6 Apps That Will Make You More Productive at University

Sometimes it can be prudent to take a look at making your life a little more organised. You can do this using a few helpful apps, which could be used to make your uni experience run a little bit smoother and hopefully, make you more productive. It can be easy to fall into a slump and start procrastinating, but hopefully by using one of the following apps you can improve your productivity.

1. Evernote

Note taking isn't everyone's favourite method of organisation, but it can be the ultimate time-saver. By taking detailed notes in lectures, workshops, one-on-ones with tutors and while conducting research you can save yourself extensive hours of looking up certain facts or info you might need down the line. We can’t remember everything, so taking notes can give you more mental space for more important things.

Evernote is a useful, free note-taking app, ideal for fully customisable note-taking. With this app, you can add images, audio, and files from Google Drive and even little sketches and handwritten notes that might help jog your memory. Evernote gives you the ability to use whatever medium best suits you and the project at hand. Additionally, you can add tags to organise your material and even create reminders within the app. This would be extremely helpful for remembering all the important things that could otherwise be forgotten, like deadlines, lectures and even household chores or needed groceries.

Evernote also offers a range of extensive templates to choose from, including a menu plan, daily planner, travel calendar and even a personal stress log. With this app you can ensure that all areas of your life are organised and in one place, which means everything is easy to find and maintain. It can also help relieve a lot of unneeded stress in your life.

2. Google Drive

Uni work can be a hassle when you are working on bigger projects and using bigger files. Google Drive is an excellent asset for file storing and sharing and is widely recognised. Particularly for group projects, having a program where you can all share files in one place and have access to everything is hugely beneficial. You can also create Google Docs which can be edited by multiple people, meaning that you don’t all have to be in the same place. From extensive videos, photos and other media, to PDFs and word documents, this app has you covered.

Do you have a backup of your work? If you don’t, you should get a backup of all your university work onto Google Drive. If the worst comes to pass, and your computer is either broken or lost, a backup will save all of your work. Losing your work can be disastrous and stressful; so save yourself that stress by making sure you have a backup.

3. Forest

One of the main difficulties with university life is the constant over-stimulation and stress from your phone, computer, and the rest of the world around you. Forest is a brilliant app to help you disconnect from your phone and other technology that can be preventing you from focusing and creating your best work. Though it’s important to have time to chill out, it’s also crucial to disconnect when there’s work to be done.

Forest’s whole premise is to help you focus on your work while simultaneously helping the environment and making a positive impact on the world around you. When you open the app, you plant a seed and leave your phone to go concentrate on your work. If you leave your phone for long enough, you’ll receive a reward and your seed will grow into a tree, which can become a real tree via the app’s partner, Trees For The Future. So, you are not only using this app to focus on your life and work, but you are also contributing to the development of nature and our ecosystem.

4. Todoist

As your projects, essays and lectures can start piling up high, there are apps out there to help you manage your tasks and reduce your stress. Todoist helps you organise your tasks and projects in priority order, by managing your important dates both in university and in your personal life and can also help track your process against your own goals. In order to better organise each task, you can also create and add sub-tasks, to plan out your projects and goals step-by-step.

Starting is always the first and hardest step, and it can be daunting looking at a blank sheet of paper, unable to figure out where to go or even where to start. Todoist allows you to break your assignments down, helping you focus on all your work step-by-step in a way that feels organised, stable and easy to maintain. You can create simple steps and goals to give you the confidence to keep moving forward until your projects are finished and your goals are achieved.

5. 24me Smart Personal Assistant

For some of us, we can get lost in starting up an organiser and/or a planner. They can feel overwhelming at times and don’t always have all the helpful features to help keep you organised and on top of life. 24me Smart Personal Assistant is a personal organiser that stores your calendar, all your tasks and notes in one place so you can easily view and manage your upcoming dates and deadlines. Sometimes we end up having too many apps for too many different things, but with this app, you can bring it all together in one.

Knowing your weekly, monthly and even yearly plans can give you back a bit of your sanity. If you are plagued by that feeling of forgetting something you know was important, this app could be for you. By having the ability to quickly add and remove tasks, dates and deadlines, 24me is sure to help with your productivity and will save you much needed time.

6. Google Calendar

We have reached our final app on this list. To round off the best apps for organisation and staying on top of your dates, Google Calendar simply has to be added to the mix. If you are needing a clearer and simpler calendar app, this app does wonders in keeping track of daily events and appointments. One of the main features is the ability to sync your university timetable to the app, allowing easy access to the times and locations of all your lectures and classes.

Since this app can be connected straight to your email, it can also automatically add certain events/dates like appointments, flights and birthdays. You can also set tasks for yourself and receive reminders throughout the day and week to help you get on with your schedule and stay in tune with life and all its’ busyness.

Another interesting feature that Google Calendar offers, is the ability to combine/sync your calendar with someone else. You can create mutual calendars with family members, partners or friends, as a way of staying connected with other people’s schedules and events that are useful for you to know. This app has a lot to offer and can add a significant amount of organisation and stress-free living to your day to day life.

