I’m not a student, but I use GTD all the time to remind me to read. However, I didn’t find that putting page numbers in my Actions worked very well. Instead, I just have an Action of “Read ‘On Intelligence’” and leave it at that. Granted, I’m reading for pleasure and I’m not under a deadline, but if you want to read a specific page count it might be best to include that as part of a Weekly Review rather than putting it right on your Next Actions.

You might find the “GTD & Academics” post on my website helpful. There are unique challenges with reading and GTD. The three keys I’ve learned are:

(1) Specify purpose for reading on every item you need to read (2) Estimate the time to read the very next chapter or section (i.e. <15min, <30min, <60min, etc.) (3) Keep your reading in a folder with you at all times and pull it out immediately when you are waiting for something.

You also need to use contexts like @Library, @Home, @Office, etc. — where you need to be to get that reading done.

Hope that helps.

When I was in school, I devoted an afternoon at the start of each semester to divvying up the assignments in my syllabus across my calendar.

For your psychology class, I would write out a (probably lengthy) checklist for each assignment. I usually use “Read Chapter 1” and then “Complete Chapter 1 Problem Set,” and so on. If you have a long reading assignment that isn’t broken into chapters, I’d divide it into manageable chunks by page number.

I love checking things off on my lists. “Read Das Kapital” is an overwhelming action item. “Read Chapter 1 of Das Kapital” is something I can check off with little effort.

I’d then go a step further and divide the assignments, chronologically, into weekly chunks. If a book has 12 chapters, and you have 12 weeks in the semester, after each chapter I’d put (Due: [Date of Last Day of Week 1]). Then treat those dates like any other deadline, even if they are self-imposed, and make sure that during your weekly review you’ve scheduled time during the upcoming week to complete that reading.

I use daily action cards that I fill out each Sunday for the upcoming week with any time-sensitive deadlines. I’d put “Complete Reading X” on Saturday’s card, so that if I haven’t already gotten to it from my Next Actions list already, I’ll be sure to do it Saturday.