Top 5 Productivity Tools

As we enter our last semester of senior year, I know many of us are checked out and have hit an all-time low in terms of motivation. In order to counter that spirit and help make this semester go as smoothly as possible, as well as providing some tips for college, here is a list of my top 5 favorite productivity tools.

5. Screen time monitors

Yes, you may be thinking—how is this a productivity tool? The short answer is: it helps you figure out how to be more productive. The long answer: my phone and my computer both tell me how much time I spend on each application, so I know where my time is going. For example, I’m averaging about 2 hours a day on discord on my phone, which is a sign that I should cut down on that to be more productive.

Some other applications also have usage time statistics—instagram and youtube being two notable examples that come to mind. They’ll tell you exactly how much time you spend on the app each day, and it’s usually synced across devices so it’s a bit more accurate than the per-device stuff. 

4. Google Drive

You’re probably already familiar with Google Drive, since our district and the teachers at Naperville North love to use it (for good reason). Google Drive is a great way to store your files in the cloud and have easy access at any time on any device, like your chromebook, phone, or laptop. 

But I don’t need to tell you what Google Drive is; instead, I’ll share a few tips of my own that I’ve found particularly useful over the years. 

First, folders. It annoys me to no end when people don’t organize their google drive into folders. Folders make it so easy to find things (when done properly), and you never have to worry about “what did I name this file” (or even worse, “what did my group members name this presentation that’s due in 2 hours and no one’s responding to your messages). I personally like to have one folder for each of my classes, plus a few other miscellaneous folders, and I’ve given them nice colors, but organization is really up to you. After all, the best way to organize folders is the way that works.

Another feature I use over and over again is starred documents. If there’s any doc I know I need to use frequently, I’ll star it, especially if it’s buried within 4 folders. That way, I can simply click on the starred tab on the left of google drive to access it quickly.

3. Anki

You might have heard of Anki if you have any siblings in med school, because in my opinion it’s by far the best flashcard program there is (and yes, I know quizlet exists). It’s great for when you have a lot of information you need to remember. Plus, Anki uses something called spaced repetition, which pretty much means that they’ll show you the flashcards you made over a period of time, with successive time intervals growing longer and longer. 

Why is this so powerful? Because it helps you remember things for a long time and relatively easily. Anki is set up so that once you have seen a certain card a bunch of times, it’ll only show it to you once every few months or so to make sure you still remember it. That way, it doesn’t take much work at all to keep it in your working long-term memory.

I think Anki is the most useful for remembering vocab words for foreign languages, as well as in med school or for studying for classes in general. (I personally use it to study for scholastic bowl.)

2. Google Keep

Google Keep is a simple way to take quick notes, and I’ve found it really useful to keep track of what assignments I have to do—I write down each assignment and its due date. However, Google Keep has a bunch of other pretty useful features. I have the app on my phone and you can use it on your computer as well (by going to keep.google.com), so Google Keep is a quick way for me to sync links between my computer and phone. All I have to do is make a note on one of my devices, and it’ll show up on the other. 

Plus, Google Keep has a really cool (but not very well-known) feature that lets you “grab image text”; no more trying to copy a URL or trying to transcribe a huge block of text from an image. Simply paste the image into a note on Google Keep, click the three dots, and then the option will pop right up. 

1. Calendar

A calendar is no doubt the most useful application I use on a daily basis. If you don’t use a calendar already, I highly recommend it. It can be anything from a physical calendar to the calendar app on your phone to Google Calendar (which I use because it syncs across my phone and computer and has a nice interface). 

In my experience, calendars are useful for major events and long-term planning. (I’ve found that updating my calendar every time I have a new assignment due is a bit tedious, which is why I use google keep for that.) For example, let’s say you’re scheduling a dentist appointment 6 months from now. It’ll be really hard to remember that you have a dentist appointment so far in advance, so it’s really helpful to be able to write that down somewhere—and that’s what a calendar is for. 

Plus, calendars help you plan out your days. You can easily see which days you’re busy and which days you’re free, which isn’t easy to do in your head. Plus, if there are any conflicts (e.g. you have a competition the same day as finals or you’re going on vacation during an AP test), a calendar helps you catch those early. It is much easier to reschedule things weeks or months in advance compared to, say, 2 days before the actual competition.