Apps that motivate productivity – College 101

“oOh gEeZuS, I NEED TO FINISH THIS NOW!”

Have you ever found your brain screaming that thought to you? Like, what is motivation at this point? I find myself in this situation more often than I’d like to admit. With technology and the internet at the touch of my fingertips, it’s easy to get lost as you wander across websites and videos and blogs. How do you combat this? You can’t just “turn off” the internet. Besides, you need the internet for your homework and studies. What do you do?

Throughout my college career, I’ve made it a habit to create a routine and stick to my schedule for the day in an attempt to curtail Youtube adventures and Tiktok discoveries. There is a long list of apps that so-call “boost” productivity and motivation. As a seasoned app trial-er, I have prepared a list of the best apps that help you focus and stimulate efficiency (in my humble opinion). Not to mention, these are all free!*

Of course, Google Docs and Dropbox and a calendar app are all essentials when it comes to student-ing. Those are what I call “However, what constitutes a “productive” app? Here are my certain criteria when it comes to using an app to help me focus and be productive:

1. Must be aesthetic
2. Must be engaging
3. Must have an objective

Tide: Sleep, focus, meditation

This app is inspired by nature and traveling and aims at both physical mindfulness and mental care as it integrates peaceful audio and natural sounds to relieve stress, stay focused, relax and chill, and sleep sounder at night. This app allows you to set timers for focusing and meditation, and if regularly used, you can track your time spent studying, sleeping, or meditating. Although this app is not the most engaging one on this list, it has very nice visuals and aesthetics, which are crucial in allowing yourself to be immersed in your work/environment and maximize mindfulness. You can upgrade and obtain more sounds if you purchase a plus membership (the free stuff is pretty sweet though).

Forest – Stay focused

This app has a very simple objective: plant trees to stay focused. By setting a timer, you plant a seed that will grow into cute tree or shrub at the end of the time. If you leave the app (or unlock your phone) and go onto a different app, your tree withers and dies. You can unlock more colorful trees and label your timers to track how much time you spent studying, working, using social media, etc. Additionally, this app has relaxing sounds to choose from such as soothing rain and a cheery rainforest. This productivity app easily checks all three criteria, and a huge bonus when using this app: real trees are planted on Earth from donations to the app or from users “unlocking” a real tree. From this app, approximately 700,000 trees have been planted on Earth, and the numbers are still climbing.

Focus To-Do: Focus timer & tasks

This app is a Pomodoro timer for working and studying. Its algorithm is based on the scientific Pomodoro technique, a method of working in 25 minute intervals with 5 minute breaks. You are able to organize your tasks into to-do lists, track how many tasks you have finished, utilize a focus timer, and set reminders. The task managing and organizing capabilities is extraordinary and allows multiple layers of categories. The reward in this app comes from viewing all the finished tasks and analyzing a colorful chart of time management. This app is more of a “managing” app; however, it is very organized and has various white noise and relaxing sounds to incite moods of efficiency and productivity.

Plant Nanny

Although this is not particularly a “focusing” app, I use this app on a daily basis for a different type of productivity: physical care. Plant Nanny is a cute app that reminds you to drink water throughout the day. I find that it’s easy to replace my water intake with pure coffee or tea or simple forget to drink water throughout the long day. With Plant Nanny, you input your weight and the app will notify you that it is time to drink a cup of water. There is a motivation objective to this game (much like Forest): you plant a seed, and each time you drink water, you water the seed. By the end of the day, if you have taken in your water goal, your seed grows into a cute, cartoon plant. You can unlock different plant species and track how much water you’ve drunken throughout the day, week, and month.

All of these apps are available on Apple and Android. Each app has its pros and cons. Together, these apps offer a powerful tool for discipline and working. Procrastination is no excuse, especially when we have technology to aid us in our studies.

*Each app does offer in-app purchases or upgrades to a premium plan.