You’re a student, which means that you want to achieve a certain type of education, in order to be able to sustain yourself for the future. Or so it goes, right? You’re also a human being, with its own personality and needs, and studying isn’t always the first thing on your mind.
I’ve relied on tons of apps, tools and platforms in the past, that supposedly help you train yourself and your habits, to be more productive, more intuitive towards the work that needs to be done, and most importantly – gives you a glimpse of good time management.
Few months ago, I already looked at some time management solutions, and honestly – I’ve yet to find anything better. Looking back, I could have done things a lot more differently than I do now, but simplicity has stuck with me for the past couple of years, and why fix something that isn’t broken in the first place?
I’m not a huge fan of apps, but I’ve to admit that there are a lot of good ones out there, which not only help us stay more present and mindful about our education, they can ‘rewire’ our attention, to be more focused and productive. Lets take a look.
1. Freedom
You’ve to admit, if it wasn’t for the internet, the amount of distractions you’d experience every day – would be a lot, A LOT less than they currently are. It’s the web itself that causes our brains to attach themselves to the slightest piece of ‘entertainment’, it’s a dirty solution to not getting any work done.
Freedom is the amazing little app for Windows and Mac computers that locks you away from the ‘net for up to eight hours at a time. At the end of your time offline, Freedom allows you back on the internet.
The biggest upside of this particular application, you’ll need to restart your computer whenever you feel like getting back on the net. Now, this means that every time you do it, you’re more than likely to remind yourself – why you’re doing it. That should help to keep you away from the nasty habit of mindless browsing!
2. Don’t Break The Chain!
It’s an application that Jerry Seinfield is encouraging you to use, it must be good right? I suppose it is, but lets not get over-hyped over a celebrity, and instead focus on what is important. In this case, the need not to brake the chain.
With this app, you’ll be able to allocate yourself daily goals and get frequent reminders about them, or infrequent (whatever you prefer), this way – allowing yourself to begin completing one thing at a time, and slowly moving upwards to more things.
I think it’s the perfect application for learning a new skill, or getting those studies done in time. Give yourself a few minutes for each task every day, and watch how much more easy it becomes.
3. Workrave
I think most students are taught at an early stage, taking a break is really ‘useful’ and healthy, and should be treated as a natural way of recharging the batteries and good energies. I can usually maintain this all by myself, but an application like Workrave can come in extremely handy.
I’ve learned that it’s great for those big projects, where you know you’ll be spending a lot of time doing something on the computer, and so custom timers can be setup to give you the maximum amount of time to rest and return to work. Great for tasks like writing, programming, conceptualizing, etc,.
4. TeuxDeux
Essentially, what we’re looking for within this list, is of course simplicity and the ability to optimize our life through a simple feature of an application. TeuxDeux does this really well, by offering a simple and stylish to-do application that you can use from your mobile smartphone, or the browser. It even supports markdown!
5. CarbonFin Outliner
I love Outliner, I think it’s an application that has captured a specific solution for a specific type of a student. If you’re the type who needs to break things down to the most narrow of lists, then Outliner is the application to get.
It allows to build list projects, to-do projects or simple reminders about whatever tasks that need to get done. Outliner is great for task lists, such as a shopping list. Just tap the checkbox to mark each one complete, or tap the pie chart next to a parent task to mark or clear all subtasks.
6. Trello
I keep mentioning Trello on this blog, I think they must be doing something right! Trello is the ultimate solution for time management and organization. It enables you to build ‘boards’ that can be used to assign specific projects, lists, etc,. Anything you can possibly imagine.
If you haven’t tried out Trello yet, you should drop everything that you’re doing and give it a spin right now. It’s a great task management app that is available for smartphones and the browser. It’s quite popular in the developer community, and many students across the World are already using it to help manage their daily lives.
7. LeechBlock
Once again, we’re putting the blame on the internet for disturbing us from our studies. LeechBlock will keep you away from all of those time sucking/consuming websites, and give you a solid reminder that you need to study, instead of having a laugh at the latest Reddit video that made it to the front-page!
Everything can setup and configured quite easily, and there isn’t a huge learning curve involved. You just need to motivate and discipline yourself enough.
8. Tasker
It’s an incredibly sophisticated / complex application, but I think that is exactly what makes it so great. It has the ability to trigger/warn you about hundreds of things, people are saying that Tasker has changed the way they perceive their phone, as a tool for managing time and tasks. It definitely puts a lot of chains around your ‘entertainment’ hours, and gives you the flexibility to actually get stuff done on time.
Time Management Apps for Students
I did put the emphasis on students in this post, but it doesn’t mean that anyone else wouldn’t benefit from these apps. I’m extremely pleased with tools like Workrave, which truly allow you to configure your own studying schedule, giving you all of the necessary time to relax and take a break.
Many others on this list you might have heard of for the first time, but that’s even better, because you get to try something new and see how it works out in real-time. I hope this list will inspire you to take better care of yourself, now and in the future.
