As many on campus will understand, it’s hard to stay on-task when you are juggling assignments, papers, work, social life, etc. I have found this process daunting, but not impossible, thanks to a few tools. There are many apps out there that can make it easier to be productive. I have quite a few apps and programs to thank for recording my thoughts, saving my work, and overall keeping me on track.
For date saving and reminders, I look only to Apple’s Calendar app. Complimentary with every iPhone and Mac, Calendar gives the user so many ways to keep ahead of everyday life in and out of school. Fortunate for students here at Stevens, anyone can link their myStevens account with their Calendar, and the program will take assignments and dates from Canvas and add them as Calendar events. Along with that, users can also add reminders that activate on a certain date, certain time, or when the user is at a specific location. Always forget to get hummus when you go to ShopRite? Add that to your reminders and forget all of your worries!
For my virtual note-taking needs, Evernote always proves to be a useful companion. Evernote, available on the App Store and Google Play, allows users to create notebooks, write notes, and view them from anywhere. It also allows users to share and collaborate on notes with others. It has been useful for me when I take notes on self-taught material. Though I do not use it for taking notes in classes, it has made my life easier with the ability to save coding tips and photos.
For money-saving purposes, I turn to BillGuard. BillGuard is free on the App Store and Google Play and proves to be a great way to monitor your spending and see a detailed graph of your past expenses. BillGuard is also easy to set up, and since it only requires an email and a bank account, just about anyone can use it. After using BillGuard for a few months, I have been able to see how much I spent and how much I could save. This saves you time and hassle when monitoring your expenses. BillGuard’s most interesting feature is its ability to detect what kind of item you spent money on, whether it is coffee, where BillGuard labels it as such, to rent, as BillGuard will easily show you. For security reasons, BillGuard sends a notification to every user to approve what has been purchased on their account. If something peculiar is happening, the user will be informed early. Performance-wise, I have saved almost $27 in the last month.
Next up is Numbers, another complimentary Apple app. My personal use of Numbers is for permanent schedule-making. Numbers provides users with a sleek and easy way to create, download, and customize a schedule, as well as many other document types. At the beginning of both of my semesters here at Stevens, I used Numbers to create my course schedule. With Numbers, I was able to set time intervals, color-code my courses, and, of course, view them on my laptop as well as my phone from anywhere. This has saved me time and headache, due to the fact that I don’t have to keep logging into myStevens and open my schedule. As Numbers instantly saves your input via iCloud, any changes I make on my laptop instantly appear on my phone.
Last, but certainly the most interesting, is Forest, available for free on both the App Store and Google Play. As I am writing this, I am utilizing the power and simplicity of Forest. This app helps increase your productivity by taking away one notorious distraction: checking your phone. The app lets you set a time for a task you need to get done and displays a little tree that grows gradually as you reach your goal. In that time, the phone displays messages such as “Put down your phone!” and “Don’t look at me!” so as to not cause myself any distractions. If I choose to leave the app, my tree dies. The trees do have a small purpose though. If you create an account for Forest, it will save all your trees and create a forest. The more productive you are in the long run grants you a lush forest of productivity! This serves as a visual metaphor representing your hard work, and subconsciously motivates you to develop better work habits. Along with those functions, Forest provides users with a cute interface and interchangeable tree styles. I have written this column with the help of Forest, and I intend to keep expanding my collection of trees.
