Procrastination is unavoidable in college and it is definitely a monster to defeat when it comes time to study for finals. I attempted to use productivity apps back in school and while I found uses for them, after a few weeks use, I would completely forget they even existed on my phone. It’s tough to make a habit of using these apps, but when you get into a steady routine they can be extremely helpful in keeping you organized and making your life a lot easier. The apps I mention in this post are a few that I use all the time and wish I had used in college. I highly recommend giving these apps more than a weeks try. My advice to fight off losing these apps to smartphone clutter is to set a phone reminder (another difficult task) to check out each app in the morning, at lunch, and before you go to sleep. If you keep to this routine for more than a week you will start to notice that you have gotten into a routine.
Evernote (iOS/Android)
App Description: Evernote allows users to capture, organize, and find information across multiple platforms. Users can take notes, clip webpages, snap photos using their mobile phones, create to-dos, and record audio. All data is synchronized with the Evernote web service and made available to clients on Windows, Mac, Web, and mobile devices. Additionally, the Evernote web service performs image recognition on all incoming notes, making printed or handwritten text found within images searchable. -Crunchbase
My Opinion: Evernote is probably the most useful app I have found for being productive. The fact that you can easily sync (computer/tablet to smartphone) notes, and information from the Internet makes it incredibly easy to use this app for any type of work, whether it’s personal or business. I use Evernote in a variety of ways ranging from saving interesting articles, to taking screenshots of images I find online. Not only does it act like a digital scrapbook, but it is also amazing for organizational purposes. With a built in tagging and folder system, you can easily organize your captured information in a manner that you will quickly be able to find with a simple search.
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Wunderlist (iOS/Android)
App Description: Wunderlist is the easiest way to manage and share your daily to-do lists. Whether you’re planning an overseas adventure, sharing a shopping list with a loved one, or simply keeping track of your daily to-dos, Wunderlist is here to help you get things done. -Apple App Store
My Opinion: Wunderlist is a to-do app that is a lot more powerful than the standard, built-in reminder apps found on smartphones. With Wunderlist, it is easy to scale your reminders from a simple blurb to an extensive task while being able to easily organize your reminders into custom categories. What I find nice about this app is that it is incredibly simple to jot down quick reminders, but also has the capability of setting up important tasks with alarms and more in-depth notes. While I primarily use the app to remember tasks I need to complete after work, it is possible for me to use the apps comprehensive features to scale my personal management to everything I do on a day-to-day basis.
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Mint (iOS/Android)
App Description: Mint pulls all your financial accounts into one place. Set a budget, track your goals and do more with your money. -Mint.com
My Opinion: When I was in school I always hated looking at my bank account after a night of going out. I rarely had more than $100 in my account at a time and whenever this occasion occurred it felt like Christmas. While using Mint in college would have probably made me depressed on a daily basis with the amount of red negative signs I would have seen on a daily basis, I feel like it would have been extremely useful to budget myself week to week. Now that I have a steady income, I have found this app extremely useful and have started to use the customizable budget allocation tool to not only set limits to each type of purchase I make, but to also figure out excess money that I can use to invest (lame).
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