8 Best Student Productivity Apps In 2022
Navigating the academic world online is no easy task. What opportunity do we have when the brightest minds of our generation are obsessed with making sure every annoyance is just a click away?
Fortunately, there are student productivity apps that aim to clear your head and eliminate noise. You know what they say: when technology takes over, technology gives.
The wrong app will likely leave you with a complex interface and more features that will push you down the rabbit hole. That’s why when creating this list, we wanted to make sure that the apps
- Quickly
- only
- Free or cheap
Before we dive into the best student productivity apps, let’s take a look at the purposes they might serve and why.
8 productivity tips for student 2022
To succeed as a student, here are 8 essential tips to help you stay productive and focused during college.
1. Track your time
Our brains often trick us into believing what we want. So if you study 8 hours a day and want to study 2 hours, your brain will easily add up to lull you into a false sense of accomplishment. That’s why time tracking tools help you get a detailed view of where you’re actually spending your time, not where you want to be.
Whatever project you get, start by breaking it down into smaller pieces and giving it the time you need to complete it. And then chase.
Eventually, you’ll get into the habit of accurately predicting how long a task will take and planning your week accordingly.
Time management is an important skill that not only promises success in your studies or your later work but also allows you to devote yourself to your other interests and to take care of yourself both physically and mentally.
2. Plan ahead
You can focus on constantly reminding yourself of everything that needs to be done, or you can actually get to work.
Enter a to-do list where you can discard tasks that require your attention. Using a to-do app or good old-fashioned pen and paper frees up your brain so you don’t get overwhelmed with everything at once and can focus on one priority at a time.
3. Turn off the noise
Great technicians work tirelessly 24/7 so you can spend hours liking, scrolling, commenting, or engaging in all things social.
Do you reach for your phone every time it turns on, rattles or buzzes? Do we agree; Infinite scrolling is very interesting compared to jobs that are not?
With online distractions increasing, be it social media (yes, even harmless ones like Reddit, 9gag, or Youtube) or interesting websites full of important stuff, attention is being diverted.
While there’s basically nothing wrong with spending time online, when you really need to get down to business, it’s important to keep out the noise.
4. Stay focused
Our current timing wreaks havoc on our ability to focus and work in depth — the idea of focusing on a single topic, task, or project for an extended period of time.
Fixed focus time allows us to get more done. I’ve been using the Pomodoro Technique, or a variation thereof, for over a decade. While it didn’t help me graduate on my own, it did help me get better grades with less effort.
The Pomodoro technique, or whatever variation you prefer, is fairly easy to do. For me, a 25-minute work session is long enough to stay engaged and make real progress without feeling like a tedious job, while a 5-minute break that never feels far gives me a chance to catch my breath, without getting in the way of my work.
Be so focused that time passes and you achieve a lot. This is a goal worth pursuing every day.
5. Make a schedule
The best thing that helps me stay on track with my exam preparation is creating a schedule for myself. They are filled with days I have to devote to a chapter or topic, with buffer days to add cushion to particularly difficult topics, breaks, or missed syllabus.
Doing this over time allows you to break down a large amount of curriculum that needs to be covered into manageable chunks.
Parkinson’s Law gets it right: work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. Timing should give you an idea of what to prioritize, what to do during the day, and prepare well for the exam, whether you started studying a month or a week ago.
6. Take notes
One of the best tools you have as a student is extensive note-taking. Whether it’s a clear explanation of a concept from your teacher, helpful advice from a friend, or even an insightful flash of inspiration, you’re sure to feel inspired.
These notes can serve as study guides, help you retake exams, and provide valuable information about how other students approach different subjects. They are also a must if you want to keep information and facts from lectures!
You can use whichever device is most convenient for you and sync your computer, phone, or tablet to a cloud storage platform where everything is organized and accessible.
7. Active memory
When I was a student, I didn’t really like memorizing things. I then decided to become a writer and stuck with a list of thousands of words to increase my vocabulary.
What has helped me a lot are apps that promise to make memorization easier, so they can greatly reduce study time or greatly increase the amount of learning.
A very efficient way of learning is through active memory, a memorization technique that uses visual aids such as flash cards.
8. Consistent
No big change in life comes from great habits dropped in the middle of the road.
To build a habit, it’s important to create a routine that works for you. You need a system that actively rewards and motivates you while allowing you to repeat what you did day after day when you did it.
These are some smart techniques you can use to increase your productivity and ensure you have time to live a balanced life.
