Productive apps for students

What if your phone wasn’t only a distraction?

By Scout Duncan

Edited by Elijah Savage

Illustrations by Sierra Baumgertner

Layout by Allison Croy

As a college student, being on my phone instead of focusing on school work is something I find myself struggling with fairly often. Even if I don’t mean to, I notice that I pick up my phone absent-mindedly when I have a second of boredom or break in my work. Once I open my phone, usually I go to Instagram or Tiktok for a quick dose of dopamine and end up stuck there for 5-10 minutes until I remember I’m supposed to be working.

But what if, instead of Instagram or Tiktok, you’re prompted to open an app that actually helps you get your work done? Or one that gives you a mindful break and you can come back even more focused than before?

One of these types of apps are meditation apps. When we’re stressed and our thoughts are going a million miles an hour it’s really hard to focus on our school work for any extended period of time. Something that can help with this is meditation. The apps below offer different types of guided meditations.

Smiling Mind: This app offers guided audio meditations at various lengths for different areas of life. They offer categories like studying, sleep, stress management, grief, relationships, work, and more. One section that seemed unique and helpful was the digital detox meditation series. This app is also completely free, which is different from the other options below.

Headspace: This app is very popular and you’ve probably seen an advertisement for it at some point. It’s a very user-friendly app with cute and creative illustrations. They also have a multitude of meditation categories including guide to sleep, to wake up, unlocking creativity, mindful eating, reframe stress and relax, mindfulness at work, mindful money, and many more. One major downside to this app, like a lot of meditation apps, is that it’s fairly expensive. You cannot use the app without subscribing, which is $12.99 per month, or $69.99 per year.

Calm: This is another very popular app for meditation and has been around even longer than Headspace. Not only do they have the largest guided meditation library out of these three apps, but they also have a meditation music library and “soundscapes”. Soundscapes are like ambient noise, such as rainforest, thunder storms, rolling waves, rain on a tent, and more. Sadly though, like Headspace, you can’t use the app without subscribing which is $14.99 per month, or $69.99 per year.

While two out of these three apps cost money, it is also the same price as a lot of streaming service subscriptions. If you would frequently utilize these apps, it would be a worthy investment and you could possibly trade a streaming service for one of these apps and you won’t be spending any more money than usual.

Another type of app that would be helpful for a college student who can’t focus is a focus timer app. When it’s easy to pick up your phone and immediately open tiktok, sometimes you can’t help it. But what if your phone was already open and had a timer going for how long you needed to work until your next break? That is what these apps are for, and they can work wonders.

Flora - Green Focus: This app is a focus timer where focusing grows trees; the longer you focus, the bigger your tree grows. If you leave the app during a focus session, your tree dies (you can also override this if you get an urgent phone call or need to send a text quickly). If you focus frequently, you can discover and grow many types of trees. This app is free and very easy to use, and also has a cute design style.

Focus Keeper: This app is similar to flora, but a bit more serious in its approach. You can set timers for tasks, create daily timelines, schedule tasks and reminders, and keep track of everything with analysis charts. This app is free to use but some additional features are premium and require a subscription which is 0.99 per month or 6.99 per year, which is vastly cheaper than the previously mentioned meditation apps.

Another option: To-Do List apps!

Another great option for an app if you want to focus is a to-do list app or a task manager. There are so many options on the app store that I couldn’t find just one to focus on; the best one depends on your preferences and needs. Most of them are free and there are so many cute, simple, and clean apps to choose from!

Since we’re all on our phones anyways, we might as well have an app or two that is productive and keeps us moving in the right direction and, even better, motivates us!