With a bustling college life and the need to organize your day between lectures, assignments and extracurricular activities, often there comes a moment when you realize that few important things were left behind. With each day getting occupied with projects, quizzes and reports you barely find time for yourself. In these tiring moments does it ever cross your mind about planning your day more effectively?
Most likely, Yes!
It is a well-known fact that productivity is directly linked to efficiency. And while efficiency depends on many key elements, the primary and the most important being time management. So if you are wondering why you do not find time to balance your work with personal life, it is most likely due to inappropriate time management.
In order to maximize your daily productivity, you need to strategically plan the amount of time you are spending on a specific task. These planning habits may come out naturally to few, and may get difficult for rest. But there is no denying that anyone can develop these skills and improve their productivity.
The simplest method of improving your efficiency and becoming more productive is by using digital planner applications in your day to day activities. These apps basically provide a to-do list of your daily activities and a reminder to complete them on time. 66% of the teachers in the United States agree that such types of technology allow students to catch up with their studies and improve their productivity. Moreover, they are less complex than any paper based planners, and can conveniently store any important information categorized by your tags just like any note taking application. We have researched and compiled a list of some amazing time saving applications that will certainly improve your productivity in your chaotic lifestyle. Let us take a look at some of these best apps and review them in detail.
Momentum
Momentum is a minimalistic chrome extension that works as a daily planner and can be used on Mac or Windows operating device. So any time you open a new tab in chrome, instead of a default chrome page you are presented with a motivated screen that displays your focus of the day. You can update your primary focus of the day as per your need and create a to-do list located at the bottom right corner of the screen.
There is a real time weather update and a beautiful digital clock that helps you stay updated. The background wallpaper changes frequently and also displays a motivational quote that keeps you away from procrastination.
Momentum also allows you to create bookmarks and save frequently used web pages within this application. The basic application is completely free to use, however the premium extension allows you to synchronize your tasks with Basecamp, Bitbucket, GitHub, Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do, Todoist and Trello. Additionally, you can customize the fonts, upload background images, add personalized quotes and create multiple to-do lists. All in all, a brilliant chrome extension that increases the productivity and plans the day perfectly.
Todoist
Todoist is an excellent planner and a task management application that contains rich integration with third party services like IFTTT (If This Then That) & Zapier. The users are provided with unique features and customized planning tools to schedule all their tasks using their simple interface and is available for all the operating systems (Android / iOS / Windows / Chrome Extension).
You can customize your font to bold or italics, set priority flags, add reminders and labels as per your choice. It also allows you to create a quick list by using shortcuts (!! for bold, * for italics, # for projects), duplicating a list, copy-paste from other apps, and scheduling reminders in the calendar for upcoming work in the week. Users can add important URL’s and Email addresses as an anchor text while creating to do list.
The most important feature of Todoist is its regular reminder of the daily agenda’s directly to your email address. So even if you missed reading the tasks inside the application, you will receive a notification of the upcoming event directly in your inbox.
Lastly, this amazing application provides you with a daily and weekly review of the task completed which further increases your productivity.
Forest
Forest is an ideal application for all the students trying to increase their focus by spending less time in their mobile phones, thereby increasing the productivity whilst completing the day to day tasks. The concept of Forest is based on the Pomodoro technique that uses timer to break down small intervals of time to help you complete the said task without any distraction. While this technique has been proven to increase both productivity and attention of the user, Forest app has modernized this technique by adding more interesting features to keep the user focused.
The home screen has a timer that starts from 10 minutes and goes all the way to 120 minutes. Once you start a timer, the app plants a seed that will start to grow as the time passes. The user is notified about the running task if he tries to close the application or feels distracted. Once the task has been completed the user is rewarded with coins that can actually be utilized in the real world by planting trees! So, not only are you increasing your productivity but you are also contributing to the real world by planting trees. Donut Dog
If you are looking for a fun and playful way to increase your efficiency, you should try Donut Dog productivity app. This engaging application motivates you to focus by making your work livelier. Similar to Forest, this app has a hungry Dog named ‘feed’ on their home screen, and depending on the hours you dedicated towards the task, you are provided with Donuts to feed their dog. This creates an extra motivation for the users to extend their commitment towards their work by pushing themselves even more.
The most noteworthy feature of Donut Dog is ‘Streaks’ that allows user to plan their weekly tasks using a calendar eventually making them to stay focused on their goals.
