Grad school is hard, so you need the best tools at your side to keep thriving.
Here’s a rundown of 10 best apps for grad school, from productivity-boosters to apps to help you unwind.
Apps to Keep You on Track
You may already be using an app like Trello to coordinate your projects. If not, it’s time to jump in! Here are a few more apps to help you keep that GPA up and your research on track.
Asana
Companies worldwide use Asana to track work and stay on task. Because group projects can be the norm in grad school, Asana provides a way to task out projects and stay organized.
It’s easy to organize your efforts by projects, tasks, and subtasks, plus dashboards show your team’s progress. All this will help you avoid that moment when someone says, “Wait, I thought you built the presentation!”
Asana is free for up to 15 people per team, and they offer iOS, iPad, and Android apps.
Evernote
Grad school = a massive amount of notes, and Evernote is one of the best apps for grad students to keep all of those pearls of wisdom in one place.
It’s easily searchable, notes sync across devices, and the notebook organization helps keep your proverbial ducks in a row.
The best part for grad students though? The audio recorder—for that one professor who speaks at a million WPM.
Evernote is available for iOS and Android.
Google Drive
No one wants to be stuck searching through their email for the latest version of a group project. Google Drive makes it easy to store, share, and collaborate on files and folders.
Access all your content across your phone, tablet, and computer, and never worry about compatibility or converting file formats.
Google Drive offers a hefty 15 GB for free, and you can purchase more as needed.
Slack
Slack’s mission is to eliminate email in the workplace, and we can probably all agree an email-free grad school would be beautiful. The Slack app is user-friendly and you can add multiple Slack teams.
Slack uses a social-network style “channel” approach to team collaboration, messaging is quick and painless, and you may find yourself in late night GIF battles with the Giphy integration.
Slack is available for the gamut of devices, even Windows Phone or Linux if you’re into that kind of thing.
iStudiez
Staying organized is the first step to success, and iStudiez is one of the best apps for grad students to stay on track.
iStudiez can help you put together your class schedules, review your research and assignments, and even track your GPA with a built-in GPA calculator.
The main app functions are free, with cloud sync available for weekly, monthly, and yearly subscription plans.
Outliner
Often the toughest part of writing a grad school paper, chapter, or planning a major research project is nailing the outline, and Outliner is here to save the day.
Outliner helps you get your thoughts from your brain into a cohesive plan. It syncs with Dropbox and has sharing capabilities for group projects.
Outliner costs $4.99 and runs on iPhone and iPad.
Habitica
The last productivity app for grad students may prompt flashbacks to the ‘90s (in a good way).
Habitica calls itself “your life—the role-playing game” and gamifies getting stuff done. As you accomplish school-related and everyday tasks, you earn gold. (How about a coin for getting out of bed? Count us in.)
Hitting your goals keeps your health up, and teaming up with friends on quests keeps you accountable and motivated.
Free (with optional subscriptions) for iOS and Android. Level up!
Forest
You’re sitting at your desk, papers organized in front of you, textbook open, and you’re ready to start writing the next chapter of your dissertation on your laptop. Five minutes later, you find yourself scrolling through your endless news feed on Facebook.
Keep the distractions at bay with Forest, an app and browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you grow a tiny, adorable virtual tree for every half hour you stay focused on the task at hand.
Apps for Disconnecting
And now, since all work and no play...you get the idea, here’s a few apps for “downtime.”
Triller
For the musically inclined (and wannabes), Triller turns anyone into a lip-sync legend.
Pick any song in your library, plan out your shots, and go to town with multiple takes. When you’re done, Triller will splice your takes together for the best possible video, and you can swap out takes if that one look isn’t just right.
It’s a great way to get out of the library, jam to your favorite tunes and die laughing with your friends.
Enlight Pixaloop
Shutterbugs will love this photo editing app that adds animation effects to your pics. Create a steaming cup of coffee, twinkling lights, or a rippling pond with a few taps of your screen. You can even replace gray skies with vibrant sunsets and drifting clouds.
Take reality to the next level and wow your friends and followers.
Calm
We could all use a little more calm in our lives. Get centered and make the most of your “me time” with this meditation app.
Calm includes nature sounds and guided meditations to help you wind down and manage stress, plus soothing bedtime stories for the insomniacs among us.
A free version is available with optional subscriptions. The benefit to your mental health? Priceless.
Bonus: UL Lafayette’s official app
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the University’s very own app that makes it easy to access University news, events, sports, and social media while on the go.
You can also check your email, access Moodle, and view your schedule and statement of account.
Available for free for Apple and Android devices.
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