The best free productivity apps for students are designed to boost efficiency while studying or doing homework. Modern-day students face lots of distractions, which might make it hard for them to stay focused on the tasks at hand.
This complete guide reviews the top apps students can use to remain focused on their school-related work. The productivity apps below are designed to improve competency levels in different categories of students, which makes them indispensable tools in their school and personal life.
Contents
- 1 A Curated List of the Best Free Productivity Apps for Students
- 1.1 1. TickTick
- 1.2 2. RescueTime
- 1.3 3. Notion
- 1.4 4. Forest App
- 1.5 5. Otter
- 1.6 6. Evernote
- 1.7 7. Cold Turkey
- 1.8 8. NaturalReader
- 1.9 9. Todoist
- 1.10 10. Google Calendar
- 1.11 11. Trello
- 1.12 12. Microsoft OneNote
- 1.13 13. Microsoft To-Do
- 1.14 14. ClickUp
- 1.15 15. Quizlet
- 1.16 16. Tide
- 1.17 17. Habitica
- 1.18 18. Toggl
- 1.19 19. Google Drive
- 1.20 20. MyHomework Student Planner
- 2 Conclusion
A Curated List of the Best Free Productivity Apps for Students
1. TickTick
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TickTick productivity software will help you stay on track and do more. The application features tools that easily organize your tasks and improve daily habits. It has a calendar view and an inbuilt habit tracker.
Besides all that, you can create and access tasks remotely and see how much you have accomplished using its Achievement score display. Data backup and synchronization ensure that your information stays safe, while the ability to convert emails into tasks is an excellent time-saving feature.
2. RescueTime
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RescueTime is one of the finest time management apps for students as it keeps all time-conscious activities under their full control. Its dashboard has features to track time daily, weekly, and monthly. Furthermore, you can allow the notification for each complete task.
You can stay on top of your learning activities by monitoring goals through weekly emails, goal reports, and the simple dashboard.
3. Notion
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Notion is ideal for students collaborating on a project or class activity. It lets you take notes and perform other basic management activities effortlessly. Its multifunctionality and real-time collaboration make it one of the best all-in-one productivity apps for task management.
Students can collaborate, assign tasks, leave comments, and create reminders. Besides that, they can also save or annotate web articles and PDFs, create a to-do list, and scan physical documents.
4. Forest App
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Forest App closely resembles a smartphone game. But unlike a smartphone game, this app keeps you away from your phone and other devices so that you can focus on your learning for at least five minutes.
This app plants a tree when you stay away from your device, and a tree takes 5 minutes to grow. That tree can only grow if you don’t touch your device. If you feel your phone is a major distraction to your learning, install the Forest App.
5. Otter
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Otter is a smart note-taking application, making it one of the best free productivity apps. The app works on the voice recognition algorithm, making it ideal for students who need quick solutions.
Typically, this AI voice transcription app comes in handy when you do not want to write an idea yourself, for instance, on a webinar. The phone will tap the voice and transcribe the words into readable words.
6. Evernote
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Evernote (proprietary software) is a robust note-taking app with many features that allow you to make the most of your learning. This app for college students sports basic features such as a digital notebook that allows you to retrieve text from images, create to-do lists, save web articles, and scan physical documents and PDFs to annotate inside your notes.
Additionally, you can search, edit, and create notes in Siri or Ok Google. With an option to set reminders and email alerts, you reduce the risk of missing or sharing vital data or accomplishing a task.
7. Cold Turkey
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Cold Turkey is a great productivity app to eliminate distractions when using the internet. You only need to set a timer that monitors your online period. This block app will block any distracting website, including social media, during this time.
While the app allows you to lock the entire website, you cannot unblock the site until the timer stops.
8. NaturalReader
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NaturalReader is a text-to-speech application that can read webpages, PDFs, and eBooks aloud with quality, natural-sounding voices. This app is ideal for learners with reading problems such as dyslexia.
9. Todoist
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This is a perfect productivity app for managing different tasks. Its simplified task and project management features make it better than other players in the industry.
You can create reminders and different outlines for various projects and set multiple priorities for your tasks.
