Apps to Improve Time Management
So much to do, so little time. This is a common refrain for many people, students especially. Who hasn’t wished they could somehow stop the clock and plow through their to-do list?
Prioritizing, organizing, and maximizing productivity won’t magically stop the clock, but they can help us manage our time more efficiently and reduce our sense of being overwhelmed. Because people want to get more done in less time, there are countless apps and programs for working smarter. I love experimenting with these kinds of tools and have tried dozens over the last several years. Here are the apps I use consistently to help me wake up on time, stay focused on my work and avoid distractions on my phone.
SpinMe
We think we’re doing ourselves a favor by hitting the snooze and getting an extra couple minutes of sleep. The bed may be just too comfy and the prospect of another day just too overwhelming. My former snooze habit occurred to the detriment of my morning workouts and other people in the house trying to sleep.
All this changed when I started using the SpinMe alarm clock app on my phone. The only way to turn off the SpinMe alarm is to hold both of your thumbs to the spots indicated on the screen and spin in circles. Something about spinning around wakes me up enough so that I cannot go back to sleep even if I go back to bed.
Before going to bed, I set the alarm to the loudest possible and then put my phone in a different (but nearby) room. The more effort you have to expend to get to your phone to spin and turn off the alarm, the more awake you will be afterward.
Focus Timer
An app that I’m using while writing this article is Focus Timer. It’s a very simple app that minimizes to the menu of my Mac and reminds me that I have, for example, 15:58 minutes left before it’s time to stop writing and take a break.
Focus Timer–and many other timers like it–are based on the Pomodoro Technique of focusing on work for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break. The purpose of the break is to give yourself a rest–both physically and cognitively–from your work, so you can reenergize and then refocus on your work. Being timed can be a bit motivating, too. How much can you get done in 25 minutes? Based on my experiences, more than you think.
Focus Timer lets you choose the length of your work times and break times. For homework like studying, reading, and writing projects, I like to structure my time in chunks of 45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of break. On these longer breaks, I have enough time to tackle some housework while listening to upbeat music.
Forest
If your phone is the biggest source of distraction in your life, you may be hesitant to use yet another app, but one that helped me pay less attention to my phone is Forest. Forest helps you stay focused on your work by guilting you into avoiding the other apps on your phone. You select the length of time you want to remain focused. While you’re fully engaged in your work, you’re growing a cute little tree in your virtual forest. The longer you stay focused by not clicking away from the Forest app, the bigger your tree grows. If you leave the app during one of your focus times, the tree you’re growing dies and shows up as an ugly brown stump in your forest.
Grow lots of trees to create a beautiful forest and to earn coins to buy new species of trees and bushes. Forest frequently adds new species to keep the app interesting and your forest more visually appealing. For an extra dose of motivation, you can donate your coins toward planting real trees around the world.
I hope you find the apps I’ve mentioned here to be truly helpful. However, before using any new app, it’s important to consider what you want to accomplish, how much time it will take, and what that time will take you away from. After you’ve used a tool for a while, revisit it to decide if it’s helping you achieve the results you wanted and if you still like using it. After a while, I dreaded using habit tracking apps and giving them up was a load off my mind – and my phone – making me more successful at the habits I valued the most. If any particular app or tool isn’t working for you, plenty more exist to help you conquer your productivity challenges. Trying them out can be fun and can help you learn more about yourself and how you work best.
Lindsay Denecker is studying psychology at UNLV in pursuit of her goal to be a lifelong learner. She joined the Interactive Measurement Group in Spring 2019 and is thrilled to be utilizing statistics to conduct research. In lab, she has acted as Lab Website Coordinator and Newsletter Webpage Creator. With the knowledge that she has gained from her studies and in lab, she hopes to apply psychology to the workplace in the future.