I can never quite concentrate in class: best thing I could do is carry a laptop and take notes on it, hoping to review them later, read the textbook and make us

I can never quite concentrate in class: best thing I could do is carry a laptop and take notes on it, hoping to review them later, read the textbook and make use of all resources available to me. As far as concentrating on work/hacking, the tips are: Use a development environment where you can concentrate on creating useful features versus the process. To me it's: - Linux with a window manager that allows me to have multiple work spaces and tile windows automatically - Emacs with the tramp plugin (allows me to edit code on remote machines as to test the code immediately) - Dynamic programming languages and unit/other automated testing. - Either dual screens (preferred) or a single large screen. With this combination I am writing code on one screen (or part of the screen) and debugging (or editing a wiki/bugzilla bug entry/base camp task list) on another. Also I try to be aware of when I am in the "zone" and try to get as much of the crucial (or core) work done as needed during that time. When I am not in the zone I try to get as many of the annoying/"easy, but tedious"/need-to-be-done tasks as possible, so that things are easier for me next time I enter the zone. I also try to maintain a work out schedule as to keep myself free of headaches and fatigue.