The introduction of technology has led to an amazing era of productivity. Thanks to smartphones, most information is accessible with the click of just a few buttons, but few people utilize these tools effectively. Nowadays, developers are constantly creating new ways to stay organized, learn on the go and pick up better habits. Maximize your productivity as a student by integrating these five apps into your daily routine.
iStudiez – iPhone, Free/$2.99 Pro
iStudiez is one of the best scheduling and time management apps around. Inputting class times, homework deadlines and other important dates into your planner means iStudiez will provide alerts for upcoming classes and deadlines. In addition, the app can monitor grades and help you plan for extracurricular activities. Altogether it’s a great way to maintain some order in scheduling and ensure free time and study time are both given their due.
Looking for a free app with similar project management and organizational capabilities as iStudiez? Try Asana! You can organize by project, task, subtask, due date, priority and more. The functionality doesn’t stop there. You can even assign tasks to other Asana users, which makes it a great tool for team projects and assignments.
Study Buddy – iPhone, $0.99
Study Buddy is a program designed with one goal in mind: To be a cruel and relentless overseer. Knowing that you need to study does not always mean studying gets done, and the same factors which make smartphones so powerful also provide easily accessible distractions (ehm, Instagram). Study Buddy helps by logging all the time spent doing things other than studying (whether that’s browsing the internet or playing games) and provides a graph of ‘Study Efficiency’ to keep students on task.
iPhone users can utilize the free built in “Screen Time” feature (Settings app > Screen Time) to set daily limits on apps, schedule downtime from your smartphone and even block inappropriate content if you so choose. If you use other Apple products, you can share these settings across other devices as well, such as your iPad and Mac.
StudyBlue – iOS and Android, Free
StudyBlue is a simple idea that works brilliantly: It’s a network that lets students both browse and make flashcards. The interface is sleek and easy to use, allowing offering users the option to upload or view notes, flashcards, and study guides from specific classes. Random flip mode takes users through the designated material to detect areas of improvement and is essential for exam preparation. With over 400 million flashcards and counting, StudyBlue is a student must-have.
Evernote – Most Platforms, Free/$5 Premium/$10 Business
Evernote is rightly one of the best-known organization and note-taking apps that even fortune 100 firms use. There are various tiers for different users, but for most college students the free edition is more than enough. Evernote offers powerful note-taking abilities that can be easily organized, searched, and retrieved for later digestion. It integrates everything from .pdf files to web pages to pictures, allowing for much better data collation than merely taking down notes. In addition, Evernote syncs across multiple devices, so the notes taken on a laptop in class can be later accessed on your smartphone for revision. We don’t even know how students managed before this software was made.
Mint – iPhone and Android, Free
Mint is an app dedicated to an unpleasant reality of college life: Limited funds. What little money students do have has to be split between books and other academic supplies, food, and social gatherings. Mint is there to help monitor and guide students in their budgeting by providing both computer and smart device programs that can interact and provide real-time updates regarding spending. It’s also possible to see graphs of spending to learn exactly where the money is going. This sort of program is a real necessity for the modern college student.
College is an exciting, fun and sometimes intimidating time. Feelings of intimidation and high stress scenarios can be reduced with some help from the right apps, and though they won’t overcome the big problems, they can make sure the day-to-day studying and task management goes far more smoothly.
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization, boasting 320 plus chapter nationwide, that recognizes high-achieving first-and second-year students. With its three pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service, NSCS is proud to provide career and graduate school connections, leadership and service experiences, practical and skills-based content, access to discounts and savings, and over a million dollars in scholarships, chapter funds and awards annually. To learn more about joining the NSCS honors society, visit us at http://www.nscs.org/join.