Today’s students suffer from two major problems that prevent them from demonstrating academic excellence. Combined, these problems can lead to disastrous consequences – thankfully, there’s a way to avoid them and provide homework help to those who need it.
Why Should Students Keep Track of Their Study Progress?
“I’m genuinely curious why someone would track their study hours?” This was the question of a Reddit user on the discussion board. The response to this question sums up the benefits of tracking study progress. We won’t cite this fully, but here are the main points:
- to see how many hours are spent on different study activities daily;
- to stay focused;
- to gain access to statistics that help understand study habits.
Surely, critics may argue that these goals can be achieved without the use of apps. If you’re naturally organized and motivated, you can use a notebook and timer and still be productive. But doing so inherently and ironically decreases productivity, because apps take this manual process and make it automatic. Contemporary time-management apps are so highly functional that anyone, even the most organized, will find them useful in increasing time management and efficiency.
Best Apps to Track Study Progress and Stay Productive
- Productivity Challenge Timer
- Platform: cross-platform
- Price: free/4,99 (Pro mode)
This is one of the more simple but very effective apps to stay focused and track study or working hours. Its primary goal, as its developer strongly insists, is to “get you to work harder, even when you shouldn’t.”
Therefore, it’s mostly just a Pomodoro timer. However, there are also advanced features. The app enables users to track working habits, and also offers a ranking system. The ranks are awarded on your performance and achievements, so there’s an element of gamification here, too.
2. Tide
- Platform: cross-platform
- Price: free (with in-app purchases)
Tide is an app designed to improve focus, so it’s highly popular with anyone finding it hard to relax and concentrate. It can be used in practically any situation to reduce stress and get into a calm state, so people often use it for meditation, or when they can’t sleep.
However, students often find it hard to concentrate because of stress, too – so it can help when you need to relax the mind and concentrate on homework. Tide comes with three main features:
- a focus timer;
- a sleep/nap assistant;
- relaxed breathing guide.
There also are some other nice features like a journal in which you can record your observations about your progress during each session. Meditation mode is ideal if stress and anxiety tend to be your main factors in becoming distracted.
3. RescueTime
- Platform: cross-platform
- Price: free/11,99 (Premium monthly)/77,99 (Premium yearly)
This app’s developers put special emphasis on understanding the way you usually spend your time. Its main function is automatic time-tracking: tracking the time you spend on various apps, websites, and documents, and then providing detailed reports.
The app then offers to block your main sources of distraction so that you’ll be able to regain your focus, and set a timed session. You can also set daily limits on sites and apps and plan your sessions.
4. Engross
- Platform: cross-platform
- Price: free/4,99 (Premium version)
Engross is a popular alternative to an even more well-known app – Focus To-Do, and it offers much of the same functionality. Designed as a tool to increase productivity at work and study, it includes all the key features of such complex apps: focus timer, to-do list, and a day planner.
Here, you can set daily work/study targets, create routines, get insightful statistics, block distractions, and more. There’s even a special feature for students: a revision timer that you can set right after your regular study time.
5. iStudiez
- Platform: cross-platform (Android currently unavailable)
- Price: free/2,99 (mobile), 9,99 (desktop)
Developed with students’ needs in mind, this app has all the functionality that anyone willing to track and improve their studies might need. It’s a one-stop shop for planning, prioritizing, creating to-do lists, tracking habits, and staying focused.
Here, you can organize assignments, set deadlines, enter grades, and even calculate your GPA. One small problem, however, is that to get full functionality (i.e., to be able to synchronize data between devices), you’ll need to pay for the pro version.
Wrapping Up
With this comprehensive list, you or your child or student should be able to find an appropriate app to best suit your study progress needs. With each app including a basic free version, there’s no risk of giving one, if not all, a try.
Although technology and the web are often considered to be major distractions, using an app to increase productivity will reduce your workload and make for more efficient study and work habits. So get off insta for a moment and on to one of these helpful apps! Hey, some of them might even help you to do just that!