The daily activity can be viewed in the reports section; the statistics also rewards with a level as per users commitment, further boosting the motivation to make them more productive. Focus Plant
Focus Plant is yet another productivity application that has all the features of Forest app, yet completely free to use on both Android and iOS operating devices. The home screen is provided with a timer where users can set their time limit to complete the said task. You can collect the reward upon time completion in the form of ‘sunshine’ and ‘water’ which can be used to grow your virtual plant. Features like “deep focus” can be unlocked after completing few tasks and is completely free!
All these features and techniques improve the user’s efficiency in day to day tasks; however these complex attributes and a game like interface may distract users from their actual goals. This being said, this app is perfect for students who prefer dynamism over simplicity. Flipd
Flipd is an inspirational productivity app that combines all the pros of Forest and Focus Plant making it an excellent all-in-one planner app. It allows you to organize your daily tasks by adding tags and classifying them into categories. You can also check your productivity score across days, weeks and months.
Similar to Donut Dog, Flipd provides a streak to their user which upon completion gets you badges. These badges can be used to unlock more advanced features provided in the app.
To further motivate the users, this app has a network of community that provides a positive environment to work harder. You can also create your own group by inviting your friends and competing against each other. Additionally, Flipd frequently organizes competitions where user can participate and compete; further increasing productivity.
Overall, this application is absolutely perfect and highly recommended for students who need to plan their day to day activities and become more productive.
Best Student Planner Apps for iPad
Being a student you often require a system which can manage your day to day activities involving academics, classwork, and recreation. A systematic planning of these activities lets you focus on every aspect of your life one at a time without messing things around. While there are many applications available that promise to do this job, yet there are only few that can adapt to the distinct purpose. Besides, searching for the best tool among the enormous list of applications can be a daunting experience. So, if you are looking for a planner to organize your day, look no further as we have compiled the list of best student planners for iPad & iPhone below. Take a look.
- Things 3
- Any.do
- Trello
- Fantastical 3.0
- Woven
Things 3
Things 3 is a beautiful planner app specifically designed for Apple users. The important information and priority tasks are clearly displayed to the users with the help of animations. The inbox is really simple to use, allowing users to create tasks quickly and organize them as per their priority (Today / Upcoming / Someday). You can also categorize your work by creating tags as per your task (Work / Family / Social).
Things 3 also provides with a log book to review the completed tasks in the past few weeks. All in all, it is a great app for planning and organizing your tasks. So, if you are planning to purchase this application to organize your work; the price for iPad is $19.99, iPhone & Apple Watch is $9.99, and for macOS it is $49.99.
In case you wish to purchase this application for your entire Apple collection, the combined upfront cost of purchase is $80.
Any.do
Any.do is our top most recommended planner for anyone who is looking for a really simple list manager. It is available on all Apple devices and works with Siri & Alexa too. The best thing about this application is its ability to synchronize seamlessly across all devices, you can access your to do lists and receive reminders on mobile, laptop, desktop, tablet and even your watch.
You can keep track of your progress, add location based reminders and customize your application with beautiful themes.
The most amazing feature is its smart grocery list creator. Based on the product type, the application automatically segments your list category wise. This makes your grocery list more organized and sorted.
Any.do allows collaboration of your work with others. You can share the lists, assign tasks, and chat from within the application that helps you stay organized and get more work done.
The standard application with all the required features is free to use, in case you need the premium version with unlimited storage and custom themes; the price starts from $5.99 / month. Trello
Trello is an excellent planner and organizer application that also works as project management software for individuals and teams. It provides users with a Trello board to help organize information & tasks in one place. You can create lists, steps, workflows, plan meetings, projects, events, goals and categorize them as per their nature within the board. Users are also provided with cards which can be inserted within the lists to keep a track of everything you need to do or remember.
You can even share your boards with family member or your team mates so that they can even add details like checklists, due dates, or comments.
While all these features make this application remarkable, yet the most compelling things about Trello is that it’s completely free to use for individuals! Fantastical 3.0
Fantastical 3.0 is a freemium planner and organizer tool for all your Apple devices. It comes along with many great features that help you organize your calendars more effectively and productively. You can synchronize all your existing calendars from Google or iCloud directly to Fantastical to keep things sorted. Its AI automatically converts important tasks and To-Do lists into events and sets the reminder for you. Additionally, a preview of map is displayed for all your location based events, along with Accuweather forecast!
When it comes to productivity, Fantastical is leading all applications with regards to the features they are providing. The display is optimized for all the devices and a single subscription lets you use Fantastical Premium on all of them. You can view your upcoming event directly in your Apple Watch. It also comes with multiple home screen widgets to help you stay organized even if you are not using the application.
