With the start of the academic year, it’s time to switch out of vacation mode—pronto. What you do the first week of classes can majorly impact your grades four months from now, so don’t skip these first week must-dos. Photo by wohnai . Editor’s note: This guest post originally appeared in an altered form at the Professors’ Guide blog at U.S. News & World Report . Take charge: At college there’s no one looking over your shoulder or holding your hand to make sure you get off on the right foot.

Windows 7 only allows you to upgrade directly from Vista, so if you are looking to switch from XP you are out of luck. Thankfully the built-in Easy Transfer tool makes the upgrade process much easier. Over at the How-To Geek site (my home away from Lifehacker), blogger Mysticgeek has put together a full guide to using Windows Easy Transfer to move all of your files and settings from your XP computer to your new Windows 7 PC—though the tool can be used from Vista, or even if you decided to dual-boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista .

Free Tools to Back Up Your Online Accounts – Backup utilities – Lifehacker (tags: backup tools lifehacker gmail cloud software tips flickr twitter wordpress wordpressplugins ) Make: Online : HOW TO – Run AppleTV on a Mac mini (tags: hacks hardware MacMini appletv ) How To: Backup And Search All Your Friends’ Tweets In Google Reader (tags: twitter google socialmedia rss reader opml search archive backup ) A Textbook Example

Aug 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | no comments Charles Halton links to a nice article explaining the “Getting Things Done” productivity technique in terms relevant for college students. It’s certainly worth a read, although GTD won’t suit everyone.I’m also adding Study Hacks (like LifeHacker but for students) mentioned by one of the commenters, to my Resource page. Darrell Pursiful posted this entry on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 10:51 am.