When we think about success skills, time management is definitely at the top of the list. If you don’t know how to manage your time or prioritize you can find yourself stressed out and unable to accomplish your goals. One place to turn to for help with time management is your trusty smartphone. We dove into the pool of over 300 productivity apps (talk about overwhelming!) offered in the app store and picked out 5 apps that can help you stay on task, get things done, and achieve your goals!
What we love about it:
- It’s simple and easy.
- It syncs with your email account. If, someone sends you a deadline or event via email you can just click on it and it goes straight to your calendar.
- It works across devices – phone, laptop, desktop, and tablet.
- It provides a visual of the day, so you can see overlaps and any extra time that you have open in the day.
- You can invite others to view your calendar. This feature lets you see what your friends or family are doing during the day so it’s easy to see when there are openings for you to schedule a study group, dinner, or a meet up.
- You can set reminders. So every Friday morning you remember to take the trash out. Or, even better, set reminders to help you remember to reflect and check into your goals to make sure you are on the right track!
What we love about it:
- It’s a to do list + clock all in one app and time on task is this apps #1 priority
- You can set time for work, play, relaxation and it counts down for you.
- It helps you start a task by telling you what’s on your list and how long to spend on that task. Then, when time is up it reminds you to switch to a new item, activity or chore.
- If you have trouble starting a project, focusing on your task at hand, or transitioning to new things this is one to try out.
What we love about it:
- IFTTT stands for If This Then That, with a little bit of set up this app is like your personal assistant working behind the scenes
- IFTTT recipes complete next steps for you so you don’t have to spend time doing the little things, leaving you with time to focus on the big, important stuff like studying, working, and achieving your goals.
- Here are a few example recipes you can set: If I am almost home, send a text message to my mom. If I star an email in gmail, add a task to my reminder list to take care of it.
What we love about it:
- Evernote allows you to capture anything you need to remember – a link, snap a picture, a list of ideas and everything is shareable with family and friends.
- If your school allows devices in the classroom this app can help you take notes with its microphone feature.
- It is easy to keep organized and allows you to create separate notebooks to store information in on a regular basis.
- The keyword search feature allows you to find what you need fast.
- If you find that you struggle with getting things done because you can never remember what you need, or everything is written on random sheets of paper that get lost this will be a good app for you to give a try.
What we love about it:
- While Trello is most often used by businesses to streamline teams and projects, there is no reason why you can’t use it to streamline your hectic life!
- Similar to Pinterest, you create a board that holds all the info you need for each project, exam, class or hobby.
- You can sync the app with Evernote, Google Drive, and other platforms.
- In the power up feature you can sync your calendar app which allows you to prioritize and add due dates to for homework, exam dates, or essay deadlines.
As you begin managing your time it will take some experimenting to figure out what works best for you. You will find that you like some platforms and apps better than others. Or you may figure out that you are a paper calendar kind of person. Either way, once you figure out what works for you, you will begin getting things done easier and find life more manageable. This summer we will have Success Skills session focused on time management to help you discover tips, tricks, and best practices in prioritization. Don’t miss out, apply today!