Staying on top of university life can be extremely challenging to do on your own, so why not try some of these helpful resources, and see how much your stress level can decrease and your organisation skills can increase. Don’t let the busyness of life take you over, but instead, control it and make it work for you.

Another way you can reduce your stress at university is by sorting out your student accommodation for the next academic year. Whether you're looking for a 1 bedroom student studio or a shared student house, we can help. By contacting us today, you can make sure you get the best choice of accommodation, and reduce your stress during the exam season.

Contact Unihousing today to find your ideal student accommodation!

4 Reasons Why it Can be Hard to Revise

Now that the Spring term is in full swing, have you gotten back into a normal routine? If not, it’s important to identify what’s causing this so you can get back to your revision and studies. It’s completely normal to feel anxious and to struggle with motivation, especially during this time of year. Below, we look at 4 possible reasons why someone can struggle to get into a normal, healthy routine, and what can be done about this.

1. Denial

It can be hard to face reality, especially after the hype of the Christmas holidays. It’s extremely common to experience a sense of denial as your schedule fills up once again and your responsibilities begin piling up in front of you. It can be tricky to start revising and preparing for your exams and course work when you feel like this.

So how do you deal with it?

Though revising can be a really daunting thing, deep down, you know that the earlier you start, the better. By starting to revise as soon as you can, you will ease the pressure and have more time for breaks and rest as you go along. Your motivation is more likely to be higher and you will also feel more confident going into your exams, since your brain won’t be racing around and telling you that you didn’t start revising early enough. Studying with friends can also help with this.

2. Procrastination

This is probably one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome. After giving your brain time to relax from your studies, it can be extremely hard to get it back into gear. It’s common to struggle with an intense wave of procrastination, where you physically feel like you can’t and don’t want to get back into revising and studying in the new term.

What can help with this?

Try writing to-do lists and set goals for yourself. It could also be helpful to fill out a timetable for yourself including all of your exams, lectures, meetings and hand-in dates. This can really help get your brain in gear without over stimulating it with hours of revision. Creating lists, timetables and written goals can also help you be more excited about the year and might even give you a kick of motivation. Additionally, the act of finishing a goal or ticking something off gives your brain a healthy dose of success and satisfaction, which then helps you gain confidence and energy to keep going.

3. Panic

Something else you might experience is a sense of panic as you get back into university life and your weekly workload. Sometimes when we first look at our exams, projects and all the work we have yet to do, it can be extremely overwhelming and even disheartening, and it’s then very easy to give up before we’ve even started. Sometimes we don’t start revising early enough or put certain things off unnecessarily, but this is not the end of the world and you can get on top of your studies again.

What should you do?

Similar to the previous issue, it’s massively helpful to sit down and plan ahead. It can be so overwhelming to keep all of your ideas, plans and dates all in your head, so make sure you bring them out either on paper or in digital form. When you have big projects coming up, it can be extremely helpful to create specific plans for that project, whether that’s creating a timeline of events and goals, mapping out your ideas or creating lists to ensure you deliver all of the desired criteria. This applies to exams as well; by creating a revision plan you can ensure that you are revising all the sections that you know are important.

We commonly panic when we haven’t truly assessed our situation, which can then make us feel like our heads are no longer above water. By planning everything out, you can physically see what you have to do and that it is possible to finish it all before your fast-approaching due dates and exam dates.

4. Burnout

Getting back into normal university life can be tiring, so much so that you might feel like you’ve lost all your energy. With the intense workflow and being thrown back into university life, burnout is a common issue. It can be difficult to avoid, particularly when assignments begin piling up without your control and you need to start juggling several things at once.

How do you get through it?

Though burnout is very common, this doesn’t mean there is no way to get out of this phase. Rest is a huge factor. With our busy lives, it’s extremely important to ensure you are taking time for yourself, whatever that looks like. It’s also vital to separate yourself from your work when you are done for the day, whether that’s seeing friends, having alone time, exercising, watching films or taking a walk. Make sure you disconnect from your assignments when you are done, otherwise you could start feeling overwhelmed and uninspired. University work is extremely important and should be a main focus, but people do their best work when they are also taking care of themselves day to day.

Relief and satisfaction

Once you’ve handed in your assignments and finished your exams, you should feel a huge amount of relief and satisfaction. It’s important to remember that the stress and anxiety you feel about your studies is only short-term, and as long as you take appropriate measures to combat the issues listed above, you can definitely make it through your revision. If you feel like you need help, your tutors are also there when you need it, so don’t be afraid to talk to them about what you need to improve on for future projects and exams. Most importantly, make sure you enjoy the good moments; they keep you going through the harder times.

Remove the Stress of Accommodation

A big source of stress for many students is finding somewhere to live during the next academic year. Like with many things, the sooner you get this sorted, the less stressed you’ll be later. You’ll also have a much bigger choice if you start looking now. At Unihousing, we have a number of student houses and studios that are suitable for those attending the University of Birmingham. Fully furnished and fitted with everything a student could need, don’t miss out on finding your ideal student accommodation.