Getting good grades without actually being smarter, begins on the first day of the semester and you reap the benefits around finals.

•  Be Slightly Late To Your Very First Class - This will help you get noticed by your professor, which is a good thing. It doesn’t always work with all teachers, but having them associate a face with a name on a term paper works to your advantage.
• Ask At Least One Question Per Week - Find a good one, and ask it. You want to get noticed by your professor right? Asking questions shows that you are engaged and actively thinking about the course content.
• Always Skim The Material Before Class - This includes readings you didn’t do, homework you didn’t finish, and projects that you half-assed. I can’t tell you how many times I didn’t read what I was supposed to - but with some careful less-that-one-minute scanning was able to participate in class. Never be the student who says “uhh, I didn’t read the assigned readings”. That never looks good.
• Stop By Class At Least Once Per Month - We all have questions about an assignment or course that we could keep to the end of class. Try to ask a it after class one day after the 2nd or third week. This way you have one-on-one time with your professor and makes you look extra studious since you’re spending some of your extra time trying to learn more.
• Form Study Groups - Study groups are in general a waste of time, but there is certainly information that you will overlook while cramming. The other members of you study group can highlight the little tidbits, pages, and facts that are sure to pop up on an exam.
• Sit Within the First Half of Seats Closest to the Front - Yeah, this one is a bit of a drag and makes you look a bit like a dork - which is what you want your professor to think. Sitting in the half of seats closest to your teacher also help to keep you awake, hear more, and be distracted less easily.
• Try Not to Skip The Classes Everyone Else Does - If you can at all help it, try to attend class when a large part of the campus is going to cut class. Right before a holiday, music festivals, and football games are lots of fun, but if you can at least stay for the first half of class (let your professor know you’ll be leaving early) it will make a good impression.
• Always Bring The Book, A Pen, and Some Paper - Everything else is extra (maybe a calculator for math). These essentials are a must so you can at least pretend to be studious.
• Stay Quiet - Talking in class to others (it’s worse the smaller the class) is a quick way to annoy your fellow students and professor. Plus, you won’t hear anything.

It is important to create a link in your professor’s mind between some name in their roster and your face. Many studies have been done on the effects of facial recognition and empathy and the results consistently show that people empathize more with those they are familiar with and people who look like people they know.

I once had a professor tell me she really liked a shirt I was wearing, because her husband had the same one. No sure fire way to get an ‘A’, but you can bet she remembered my face out of the 100 people in class while grading my papers!

I’d love to hear other little tips and tricks others may have used in college, school, and in different majors!

Men should eat at least 10 tablespoons if tomato sauce per week for prostate health.

But to really reap the benefits, you can’t just put a few slices of an heirloom tomato in your salad. The best way to get the positive effects is by eating 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week. “It takes 165 raw tomatoes to equal 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce,” Dr. Roizen says. “So it’s much easier to have tomato sauce.”

It’s not often you can find that much health in that little quantity, not to mention good taste. The rest of the top ten 10 foods men should eat everyday ranges from aspirin to red wine -worth a read.

For around $15 you can save yourself a few steps per day to the shredder, with one that can follow you around!

The InnoDesk personal shredder makes a great gift for the lazy, or small children who can rip it open and accidentally dismember themselves.

Instead of throwing away you sensitive documents or using them as barbecue kindling, shred them to protect your privacy.

For $150 you can screw on Suzhou’s valve caps onto your car tires and get the results sent via wireless to your dashboard.

The small LCD display on the dash beeps in the event of a rapid loss of air pressure, or if the PSI goes beyond set limits.

The kit looks simple enough, though I’d be worried about theft.

Much of the list compiled by Real Simple is common sense but I thought this trick was a unique one.

If you have leftover lemons and limes from a cocktail party, squeeze them and freeze the juice in an ice-cube tray. Once they’re frozen, store the cubes in zippered plastic bags and use them for recipes that call for fresh lemon or lime juice.

As for the other ideas I read are more organizational tips - not time savers. I’m not sure how much more you can get done by making a bunch of lists. Besides, that requires work, which we don’t like, even if it means less work. Makes sense right?

This table looks completely ineffective against any kind of intruder.

I mean, come on - how long is it going to take to suit up like a medieval knight and fight off a burglar with a gun?

Besides, wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a bat?

From the semi-not-so-real Onion:

I just keep telling myself, “That’s okay, Sheryl. Tomorrow you can take the afternoon off and run a bath, light some candles, and tease your engorged vulva to thoughts of that carpenter who put in our basement molding. Tomorrow.”

This fictional account is another reason to save time washing your hands, making U-turns on the highway, and eating freezer meals. Not quite sure how I got 3 legitimate links out of this post, but I did. So there!

This list is really just common sense, but worth reviewing for those of you trying to squeeze out a few more minutes around the house.

If you have young children, Stack suggests setting up the kitchen so that they can help themselves when they want breakfast or a snack. Put all the kids’ plates, bowls, and utensils on a low shelf or drawer that they can easily reach, and pour milk into small, easy-pour containers. Keep the refrigerator stocked with healthy, easy-to-serve snacks like cheese sticks and applesauce.

I’m not sure if the kids just wouldn’t make a mess anyway. What do you do to save time when you’re at home?

Next time you don’t know what to with those browning bananas, stick them in the freezer. You can eat them later, provided you give them a few minutes to thaw out.

For bananas that get too ripe for eating, I always take the skin off and throw it in my designated ripe banana ziploc bag in the freezer. When I need the bananas, I just pull them out and microwave them a little to soften them.

A neat and useful little trick I overhead at the grocery store

The iStraw filters 99.99% of all waterborne bacteria through its built-in filter. The iStraw is capable of filtering up to 500 liters of water before you need to replace the filter cartridge.

The nice thing is for $40 you won’t have to go through the pains to refill a water filter around the house, or worry about explosive diarrhea while traveling overseas.

iStraw [via Gizmodo]