Find Academic Success: Top 25 Productivity Apps for Students
Use some helpful tools to navigate through your hectic student days with ease
Life as a student is not easy--there's so much to juggle! To start with, you have to keep track of all your classes, homework, projects, and exams. Add to this, extracurriculars, electives, sports, part-time jobs, career counseling, and maybe a couple of parties a week--phew!
As chaotic as it sounds, student life is also supposed to be one of the best experiences you'll ever get. So how do you ensure you stay on top of all the work and give yourself every chance to succeed and enjoy things? Simple--just use the best productivity apps for students out there!
Best Productivity Apps for Students
Task Management Apps
Todoist
Todoist is the ultimate task management app that can be used for classes, chores, or habits. It has simple but efficient features that let you create goals, prioritize them as needed, measure progress, and even create reminders to help you with time management.
Google Calendar
Schedule your days down to the minute with the Google Calendar app for an organized student life. Enter your class timetable, assignment deadlines, meetings and events and let the calendar show you what every day looks like. You can also schedule recurring tasks till the end of time, so you never have to stress about forgetting or manually scheduling them!
Microsoft To Do
Microsoft Office applications have no match, especially in terms of task-keeping features. Microsoft To Do is, like the name suggests, the suite's tool for managing to-do lists and projects. List your tasks and let the app help you prioritize and check them off quickly and efficiently.
Any.do
Any.do is one of the go-to productivity apps for students looking for organization and time management. It has a simple, clear interface that lets you enter tasks, create timelines and set reminders so you're always on top of your work. Best part is, you can use it across multiple platforms and devices so you never miss a thing.
Notion
Notion is all about decluttering. Organize every project you have in a separate folder so you can access your notes, tasks, and important information without getting confused. It also helps you seamlessly measure your progress and share it with others, which makes it great for the management of group projects.
Note-Taking Apps
Evernote
Evernote is a powerful note-taking app that will help you throughout your student life, and beyond. It works like a digital notebook, letting you add all the important information from your lessons, seminars, and meetings in real time. You can also supplement your notes with images, scan physical documents, save web articles and annotate your points, all at once.
Microsoft OneNote
Another Microsoft tool, Microsoft OneNote is like many digital notebooks into one that can help you access your entire syllabus whenever you need it. Once you've created different files and folders according to class or project, the tool lets you type, record or handwrite your notes, and organize them however you want.
GoodNotes
If you learn more by physically writing down your notes, and occasionally doodling on the side of the page, try GoodNotes. Create any kind of note that helps you study--including flashcards or illustrations--and organize your work by subject, color, or priority. The app also has a built-in scanner to help you extract data from physical documents.
Focus-Enhancing Apps
Forest
If you have trouble staying focused during study sessions, the Forest app will keep you straight. It has a unique concept--set your focused time and a digital tree grows while you work. But if you stop to pick up your phone and close the app, it dies! You don't want to be a tree-killer, do you? So focus up with the Forest app.
Cold Turkey
Sometimes we need a total distraction-free zone to get work done. Cold Turkey is here to help with exactly that, without exceptions. Set a timer and input your list of distracting websites, and this browser extension will not let you get on them--you can't even shut off the timer! Talk about tough love!
Noisili
Total silence can be deafening sometimes--so use Noisili to access some calming white noise that will help you focus. The app has a myriad of sounds to choose from--including background noise like chatter of a coffee shop, or pitter-patter of light rain--to keep you feeling good and alert!
Freedom
Freedom is here to set you free from all your distractions and procrastination triggers. Use it to block both websites and apps that distract you from work. It works on multiple platforms, and you can even schedule your blockers for recurring hours to make things easier.
Study Apps
Anki
Anki has become the go-to productivity app for students to create flashcards and prepare for exams. Its process of creating digital notecards and accessing them at any point is easy and convenient, so you don't have to scramble to look for your notes or make new ones right before exams.
Quizlet
Quizlet makes the science of study easy and accessible. Create flashcards, get expert explanations on facts and concepts, and use an AI learn assistant to help you prepare during exam time. You can even share your custom-made flash cards with friends to help them out as finals get closer!
Pomodor
Have you heard of the pomodoro technique? it's a time management method even experts swear by, which sets you up for say, 25-minute sessions of focused work cut with 5-minute breaks to refocus and reset. Pomodor makes the whole process easier. Use the web-based app to set your pomodoros and it won't even let you switch tabs or stop the timer till your focus session is done.
Magical
When doing research or writing a paper, you often want to copy, save, or cite information from websites. Use Magical to easily import data from one application to another and save loads of time. It's really magic!
Habit Tracker Apps
Habitica
As a student, its easy to let go of certain habits like going to the gym to exercise, reading novels, and even eating well and on time. Habitica helps you ensure you don't let your good habits fade away, and even makes them fun! By gamifying your daily tasks, the app makes you feel like you're going on quests for some cool rewards and benefits--which you are, even beyond the game!
Way of Life
If you want to develop good habits but have trouble staying consistent, Way of Life is for you. The app tracks your progress and lets you know when you're developing a good streak, to keep you motivated and moving forward!
Teamwork and Collaboration Apps
Slack
Slack can be a real life-saver for large teams--just ask people working from home! Create new projects, keep track of everyone's progress and deadlines, conduct meetings, and chat with your peers in real time so you all coordinate and work efficiently.
Asana
Asana is an easy project management app that helps you organize your project, set multiple reminders and deadlines, and watch everyone's work come together like a seasoned orchestra!
Google Sheets
Google Sheets provides an easy way to create and edit online spreadsheets. During group assignments, everyone can come together and update the sheets as progress is made. You can even create multiple sheets that are saved automatically so there's no question of lost or misplaced data.
Other Useful Apps
Google Backup and Sync
Google Backup and Sync is a handy tool that makes sure your work, notes, passwords and other information are never lost. All the data is stored on the Cloud, which means not only can you access it at any time, but can also use multiple devices to store information!
Mint
Financial management can get a little tricky when you're a student. Use Mint to monitor your budget, keep track of your bills and payments and make sure you're paying attention to your money flow and credit score.
My Study Life
My Study Life is another financial management and personal assistant app that keep track of everything that is important--bills, funds, expenses and deadlines! Use it to ensure you're setting aside money for textbooks and are not spending too much socializing--especially when exams are getting closer!
Headspace
No matter how hard you try, the stress just takes over sometimes. Use Headspace for these moments. Through guided meditation, the app helps you process everything that is happening around you and approach the next step with a calmer and clearer mind.
How Student Productivity Apps Help
Creating To-Do Lists
With so many classes, projects, and events to keep track of, it's easy to let one or two tasks slip away from your mind, Using an app to create a to-do list that you can update as you go will help ensure all important work get done.
Time Management
Time flies when you're studying at the library or catching up with classmates. Productivity apps that let you create a daily schedule, especially using the pomodoro technique, will ensure you make time for everything and do it all on time.
Helpful Reminders
Many organization apps come with features that remind you when a certain task is due--be it homework or taking your daily supplements. Reminders keep us grounded and cautious of time as well.
Collaboration
Group projects can be tricky--you want to make sure everyone is contributing and the work is going as planned. A tool where all the group members can see the progress is super helpful in this regard.
Stress Relief
Student life is also meant to be enjoyed! An app that reminds you to take a pause, sit on the grass, exercise, and even socialize will let you live a more well-rounded life.
For a well-rounded productivity experience, try an app or two with extra accountability from Boss as a Service!
Final Thoughts
Student life can be hectic and chaotic--use some helpful productivity apps to bring order and structure into your days.