What's in My Backpack? - College Info Geek

Key Takeaways

some of you guys have asked me to do a video about the stuff that's in my backpack and my answer to that is okay so let's talk about the bag first before I get into what's inside of it this is the manal carryon I actually backed it on Kickstarter a little while ago and for traveling the world and going places I think this is a fantastic bag I'm able to fit everything that I need to carry with me inside of it it opens up in a clam shell fashion I absolutely love it that being said now it retails for around 300 bucks and for daily campus use it's probably overkill for comparison this is the bag that I use for most of college it's the uh Synergy I think it's called from Swiss Gear I got it from Best Buy for about 60 bucks and it's a quality backpack it hasn't fallen apart in six years uh and I think that's a thing that you should keep in mind when you're buying a backpack but also it's not Overkill it doesn't cost hundreds of dollars and it has enough Pockets to hold all your stuff all right let's dig into this thing first up is my MacBook Air this is probably the thing in my backpack I use the most because I'm always writing and going to coffee shops and working on stuff I love the air absolutely amazing computer if you're looking for a Windows computer that's very comparable the Dell XPS 13 is an awesome option beyond that I am not a laptop expert but I can link to some laptop recommendations in the blog post for this video also got an iPad Mini this is the first edition so no R in a screen but I mainly just use this for reading books it's an upgrade from my Kindle and I always keep it in the bag I also usually have a print book because I like books I guess and right now I'm reading a book called think smart it's a neuroscientist's prescription for improving your brain's performance I'm hoping to learn some cool stuff from this book that I can build into new videos uh so keep an eye out for that kind of stuff also got a couple of paper notebooks this is my main one nothing fancy it's an environotes recycled paper notebook I think it costs about 65 cents but if you watch my video on my task organization system you'll know that a lot of what I do is on paper and this thing is my catchall when I'm taking notes from an online course they all go in here when I'm doing my daily or weekly task lists they go in here or when I'm creating b-roll lists for the uh graphics and animations I want to put in my videos they go in here everything's in here uh it's not very organized it's probably not the best way to organize your notes if you're a student and have lots of classes but it works for me I've also got a cheap Sketchbook in here for when I want to create drawings or illustrations for my videos and if you've seen my video on how to Ace your finals you probably remember this drawing so keeping it in my bag at all times is a good way for me to be able to draw things when I get inspiration if I don't happen to be here by my desk lastly I've got a single purple folder is my catchall for things like airline ticket stubs and anything else that needs to be put in a folder that's made of paper um if you're a student and you have a lot of classes I actually recommend those accordion binder devices with the flap that can snap shut it works better than a Trapper works better than stuffing lots of folders into your backpack but uh these days I don't really have a whole lot of papers that I need to keep so one folder carries them all pretty well moving on to the small stuff I've got a Logitech presentation remote because occasionally I go speak at schools adapters for the MacBook I've got the VGA one for the same reason I've got the presentation remote to hook up to projectors when I want to do a presentation and also the ethernet one just in case there's no Wi-Fi but there is for some reason an ethernet cord business cards I always recommend having at least a few of these in your backpack just in case you meet somebody and you want to leave them your contact information and also leave a good impression and if you want to get them I recommend using moo I've been using them since I was a college student and they make really good high quality cards pens and pencils not that interesting I don't use anything crazy I just use what works but I will say that I do keep two pens in my backpack at all times just in case I'm out somewhere and someone needs to borrow a pen I can be the cool person who lens went out and actually at VidCon I made a new friend by doing this so uh thumbs up for friendship umbrella this is actually a really cool thing to keep in your backpack I always have one on hand because you don't know when you're going to get caught in a rainstorm and this has come in handy for me more times than I can count so this thing is staying in my bag and it makes for kind of a cool back trop too a really thin hoodie to deal with crazy air conditioning in coffee shops laptop charger because I don't like sadness iPhone charging cable because same reason micro USB and mini USB cords I used to have legit reasons for keeping these camera and uh pocket Wi-Fi I think but now I just keep them in here because people with Android phones always forget their phone chargers and then they're very happy when I happen to have one USB battery actually picked this up in Japan came really in handy when I was out all day my phone would tend to die I don't use it too much here in the states when I'm just going about my business but it keeps a spot in the backpack because it can come in handy and of course headphones and lastly a canteen for Te and water because this thing doesn't do so well in a backpack now that's generally what I keep in my backpack on a daily basis today but since I'm not a student anymore and there are other things I used to keep in the bag I wanted to show you a few other items you might find useful first up is actually a plug strip I don't keep this in my bag on a daily basis but whenever I travel I do make sure to keep it along with this little two-prong to three-prong converter this basically makes it so that even if all the outlets are taken in a coffee shop or an airport or a hostel I can make more outlets and that's always a good thing when I lived on campus I always kept a skate tool in my bag because my main way of getting around campus was a skateboard book Flags these come in handy for marking your place in books that you don't want to highlight I always kept my clicker in my bag because I had classes that required it now if you go to a school that requires this thing yes you should keep it in your bag all the time but I think that schools are actually starting to move to smartphone clicker apps which would be pretty cool but either way this thing always had a spot in my bag as much as I don't like it a pick four notebook now this is actually a pretty cool goal tracking device basically it has you commit to doing daily practice on four different goals for a six- week period and every single day you write down your progress on each of your goals I've used several of these in the past and they've helped me make progress on goals like learning Japanese building my own iPhone app and lots of other things and lastly my trusty graphing calculator for math classes so that ends this tour of my backpack hopefully you enjoyed it and if you did you can leave a like to support this channel now I actually want to know what kind of cool stuff you keep in your backpack so let me know down in the comments below that's all I got so thanks so much for watching and I will see you next week hey there guys thanks for watching this video now if you enjoyed it and you want to get new video videos on being a more effective student every single week you can click that big red subscribe button right there I also wrote a book on how to earn better grades and it's absolutely free so if you want to get a copy click the picture of the book and I'll get one to you you can find more detail and links to some of the things I mentioned in this video at the companion blog post and you can find that by clicking the orange logo right there in last week's video I covered 20 different websites that I think are really useful for students so check it out if you haven't seen it and if you want to connect with me or ask questions I'm Tom frankley on Twitter or you can leave a comment below thanks for watching [Music]