A mosaic of popular, free productivity apps

5 безцінні безкоштовних додатків для підвищення продуктивності для коледжу

Кілька років тому я писав про корисні додатки для середньої школи — але тепер коледж тут, і це приносить цілий ряд нових вимог. З Я приїхав в Гарвард, Я повинен був зробити більше, і мої додатки повинні були зробити більше, занадто.

Ці нові додатки повинні працювати на всіх платформах (ОС Windows, Парубок, Чоловічий, IOS), синхронізувати легко між ними, і допомогти мені зберегти Дані організовані. Вони повинні бути різнобічний, міцний, і простий у використанні. І вони повинні бути вільний.

With that in mind, here are the five apps that I’ve relied on most at Harvard and that I recommend to anyone in college or anywhere else in life. They’re ranked in order of usefulness.

Evernote, Wunderlist, Mailbox, Sunrise, Pocket
5 вільний, essential apps for college: Evernote, Wunderlist, Mailbox, Sunrise, and Pocket.

1. Evernote — ноти, journals, есе, і все інше,

Mac App Store, Windows App Store, IOS, Чоловічий

Evernote logoEvernote bills itself as the place foryour life’s work”, and that’s certainly true. It stores any writing you could possibly want to doand syncs it across all your devices.

I never used Evernote until coming to college, but I created somewhere around 300 in my first semester. I’ve written all kind of thingsjournal entries, class notes, job apps, random tips, you name it. A few real examples:

  • Resume-building tips from a career workshop
  • All my notes for CS class
  • Club meeting notes
  • My stand-up comedy routine

Evernote helps you keep everything you need to keep track ofand there’s lots of that in collegeunder one roof, organized into notebooks with теги. В основному, I replaced all the random Word documents I scattered around my phone into one place.

2. Wunderlistto-do lists

Mac App Store, ОС Windows, IOS, Чоловічий

Wunderlist logoNot quite as versatile as Evernote, but even more necessary. Every college student has so many responsibilitiesassignments, clubs, projects, people to follow up withthat it’s impossible to keep it straight in your head.

So you *need a to-do list**, and of the dozens available Wunderlist is my favorite. It lets you:

  • Categorize to-dos in lists.
  • Sort to-dos by priority
  • Assign due dates and see your assignments for the week at a glance

Among other features. The middle feature is, I’ve found, the most powerful feature of a to-do list. Having just one thing to focus on at a time is faster and easier on you than trying to juggle a hundred things and feeling overwhelmed.

3. Mailboxemail made really, really easy

Парубок, IOS, Чоловічий

Mailbox app logoOne of my biggest shocks upon coming to college was how much the college world centers around email. I can’t speak for other colleges, but this is especially true for Harvard. You need a fast, solid email app for all your platforms, and the ones bundled with Mac/iOS/Android aren’t always what you need.

For email accounts that use a Gmail interface, Mailbox is a lifesaver. It has ridiculously simple setupjust a username and password, no wrangling requiredand helps you organize your inbox so that you don’t miss anything.

That’s probably the best feature of Mailbox: its philosophy. You don’t let emails sit around in your inbox; that’s a recipe for missing something. Instead, you act on every email immediately by just swiping; leave nothing in the inbox. Trash the ones that you’ll never need again (80% принаймні), archive the ones that you’re done with and might need, organize old emails into reference списки, або put off emails for later. It’s incredibly simple and really powerfuland it gives you a great feeling when you finally clean out your inbox.

4. Sunrisea beautiful calendar

Web, Mac App Store, IOS, Чоловічий

Sunrise Calendar App LogoCalendars are also vital. Unlike in high school where all you had was the same set of classes day in and day out, you have classes, clubs, review sessions, meetings, parties, whatever at all hours of the day and all days of the week. You need to keep track of your life digitally.

Google Calendar is very popular for this, and the native calendar app available on most devices is pretty good, but I like Sunrise, which offers a consistent interface across platforms. Probably the most useful part is the ability to add things like color-coding, URL-адрес, maps, descriptions, and more to your appointments. Extremely useful.

5. Карманyour reading list

Mac App Store, IOS, Чоловічий

Pocket app logoThis isn’t quite as vital, but it’s great nonetheless. I find a ton of cool articles from friends, Щебетати, and various blogs, and I don’t usually immediately have time to read them. But I’ll often have a few minutes of downtimeon the subway, for instance.

Так when I find articles I don’t have time for, I save them to Pocket, then when I get time, I read them. Simple, but extremely useful.

It’s also useful academically. Наприклад, when you’re researching, you can toss useful articles in Pocket and do your research throughout the day, all while keeping your important sources in one place.

Wrapping up

I can’t imagine how I’d manage college without these apps. Give them a trywhether you’re in college or not, they might just help you out.

Опубліковано

Ніл Мехта

Гарвардський коледж. Веб-розробник. Колись філософ. Бейсбол наркоман.

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