together. We started at 8 and complete the journey - a total of 8 hours! It was not less streneous than Mt. Kinabalu 6,000ft - 11,000ft journey. I have not been so exhausted for long time.

Aging

Father's health is deteriorating quickly. At the age  of 79 now, he is not able to walk.

Just about 6 months ago, we were trying to stop him from riding his motorcycle. At that time he could hardly balance himself on the bike. We  went through the phase of putting up stern resistance to his request. At that time, we weren't just having strong opinion - he already had 3 accidents in which he fell from the bike.

In the recent weeks, he has not been able to walk even 30m from the road side the his favorite coffee shop. Furthermore, his coffee shop mates no longer able to engage in meaningful conversations with him because he was not able to understand their questions, therefore giving them wrong answers.

Yesterday he injured his head again and got 4 stitches from the hospital. After spending a night in the hospital on Chinese New Year day, he came back just now. Refusing to admit his loss of strength, he attempted to bath by himself. He ended up fell on the floor again. This time slightly injured the same place where he got his stitches, luckily not serious.

Unable to control his bladder, he often urinate on the floor and cause quite some inconvenience to everyone. We has spent many week convincing him using adult diapers would help everyone. But to no avail.

Whenever he tried to walk and unsuccessful, he always ask us, "Why like that, huh?"

Only until today, he is more receptive to the idea of diaper and wheelchair.

It seems like regardless of illness, old age and death, most of us has to go through denial before finally agreeing to face the inevitable.

He will have to live through this difficult period of the last few years of his time. In the mean time, we will have to learning about the spirit of filial piety, the how-tos of taking care of an old person.

Work and Study? Do a 'GTD'

Most people do part-time MBA. And it is nothing wrong with that. MBA are usually designed for industry-inclined folks, not for scholarly academicians.

Even MBAs are designed for working folks, it is still a big challenge to most of us. I have seen enough working people give up pursuing their MBA not long after the embark on the journey.

Work alone is bad enough, especially for those who work in tough workplaces. Switching our brains between study and work on daily basis accelerate our aging process.

One of the key skills needed to cope is to become more productive. But how to get our productivity up? Learn from the guru, of course.

There is a three-letter word GTD that represent a whole field of interest - Getting Things Done. It came out of David Allen's book "Getting Things Done":

From the moment we wake up until the time we go to bed, most of us have an overwhelming number of things to do everyday, at home, at school, at work. We have to go at a hurried pace just to get everything done, and sometimes we feel that we have too much to handle and our lives are getting out of our control. We get home tired, stressed out and worried about the things we failed to do and all the other things that we have yet to do the next day.
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen describes an “incredibly practical process that can help busy people regain control of their lives”, become more relaxed, and still get everything done. He provides systems, tools, insights, and tips on how to accomplish more with less effort, be happier and more successful individuals.

You don't need to rush to buy the book, yet. First, grab (download) a free copy of Productivity Magazine here. David Allen is interviewed in the first free edition.

Get a feel of this GTD movement, and take it from there. Put in some effort, you will be able to cope with your work+study life.