The only downside to Fantastical is that most of the amazing features are bundled in a premium subscription ($4.99/month). And unlike Any.do, the free version of this app comes with limited functionality. Woven
Woven is a simple scheduler and calendar app that organizes and plans your events effortlessly. It has built in Zoom, Google Meet and iMessage integration, custom iOS keyboard, smart templates, and group polls that are linked to your calendar to check everyone’s availability for a task. Moreover, the scheduled event or a meeting alert is mailed to everyone within the group. These schedules can be created directly from iMessage or by giving voice commands to Siri.
You can analyze your activities by going through the insights shared by Woven, this helps you focus more on important elements and organize your day to day tasks. Users are also provided with separate calendars for social and personal events, helping them to maintain a perfect work life balance. Additionally, any conflicts between the two events are notified to the user.
Most of these features are included in the basic app that is completely free to use. In case you are looking to upgrade, the subscription for premium application is $10 / month billed annually. Best Student Planner Apps for Android
Life of a student is not easy; it requires planning and organizing to balance work with personal life. Although most of the students are already using some kind of note taking android application to help them take notes and get reminders, but there is no denying that the primary function of these applications is to assist in creating notes.
Planners or organizers helps in planning the day and allows you to complete the task in a timely manner. Besides, it increases productivity by providing daily insights about your activities. We have handpicked some of the best planner apps for android operating system to organize and plan your day.
- Microsoft Planner
- Google Calendar
- Edo Agenda
- Daybook
- TimeTree
Microsoft Planner
Developed by Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Planner comes bundled with a paid subscription of Office 365 suite. This planning app is specifically designed for students and professionals who like to work as a team. Apart from common features like to-do lists, tags, labels and reminders, you can collaborate and assign tasks to people from within the app. These tasks are categorized as “not started”, “in progress” and “completed” and are visible to everybody to get a real time update.
Some of the noteworthy features of this amazing planner are: Prior notification of upcoming events, task assignments to multiple people, creation of Kanban boards with content-rich task cards, and visual status charts. Google Calendar
With Google Calendar you can optimize your daily activities and plan your events in an enjoyable manner. The interface is really simple to understand with effortless scheduling of the tasks. Its integration with Gmail works like a charm. You can customize the calendar and utilize the shortcuts to toggle between the views (Day, Week, Month, Year, or Custom). You can also change the display density and colors of your calendars, useful in case you need to display specific events on your screen.
You can easily toggle between multiple calendars to display one or more at a time. It also provides a world clock to set up and manage appointments in different geo locations. Moreover, you can transfer the ownership of any event to the concerned in case you are not attending the event. Edo Agenda
Edo Agenda coordinates your workspace in a more flexible manner and plans your day ahead. It synchronizes with your Google calendar and displays all the events combined in a single space. You can add notes, comments or additional reminders on the specific dates. It allows you to customize the font, bullet points, upload a file, and add web links.
It has an amazing planner which shows your important tasks and events of your day. You can also customize and check your weekly or monthly planner to keep things organized. All in all Edo Agenda is a simple productivity tool that can be used for taking notes, managing your plans and events, and to tally your tasks.
Daybook
Daybook is a password protected note taking diary that works brilliantly as an organizer and planner. It works seamlessly with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Bixby. The interface is beautiful, easy to use with customizable fonts and themes including dark mode for night reading.
For planning and organizing your activities, Daybook provides a calendar that is free from any distractions. You can add voice notes, track your expenses, create unlimited travel diaries, take down notes during a lecture, synchronize on multiple devices, and most importantly do all these even when you are offline.
TimeTree
TimeTree is a great tool to keep up with your academic life. You can organize your class schedule and keep track on upcoming activities in a quick and easy way. Moreover, it allows users to chat and send photographs of any event just like any other messenger service. You can synchronize your in-app calendars with TimeTree to keep a track of all your events on one place, and display them as a color coded event to distinguish between work and home schedules.
TimeTree comes along with a memo that allows users to create events, organize and plan more efficiently. The editing of these events is not restricted to admins allowing every member within your group to edit and modify them. All in all, this is a great application for anybody looking to organize and plan their tasks.
Bottom Line
Each planner app is unique with their features and functionality. Some are paid applications with advanced tools and organizers, while the others with basic features are free to use. Be that as it may, the one thing that is common in all of them is there management. All the planning apps we have shared are committed to help you focus in improving the productivity and efficiency in the task you do and plan your week ahead so that nothing gets missed. Furthermore, these planners help to maintain a work life balance, which is important for your overall growth and well-being. While investing in a planner, it is important to understand your working style and the nature of your job. A student may start with a free planner app which can suffice the job, whereas for a working professional with specific organizational needs, purchasing a premium planner can be worthwhile.
Wish you a very productive week ahead!