10. Google Calendar
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Google Calendar (freeware) is a classic, simple, practical, and easy-to-use application. The app allows you to easily organize your classes, assignment deadlines, events, and extracurricular activities on your PC and phone.
Google has added a suite of features in their calendar app to allow you to analyze, organize and manage time effectively. You can access the application from any online browser 24/7, but for quicker access, use the app on your smartphone.
11. Trello
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Trello is a super-efficient project management software for collaborative teamwork, thanks to its simple visual boards. This robust tool has flexible features that allow you to organize many aspects of your life. Trello (proprietary license) allows integrations with other services, such as Evernote and GitHub.
12. Microsoft OneNote
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Microsoft OneNote is a feature-rich productivity app for college and university students. This is Microsoft’s answer to Evernote, as it is free but offers next-class features. Talk of remarkable flexibility in note-taking, with each page having a ring binder and a blank canvas.
You can drag and drop images into documents easily and comment on images. That makes it one of the best note-taking apps.
13. Microsoft To-Do
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Microsoft To-Do lets you work on all your devices, starting your day with a clear overview. This app will help you balance errands, assignments, clubs, and everyday tasks as a student. This ranks among the top productivity apps for students Windows 10 users can take advantage of.
14. ClickUp
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ClickUp ranks among the best productivity apps for students because it brings everything under one project. The app gives you access to task lists, spreadsheets, and wikis and lets you send and receive emails. Also, you can easily track the time spent on each task.
15. Quizlet
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Quizlet has simple learning tools for different areas of study. As a student, you use flashcards, practice tests, and expert solutions to improve your grades and reach your goals.
If you select “Study Mode,” activity content is migrated from flashcards to other types of study games easily and responsively.
16. Tide
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Tide blends productivity, wellness, and beautiful user design. The app targets physical and mental care by integrating sleep, meditation, relaxation, and focus. You can personalize Pomodoro-focus sessions with multiple nature sounds, white noise, and calm music.
With Tide, you can improve focus and tune out other noises by mixing different sounds to create a perfect sound environment for working or relaxing. The relaxing sounds mask factors that create a distraction or a negative environment. The beautiful UI makes it one of the best aesthetic productivity apps for students.
17. Habitica
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Habitica lets you gamify your habits, thus getting stuff done while having fun. Create a to-do inventory, daily goals, and habits, and earn rewards whenever you accomplish them. A reward unlocks multiple in-app features and allows you to level up your avatar.
Remember, Habitica (gnu general public license) is an open-source online task management application, so you can access it as you wish. This is an easy-to-use and efficient tool for any student. You can use this software remotely without issues. The ability to customize your to-do things makes it one of the distinguished to-do list apps for learners. Additionally, the calendar is effective in helping you keep tabs on deadlines.
18. Toggl
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Toggl is a dedicated time-tracking tool with a set of powerful features. The free version allows you to time your tasks automatically. Just start the time when you begin your task and turn it off once done.
Additionally, you get multiple reporting tools to track performance and evaluate how you spend your time.
19. Google Drive
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G-Drive (Sheets, Slides, and Docs) is a perfect tool for collaboration and consultations. Using a custom link, you can create, edit, and share documents with your classmates or tutors. Team members can work on projects in real-time, reducing back and forth.
Google Sheets lets you create, edit and format spreadsheets online, while Google Docs is an online word processor for creating and sharing word documents.
20. MyHomework Student Planner
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MyHomework is one of the best productivity apps for android devices. Nevertheless, it functions well as a cross-platform student planner. It packs many free apps, allowing students to access the planner remotely and at any time.
Its cross-platform nature makes it one of the most suitable productivity apps for students iPad users can download.
Conclusion
We have reviewed some of the best focus apps for students in this write-up, so if you want to boost your productivity, consider the following points:
- Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Google docs, or Microsoft Word Online are the best note-taking productivity tools for any student.
- For time trackers, consider Toggl and RescueTime.
- However, if you are looking for a collaborative environment, go with Google Drive, Otter, Trello, and Notion.
- All the mentioned apps have a free and premium tier. While you can use them without paying for a subscription, their feature set is reduced.
These are some of the best productivity applications if you are looking to multitask, collaborate, or boost productivity. Choose one based on your needs and start being more productive today!