Our smartphones are practically a whole other person in themselves, considering just how much time we spend on them and considering the needs of the current scenario and that is absolutely okay. However, as students we tend to limit ourselves and our productivity by simply not exploring enough. If you’re a student, there are some essential apps which you should have in your phones. So, when you’re uninstalling Facebook and Instagram, download these too!
These Apps are primarily of three types: Apps that keep away distractions, those which help you focus while studying and those which are helpful for making notes.
- Keeping Distractions Away
It is practically impossible to overcome the habit of constantly checking our phones while we study. It may be to watch that new stand-up comedy video on YouTube or it could be the sudden desire to know if Polar Bears eat humans or not, but every single distracting thought pops up while you’re studying. There are certain apps which lock your phone entirely or can lock certain other apps to make sure you don’t end up wasting several hours.
One of these apps is ‘Forest’ in which you open the app and it lets you plant a seed. For as long as you don’t close the app to check facebook or anything else, the seed slowly grows. As soon as you try opening any other app, the plant dies and your progress is lost. It helps you stay focused and gives a fun little motivation to keep going.
There are several other apps with simpler interfaces such as ‘AppBlock’ and ‘StayFocused’ which essentially lock your frequently used apps for a specific period of time.
- Focus on studying
Sometimes, it can be hard to sit down and study for long hours or maybe you are not able to form a proper schedule. It can be helpful if you set specific time goals for yourself, such as studying for half an hour and taking a five minute break.
‘Productivity Challenge Timer’ is one such app that sets 25 minute time periods for you to study and gives you points and ranks according to your concentration. It does not let you pause sessions so whatever your excuse may be, you will most probably have to push yourself to finish the task you set out for yourself. It also gives you statistics about your day and week, so you can check your progress.
‘Tide’ is another app with a simple, minimalist yet beautiful interface. It is a lot more flexible in terms of the goals you set for yourself and comes with different scenic modes that have different background noises. This is essentially white noise or nature sounds such as rain, ocean, birds, etc. which form a peaceful ambience for you to study with focus.
- Make Notes Effectively
To keep track of the entire syllabus, there are multiple apps which help you make to-do lists so you know where you stand.
‘Evernote’ or ‘Clevnote’ are the two apps which help you make neat and organised notes along with short points and lists which are extremely helpful during revision.
Keep a Dictionary app on your phone at all times so you don’t get lost in your complex readings and Tinycards is an app which lets you make flashcards for quick memorization.
At the end of the day, these apps can only help so much and your best bet would be to turn your phone off and keep it with a stubborn friend who would not give it back. If not, give these apps a try and study smarter.
