So many publications discuss various aspects of computer usage but few if any, discuss the use of computer hardware and software as a system. The purpose of this text is to provide a discussion of computer hardware and software as more than just a collection of unrelated parts. Once you see these separate parts as a system, you can become much more efficient with the use of your time while also improving the quality of your work. Graduate school or any other serious endeavor requires a tremendous investment of time, effort, and money in order to maximize its value to you. However, it does not always require grinding through stacks of paper documents, loss of sleep and possibly health, or sacrifice of some aspect of social life. Much of the image of the bookworm buried in the library stacks until the wee hours of the morning is being erased by more efficient and skilled use of the precious hours in each day. In this book are many concepts, illustrated by hardware and software, that improve the ways of doing things as a graduate student. While it will require some investment of time and money, an electronic system as described here pays large dividends to the one willing to commit to it. As with everything else, in the end, it is your decision to make. You will feel much better about your choices if they are informed and accurate ones.
While the title of the book focuses on those in "graduate education," interpreted as seeking a master's degree and/or a doctoral degree, most of the ideas presented are applicable to anyone seeking to be successful.