To write this article, we spoke to thousands of educators, and downloaded and used countless apps to make sure we separated the husks from the rest. Each app is the best in its category to reinforce everything we’ve learned so far.
8 Best Student Productivity Apps in 2022
1. RescueTime:
Automatic tracking and time management
Here’s what RescueTime can do:
- Automatically tracks your time in the background without any action from you
- Categorize where you spend your time
- Lets you block annoying websites with the paid version
The free version lets you download the app and track your time across all available platforms – Mac, Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux.
This is the ultimate productivity app not only for students but also for professionals around the world who don’t want to actively use the app to get the results.
We’ve found RescueTime to be the perfect app for students as it emphasizes time tracking as a means to be more productive with gamification, easy reporting, and website blocking.
2. Someday:
Take it one day at a time
Most to-do apps are redundant for personal tasks. Our destination app, Someday, brings together a simple, light, and fun experience for creating to-do lists at the start of the day.
It’s easy to use with just three buckets – today, tomorrow, and someday – where the simple design and fun interactions help you organize your upcoming tasks without unnecessary hassle.
3. Cold Turkey:
The strongest website blocker on the internet
Cold Turkey does exactly what its name suggests. One of the most recommended apps for a writer, it’s also a great tool in any student’s arsenal.
It is the “world’s toughest website blocker”. And no, they’re not kidding.
If you have a problem with self-control and always get what you want then you must have this app. It lets you block websites, games, and apps to increase productivity and regain your free time.
With Cold Turkey Writer, you can turn your computer into a persistent typewriter until you reach the word count for the day. When you have an upcoming project after you’ve done your research, give Cold Turkey Writer a try and watch your productivity soar.
4. Forest:
Focus timer for productivity
Forest is undoubtedly one of the most popular productivity apps in the world. Why? Because it combines essential functionality and beautiful design for a good cause. A recipe that even Professor Eutonium would be proud of.
Whenever you want to start a study session, plant a tree in your “Forest” in the app. The tree will grow from seed or sapling into a tree in the time you set.
To follow the Pomodoro technique, I planted a tree for 25 minutes. The tree grows while you work, but if you pick up the phone and exit the app, your tree will die! The more you focus, the more trees you can collect and add to your forest.
The company even grows native trees in hundreds of countries! This is a win-win for you and the planet.
This app takes a creative approach to keep you focused. Give it a try and join the millions who fell in love with it instantly.
5. Google Sheets:
Free spreadsheet editor
To create a schedule, simplify your life and use Google Sheets. No spreadsheet software can beat its simplicity and affordability.
Here are some tips for creating the right schedule to help you pass the exam:
- Work backward from your exam date and find out how much time you have to prepare for each subject
- Allocate days for each subject, divide the period by the level of difficulty and the number of chapters to be covered
- Schedule a few buffer days to relax, shut down, or deal with issues that take up more time than you allocate
Don’t make an hourly schedule because it will limit and can be a recipe for disaster
6. Evernote:
Organize all your notes
No discussion of productivity is complete without mentioning Evernote.
I’ve used too many note-taking apps to know that none works as well as Evernote on all devices.
Evernote is a powerful note-taking app with many features to help you get the most out of your university studies. In addition to basic digital notebook features, Evernote also lets you extract text from images, create to-do lists, scan physical documents, and save web articles and PDFs for annotations in your notes. You can even search, edit, and take notes directly in Siri or Ok Google on your phone.
It’s true that there’s a lot of customization behind a paywall, but as a student, asking for a lot can be annoying.
7. Quizlet:
Learning tools and flashcards
With expert explanations, AI learning assistants, and flashcards, Quizlet has a full suite of science-based learning tools at your fingertips.
Quizlet is the easiest way to practice and master everything you learn. It makes learning language, history, vocabulary, and science easy and effective. Plus it’s free.
With the Quizlet app you can:
– Learn with flashcards
– Share flashcards with friends, classmates, or students
– Prepare for your exam in study mode
– Test your memory in typing mode
– learn a foreign language
– Learn about science, math, history, programming, and more
8. Everyday:
Track habits and goals
Every day is one of the easiest habit-tracking apps available on any platform.
All the action happens in the app’s simple visual interface, which shows your habits vertically on the left and a timeline that continues to the right to this day.
The main principle of its application is to carry out daily routines and not to break the chain or order. When you complete a habit, mark it as done. On the right, you can see how long your current streak is, your previous best score, and how many times you’ve used the habit in your life.