Productivity seems to be something that is difficult to stay on top of, especially when you’re studying.
Thankfully, we have the world of technology available to
give us the help we need when it comes to better scheduling, studying more
efficiently, and planning a life in general.
Here are 12 great (and free) apps:
Documents is the ultimate app for accessing all of your
files and annotating PDFs.
It can be confusing to keep track of where certain files
are, especially if you use multiple services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
Documents works with all of them (including Apple’s iCloud,
Microsoft’s OneDrive, and Box) to show you all of your stuff in one place. You
can edit Microsoft documents, annotate PDFs, browse photos, and read e-books in
one app.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Wunderlist will help you stay on top of what you need to
get done.
Wunderlist has many great features for everyone, such as the
ability to make multiple lists, collaborate with other Wunderlist users on different
projects, create reminders and more.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, OS X, Windows
RefMe will put together your citations and bibliographies
for you.
This nifty app uses your phone’s camera to scan a book’s
barcode and create a citation formatted in Harvard or whatever format your
school uses.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Duolingo will help you learn another language.
This app is nothing like a boring French class. It gamifies language
learning. Use it to brush up on your Spanish, French, German, Portuguese,
Italian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, or English.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Tinycards is a handy flashcard app that helps you
memorize things quickly.
The makers of Duolingo have another flashcard app called
Tinycards.
Like Duolingo, it learns from you as you progress through a
deck and shuffles information around to help you memorize efficiently. It comes
with hundreds of pre-made subject decks to study with too.
Price: Free
Available: iOS
iTunes U is a great resource for free lectures and
coursework from many of the top schools.
Apple bills iTunes U as a digital homework system for
classrooms, but it’s a great app to have even if you’re teachers don’t use it
to distribute their lectures and homework.
That’s because it gives you free access to courses from some
of the best schools in the world, like Statistics 101 from Harvard or
Stanford’s course on how to code iOS apps.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Venmo makes it quick and easy to pay your friends back
without cash.
If you’re a student and not already using Venmo, chances are
you’ve at least heard about the app.
By logging into your bank account, Venmo allows you to
quickly send anyone money without cash. People love adding fun emojis to
transactions and watching what other people are paying each other for in the
app’s social feed.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Wolfram Alpha is like a turbo-charged Google search
engine.
Need help with trigonometry? Wondering what the unemployment
rate is in a given city? Wolfram Alpha has you covered.
The search engine’s free app is an invaluable resource for
all kinds of queries. Give it a try.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Google Inbox turns your email inbox into a helpful to-do
list.
Google’s experimental Inbox app for Gmail turns your emails
into a to-do list that’s intelligently sorted by category. It seamlessly
integrates with Google’s other services, like Google Calendar and Google Drive,
to help you be more productive.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Find restaurants and other new places to go with
Foursquare.
Foursquare is great at suggesting restaurants, bars, cafes,
and other places on your tastes. If you’re looking for a place to do homework
off campus, you can search for “coffee shops with free WiFi.”
Its vast collection user-created tips will ensure that you
know the best thing to order too.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android