Cellphones are productivity’s greatest enemy. More so if you are a student who’s supposed to be studying the day away but you can’t keep your hands off your device. It could be the urge to scroll down Facebook or the constant messaging notifications that’ll throw you off the hook, either way, let’s not deny just how distracting a smartphone can be.
Fortunately, it is possible to turn your disturbing tech gadgets into a study buddy slash best friend for life that’ll help you succeed, study efficiently and be productive. Below we’ve rounded the most useful study apps for students to take advantage of!
Forest
The Forest app offers virtual trees and plants for all the hours you haven’t touched your phone while studying. It’s no big deal if you think you’ll be able to bypass it but that’s the thing, your trees die every time you exit the app.
Want to check your Twitter for a few minutes? Or maybe tap on that Instagram notification that’s been bugging you for the last 30 minutes? Go ahead but prepare to watch your trees die first. However, if you push through your study session and completely avoid exiting the app, you’ll be able to see your very own digital forest grow and flourish with different trees and plants that represent all the hours you were productive.
Fun fact! The Forest App partnered with Trees for the Future where the organization plant real trees for all of the trees that pro users have grown virtually. Talk about being productive and helping the environment!
Freedom
If self-motivation apps like Forest don’t cut it for you, Freedom might! It’s an app that locks your phone while you study. You first need to indicate which applications or websites distract you and Freedom will block them.
What’s great is you can set these in advance so you won’t need to flag the apps and websites every time. It also syncs across devices so even though Instagram is blocked on your phone, you won’t get tempted to open it from your laptop.
Todoist
For some students, distractions are not the problem but instead, management and organization. And Todoist is one of the best apps out there to help students who have too much load on their plates.
It allows you to organize academic subjects, deadlines, projects, and homework. It can even allow you to plan and organize your whole week or month. It also has a few convenient features that we appreciate, such as:
- Recurring due dates for weekly homework or activities
- Quick add for new reminders and projects you need to input on the go
- Favorites and priorities for activities and deadlines you need to finish first
- Sections and subtasks for bigger projects you might need to cut into smaller tasks
- Integrations with other apps, such as Google Calendar or Dropbox
Evernote
Evernote has been around since forever. Everyone loved it then, everyone still loves it now!
Evernote’s versatility is what made everyone love it. The app is equipped with rich formatting tools, which means it gives you the freedom and tools to organize your notes the exact way you live them. It has a powerful search option for those who write class notes in a haste with no organization and you can also add documents, images, and audio recordings.
The app also provides useful templates for you, like ‘Class Notes’ and ‘Project Overview.’ In addition, syncing across devices is also possible so your notes are with you regardless of which device you bring. You can sync between two devices on the free plan and unlimited devices if you are on premium.
Anki
Middle school, high school, and even university have a few things in common. One of them has to be memorization or in some cases, familiarization of terms, vocabs, and formulas. And while we can always make use of our index cards, a lot of digital flashcards apps have been launched to make memorizing easier.
One of them is Anki, a powerful and intelligent flashcard app that aims to help you remember facts, terms, and equations. It has a scheduling system that automatically tests you on materials it knows you’ll most likely forget soon.
It syncs across devices so you’ll always have important flashcards with you everywhere you go. If you are planning on memorizing general topics, Anki also has a library made with pre-made decks in general and a variety of topics.
My Study Life
My Study Life is one of those apps specifically designed to make academic life a bit easier. The app allows you to store information and details about your homework, exams, and classes. It has a cloud system and can be managed across devices, even offline.
It shows if you have any upcoming due or you’ve already missed deadlines, as well as if you have any conflicting class schedules. My Study Life also pushes notifications for uncompleted tasks, upcoming exams, and class schedules.
It’s also free! Which is great for students who are on a budget.
XMind
Some assignments and projects require brainstorming and mapping out ideas and information. XMind is a study app that focuses on mind-mapping and idea management. If you feel like certain study apps constrict your ideas too much, try XMind for unlimited idea flow!
The app offers organizational charges, logic charges, matrix charts, and numerous templates for weekly planning and projects. It also integrates with Evernote.
It has a free version and paid versions and you can choose which plans suit your needs the best.
