Organization And Motivation Apps Worth Trying This School Year
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Alexandra Speck. Find her on Instagram at @alexandraspeckk. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
It can be easy to neglect personal goals during the school year. Overdue assignments, looming exams, and the daily hustle and bustle quickly encroach on any free time you may have carved into your daily summer routine. We’ve all fallen victim to academic burnout, but I’ve found that self-help apps can be great tools for maintaining work-life balance. Try one of these apps for daily motivation to avoid promote efficiency and keep track of your personal pursuits.
Focus with Flora
Phones are the biggest distractor for those of us that have trouble focusing on assignments. All too often, I’ll tell myself to study hard and efficiently for a short period of time… and find myself scrolling on social media five minutes later. The app Flora is a more motivating alternative to the standard timer app because it actively discourages social media use.
Flora uses the concept of growing trees to symbolize periods of productive focus. Users choose a specific period of time for focusing, allotting a break time if applicable. The app then shows how your “focus tree” begins growing. If you quit out of the app during the focus period, the tree dies. Flora also keeps track of your successfully completed focus periods, and you’ll find that looking back on previous achievements is a great way to boost your motivation.
Flora also allows you to tax yourself for distraction. For example, if you choose the $5 fee, you will be charged $5 if you quit Flora before your predetermined focus period is over. It’s a more drastic motivation technique and one that I’ve never been compelled to use, but I can certainly understand its appeal.
Flora isn’t just for studying. You can use it to time workouts, chores, hobbies, meditations, and any other tasks that you want to be uninterrupted by phone use.
Meditate with Headspace
Headspace: Mindful Meditation is one of the most popular apps on the App Store for meditation. It’s an Editors Choice app and boasts an average 4.8 stars from a whopping 935,000 reviews. Free meditations are available on YouTube, but Headspace’s affordable student plan is absolutely worth the small fee of just $0.83 cents per month. (For the record, a standard annual Headspace plan is $5.83, so the student discount is a great deal.)
What makes Headspace worth it? Headspace offers short meditations that help you achieve both immediate and long-term goals. Meditations focusing on general anxiety management, sleep quality, and mindfulness are both calming in the moment and yield long-lasting stress management benefits. The app’s minimalist display instills peace and motivation before the meditation even begins, so you will find yourself turning to Headspace as a reprieve from other chaotic, ad-filled platforms.
If you’re not yet sold on meditation, consider completing the free trial. By the end, there’s a good chance Headspace will have earned a permanent place in your phone.
Track Habits with Done
Creating healthy habits that are sustainable for the entire school year is the key to finding balance in college. This means making good choices part of your daily routine. It will take months to reap the full benefits from newly implemented habits, like meditating and focusing with the apps above. Trackers like Done can motivate you to achieve small goals every day in the name of forming and maintaining good habits.
Consider downloading Done now to begin building a routine that will serve you during the school year. Track habits like going to bed on time, drinking enough water, eating well, and staying in touch with loved ones. If you often forget about these small-yet-mighty responsibilities, Done’s push notification option and connection to the Apple Watch may be just the motivation you’re looking for. You’ll need to pay for the premium subscription to set more than 3 goals, but I think that committing to 3 new habits is plenty to tackle. Challenge yourself to focus on the habits that you find the most difficult to maintain.
What are your favorite apps for daily motivation? Share your recommendations in the comments below!